Descent from Genghis Khan in East Asia is well documented by Chinese sources. His descent in West Asia and Europe was documented through the 14th century, in texts written by Rashid-al-Din Hamadani and other Muslim historians. With the advent of genealogical DNA testing, a larger and broader circle of people have begun to claim descent from Genghis Khan owing to dubious and imprecise haplogroup identifications. However, while many of Genghis Khan's agnates' resting places are known (e.g. Shah Jahan in the Taj Mahal), none of their remains have been tested to prove or disprove these theories and debate continues (see below).
The family tree of Genghis Khan is listed below. This family tree only lists prominent members of the Borjigin family and does not reach the present. Genghis Khan appears in the middle of the tree, and Kublai Khan appears at the bottom of the tree. The Borjigin family was the imperial house of the Mongol Empire (and its various successor states), dating back to the 13th and 14th centuries.
Diagrammatic family tree
Only selected, prominent members are shown. Khagans (Great Khans who were rulers of the whole empire[1]) are in bold.
Jochi, Genghis Khan's eldest son, had many more recorded progeny than his brothers Ögedei, Chagatai, and Tolui—but there is some doubt over his paternity. According to The Secret History of the Mongols, the boy was sent to Genghis by Chilger, who had kidnapped his first wife Börte, keeping her in captivity for about a year. In one passage, Chagatai refers to Jochi as "bastard" (although the true meaning of the Mongol term is obscure). To this, Genghis Khan responds: "How dare you talk about Jochi like this? Is not he the eldest of my heirs? That I never heard such wicked words again!" (p255). All in all, Genghis Khan pronounces the words "Jochi is my eldest son" thrice (p210, 242, 254).
Modern historians speculate that Jochi's disputed paternity was the reason for his eventual estrangement from his father and for the fact that his descendants never succeeded to the imperial throne. On the other hand, Genghis always treated Jochi as his first son, while the failure of the Jochid succession may be explained by Jochi's premature death (which may have excluded his progeny from succession).
Another important consideration is that Genghis' descendants intermarried frequently. For instance, the Jochids took wives from the Ilkhan dynasty of Persia, whose progenitor was Hulagu Khan, a son of Tolui who was a son of Genghis Khan. As a consequence, it is likely that many Jochids had other sons of Genghis Khan among their maternal ancestors.
Asia
Asian dynasties descended from Genghis Khan included the Yuan dynasty (Kublaids) of China, the Hulaguids of Persia, the Jochids of the Golden Horde, the Shaybanids of Siberia and Central Asia, and the Astrakhanids of Central Asia. As a rule, the Genghisid descent played a crucial role in Tatar politics. For instance, Mamai (1335–1380) had to exercise his authority through a succession of puppet khans but could not assume the title of khan himself because he lacked Genghisid lineage.
Timur Lenk (1336–1405), the founder of the Timurid dynasty, claimed descent from Genghis Khan. He associated himself with the family of Chagatai Khan through marriage. He never assumed the title Khan for himself, but employed two members of the Chagatai clan as formal heads of state. The Mughal imperial family of the Indian subcontinent descended from Timur through Babur and also from Genghis Khan (through his son Chagatai Khan).
The ruling Wang Clan of the Korean Goryeo dynasty became descendants of the Genghisids through the marriage between King Chungnyeol (reigned 1274–1308) and a daughter of Kublai Khan. All subsequent rulers of Korea for the next 80 years, through King Gongmin, also married Borjigid princesses.
The khans of the Khoshut Khanate were indirect descendants. They were descendants from a younger brother of Genghis Khan, Qasar.
As the Russian Empire absorbed Turkic polities, their Genghizid rulers frequently entered the Russian service. For instance, Kuchum's descendants became Russified as the Tsarevichs of Siberia. Descendants of Ablai Khan assumed in Russia the name of Princes Valikhanov. All these families asserted their Genghisid lineage. The only extant family of this group is the House of Giray, whose members left Soviet Russia for the United States and United Kingdom.
The Qing dynasty of China completely exterminated one branch (Ligdan Khan's descendants) of the Borjigids after an anti-Qing revolt in 1675 by Ejei Khan's brother Abunai and Abunai's son Borni against the Qing.[4] The Qing emperors then placed the Chahar Mongols under their direct rule. The emperors of the Qing dynasty and the emperor of Manchukuo were also indirect descendants by Qasar, a younger brother of Genghis Khan. Their ancestry traces Horchin princes established matrimonial relationship with the imperial family of Aisin Gioro.
Zerjal et al. (2003) identified a Y-chromosomal lineage haplogroup C*(xC3c) present in about 8% of men in a region of Asia "stretching from northeast China to Uzbekistan", which would be around 16 million men at the time of publication, "if [Zerjal et al's] sample is representative."[5] The authors propose that the lineage was likely carried by male-line descendants of Genghis Khan, because of its presence in certain ethnic groups rumored to be their descendants. One study published in the Russian Journal of Genetics found that 24% of Mongolians carry this haplogroup, and that it occurs in low frequencies in neighboring Turkic states (with the exception of Kazakhstan).[6]
A white paper by the American Society of Human Genetics Ancestry and Ancestry Testing Task Force, Royal et al. (2010) observed the Zerjal et al. hypothesis:
Although such a connection is by no means impossible, we currently have no way of assessing how much confidence to place in such a connection. We emphasize, however, that whenever formal inferences about population history have been attempted with uniparental systems, the statistical power is generally low. Claims of connections, therefore, between specific uniparental lineages and historical figures or historical migrations of peoples are merely speculative.[7]
In a 2017 review paper published in Human Genetics, authors Chiara Batini and Mark Jobling cast doubts on Zerjal's 2003 theory that Genghis Khan is linked to haplogroup C:
Ancient DNA data (Lkhagvasuren et al. 2016) from remains in high-status Mongolian graves dated to 1130–1250 CE revealed MSY lineages belonging to hg R1b, rather than hg C: there are a number of explanations for such findings, but taken at face value, they do not support the Genghis Khan hypothesis for the origin of the widespread Asian expansion lineage (Zerjal et al. 2003).[8]
Proposed candidate haplogroups and haplotypes
Over the years, following haplogroups have been proposed as candidates:[9]
C2b1a3a1c2-F5481 (C-M217*-Star Cluster / clade of C2*-ST): Widespread in Central Asia among Kazakhs, Hazaras and ordinary commoner Mongols. The Kerey clan of the Kazakhs have a high amount of the C3* star-cluster (C2*-ST) Y chromosome and it is very high among Hazaras, Kazakhs and Mongols in general.[10] However, in 2017 a Chinese research team suggested that the Y chromosome C-M217*-Star Cluster likely traces back to ordinary Mongol warriors, rather than Genghis Khan, and that "a direct linking of haplogroup C-M217 to Genghis Khan has yet to be discovered."[11] In a review paper published in Human Genetics, authors Chiara Batini and Mark Jobling cast doubts on Zerjal's 2003 theory that Genghis Khan is linked to haplogroup C[12]
C2c1a1a1-M407: Carried by Mongol descendants of the Northern Yuan ruler from 1474 to 1517, Dayan Khan, a male line descendant of Genghis Khan.[13]
C2b1a1b1-F1756: In 2019, a Chinese research team study suggested that Haplogroup C2b1a1b1-F1756[14] might be a candidate of the true Y lineage of Genghis Khan. The Lu clan claimed to be the descendants of Khulgen, the sixth son of Genghis Khan. A genetic study of the molecular genealogy of Northwest China shows that some members of Lu belong to Y-DNA haplogroup C2b1a1b1 F1756.[14] This haplogroup is also observed in the Tore clan from Kazakhstan, who are paternal descendants of Jochi, the first alleged son of Genghis Khan.[15] However, the claim that the Lu clan is descendant of Khulgen is controversial and is disputed by several other studies.[16]
Research published in 2016 suggested that Genghis possibly belonged to the haplogroup Haplogroup R1b (R1b-M343).[17] Five bodies, dating from about 1130–1250, were found in graves in Tavan Tolgoi, Mongolia. The authors suggested they were members of the Golden Family, and linked the spread of R1b-M343 to the former territories of the Mongol Empire. The authors also suggested that the Tavan Tolgoi bodies are related either to the female lineages of Genghis Khan's Borjigin clan, or to Genghis Khan's male lineage, rather than the Ongud clan.[18]
^Morris., Rossabi (2012). The Mongols : a very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. xxi. ISBN9780199841455. OCLC808367351.
^According to some scholars, the Girays were regarded as the second family of the Ottoman Empire after the House of Ottoman: "If Rome and Byzantium represented two of the three international traditions of imperial legitimacy, the blood of Genghis Khan was the third. ... If ever the Ottomans became extinct, it was understood that the Genghizid Girays would succeed them." (Simon Sebag Montefiore. Prince of Princes: The Life of Potemkin. London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000, p. 244).
^The Travels of Marco Polo – Complete (Mobi Classics) By Marco Polo, Rustichello of Pisa, Henry Yule (Translator)
^Wen, Shao-Qing; Hong-Bing, Yao; Du, Pan-Xin; Lan-Hai Wei (2019). "Molecular genealogy of Tusi Lu's family reveals their paternal relationship with Jochi, Genghis Khan's eldest son". Journal of Human Genetics. 26 (2): 230–237. doi:10.1038/s10038-019-0618-0. PMID31164702. S2CID174810181.
^Liu, Yi (2020). "A commentary on molecular genealogy of Tusi Lu's family reveals their paternal relationship with Jochi, Genghis Khan's eldest son". Journal of Human Genetics. 66 (5): 549–550. doi:10.1038/s10038-020-00857-y. PMID33127984. S2CID226219315.
^Lkhagvasuren et al. 2016"...it seems most likely that the Tavan Tolgoi bodies are members of Genghis Khan’s Golden family, including the lineage of bekis, Genghis Khan’s female lineage, and their female successors who controlled Eastern Mongolia in the early Mongolian era instead of guregens of the Ongud clan, or the lineage of khans, Genghis Khan’s male lineage, who married females of the Hongirad clan, including Genghis Khan’s grandmother, mother, chief wife, and some daughters-in-law.
Sources
Secret History of Mongols: A Mongolian Epic Chronicle of the Thirteenth Century [Yuan chao bi shi]. Brill's Inner Asian Library vol. 7. Translated by Igor de Rachewiltz. Leiden, South Holland; Boston, MA: Brill. 2004. ISBN90-04-13159-0.
B. Sumiyabaatar, "The Genealogy of the Mongols", 720 P, 2003, ISBN99929-5-552-X]; The genealogy of the families mentioned in this book generally goes back to 18 generations. The genealogy of Chingis Khan which began 1.500 years or 40-50 generations ago and comprises hundreds of thousands of people prevented Mongolian blood from being mixed with that of other nations. Due to the encouragement of intra-tribal marriages family lines were kept stringent. From 1920 onward people were not allowed to keep genealogical records, and the descendants of the nobles and scholars were tortured and killed. This prohibition lasted for about 70 years or three generations. Although the keeping of genealogical records was rare during that period, Mongolians used to pass information about their ancestors to their children orally.
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