Love him or loathe him – and there are hatful of reasons for both – Genghis Khan was undeniably one of the most telling figures in worldhistory . Born into a small peregrine tribe near Lake Baikal , Temüjin , as he was originally named , grew into the man who unite Mongolia and ruled over an empire that spanned from the easterly edge of China to the Adriatic Sea .
And despite all that , he ’s somehow most famous today for boning .
That ’s right : chances are you ’ve been told at some gunpoint that some surprisingly large part of the population is directly descended from old Genghis himself . But is it true ? Are we really surrounded by homeopathic Hordes ? Or is this just another mathematical inevitableness , likebeing related to Charlemagne ?
How many people are descended from Genghis Khan?
The story of this factoid extend back virtually 20 geezerhood , to a groundbreaking2003 historical genetics study . When taste DNA from 16 population across Asia , researchers were surprised to find that nearly one in 12 valet de chambre on the continent portion out an unusual wye - chromosomal blood line – one that they said likely come from Genghis Khan .
What made them so indisputable ? After all , it ’s not like they could go take a cheek swab from the man himself – so , instead , they rely on clues from skill and chronicle to fill in the gaps . So , for representative , the estimate that the unique Y - pedigree may just be due to natural population expansion is a no - go : “ If this scatter were due to a general universe expansion , we would expect to find multiple lineages with the same characteristics of high frequency and presence in multiple populations , ” the researchers explained , “ but we do not . ”
Statistical analysis ruled out the Y - chromosome lineage twist up by chance : the probability of that was about one in ten - octoseptuagintillion , a number so large that we literally had to ramp up it up fromthe Latin rootsjust now due to a lack of existing terminology – if you want to try writing it down , it ’s one followed by 237 zeroes , so employ a big opus of newspaper .
So if it was n’t opportunity , what else could it be ? simple-minded biological selection – the result of one impossibly sexy man that roamed the Mongol steppe all those years ago ? Again , it ’s possible but extremely unlikely , the researchers decide : “ the small number of cistron on the Y chromosome and their specialized office provide few opportunities for pick , ” they wrote , make it “ therefore necessary to look for alternative explanation . ”
So they turn to another eccentric of genetic pressure – one that , in humans , is perchance even strong than biological science .
“ This is a clear [ demonstration ] that culture play a very big role in patterns of inherited variance and diversity in human populations , ” geneticist Spencer Wells , one of the 23 co - author of the newspaper , toldNational Geographicat the time . “ It ’s the first documented case when human culture has cause a single genetic derivation to increase to such an tremendous extent in just a few hundred year . ”
To put it in simple term , Genghis Khan – and his sons and grandson after him – was considered “ genetically fit ” not because he was strong or near at trace necessarily , but because he was Khan . The population his US Army seize were often slaughter en masse shot , annihilate the likely gene pool for future generation – and , importantly , the family line continued to predominate magnanimous region of Asia as of late as the mid-19th century by some measures .
In other words , the genetical occupation bear witness that about 8 percent of man in the region of the former Mongol conglomerate , and therefore about one in 200 worldwide , portion out one individual male ancestor – and base on a combination of logical system , statistics , and common sense , that ancestor was almost for certain Genghis Khan .
How many children did Genghis Khan have?
From what we know , the Khan sure as shooting had enough opportunity to become the ancestor of an forecast 16 million descendent . He wed his first and principal wife , Börte , at the tender years of nine – which sounds really tough , butrecords statethat they did n’t live together “ as human race and married woman ” for a further seven class – and would go on to take six more throughout his life : Yesugen and her sis Yesui , Khulan , Möge Khatun ( technically a paramour , but who ’s reckoning ) , Juerbiesu , and Ibaqa Beki .
As well as these ladies , fable has itthat he also kept as many as 500 concubine – often noble lady and princess from conquered clan and landed estate – and fathereda similar numberof children . democratic though this tale is , it ’s completely unobjective : because of Mongol custom , Genghis likely only recognized his four sons by Börte as legitimate heritor , with the identities of the rest period of his tyke , include even the five daughters Börte bore him , lost to history .
Nevertheless , David Morgan , the late historian of Mongol history , toldThe New York Timesin 2003 that it was “ utterly plausible ” that the Khans would have had so many children . Tushi , for example , the callipygian - named eldest son of Genghis , was put down as having 40 sons alone , and “ it ’s pretty well-defined what they were doing when they were not oppose , ” he say .
Does anybody else have as many descendants as Genghis Khan?
As prolific as the Khan ’s legacy is , it is not one . A2005 studyfound another Y - chromosomal lineage , also in easterly Asia , which was present in around one in thirty piece sampled – not much compared to Genghis ’s brood , but still a vast issue .
This lineage , the researchers turn out , started around 500 years ago – right around the metre China was undergoing a seismic political alteration known as the Ming - Qing transition .
“ We reason that the event lead to the spread of this lineage might have been recorded in the diachronic record book , as well as in the genetic record , ” the study explain . “ [ The Qing ] dynasty was establish by Nurhaci ( 1559–1626 ) and was dominate by the Qing imperial nobility , a hereditary class consisting of male - line descendant of Nurhaci ’s maternal granddad , Giocangga ( died 1582 ) , with [ more than ] 80,000 prescribed penis by the death of the dynasty . ”
Once again , the researcher found grounds of this social force per unit area favor one genetic lineage over others – the descent of Giocangga . “ The nobility were highly privileged ; for example , a ninth - rank noble annually get ∼11 kilogram [ 24 pounds ] of silver and 22,000 liters of rice and maintained many concubines , ” they wrote . “ A social chemical mechanism was thus established that would have led to the increase of the specific Y lineage carried by Giocangga and Nurhaci and to its banquet into a circumscribed figure of populations . We propose that this lineage was the Manchu lineage . ”
And later , in 2006 , research worker line up another noticeably widespread Y - chromosome lineage – this fourth dimension stretching from the Middle East to the westerly coast of Ireland , where as many as one in five man were found to divvy up the genetical signature .
Which top-notch - fertile antecedent was responsible for for this third lineage ? The legend that has grow up around the study has him as Niall Noígíallach , or Niall of the Nine Hostages , a semi - to - totally mythical fifth C king who supposedly started the Uí Néill dynasty of Ireland . But while it ’s a moderately tantalising origin myth if you ’ve Irish blood in you , we should point out that the conclusion isnot without argument – and that one of the researchers behind this work enjoin theNew York Timesthat he was “ as surprised at finding evidence that Niall existed as he would have been to find out that King Arthur had been real . ”
And those are just the lineages that have names sequester . In 2015,researchers found11 particularly inviolable Y - chromosome lineage in populations across Asia : the Khan lineage , the Giocangga lineage , and nine others originating from unnamed ancestors who know between 2100 BCE and 700 CE . While earth history and ancient politics allowed the team to suggest a few candidates for these fecund founders , at long last , their identities will likely stay on unknown .
None of these mega - patriarchs come close to Genghis Khan ’s output though – at least , we don’tthinkso . Because of course of action , there ’s one job with saying that 16 million people are verbatim descendants of Genghis Khan : we do n’t actually have any DNA from the Khan himself .
“ Looking for these links is bewitching . When we did it , we were using jolly collateral lines of reasoning , and you could essay and do that with each of these lineages , ” Chris Tyler - Smith , an evolutionary geneticist and lead author of the original 2003 paper , toldNature . “ What I really hope is that at some item someone will find Genghis Khan ’s tomb and remains . ”
All “ explainer ” articles are confirmed by fact checker to be correct at clock time of publishing . Text , images , and links may be edited , remove , or added to at a later date to keep entropy current .
