How many descendants did Genghis Khan have?

Genghis Khan expanded the Mongol Empire from the Pacific Ocean to the Danube River during the late 12th to early 13th centuries. Leaving behind countless bloody battlefields along the way, the king also left behind an astonishing legacy. An estimated 16 million people today are descendants of Genghis Khan.

In a study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics in 2003, research on the genetic heritage of the Mongols found that 0.5% of men worldwide carry Genghis Khan's genes, and 8% of men living in his former territory share the same Y chromosome.

Statue of Genghis Khan in Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia. (Photo: EPA)

The Rise of Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan, whose Mongolian name was Temüjin, was born in 1162 during a period of intense conflict between Mongol tribes. He came from a long line of warriors and was named after a Tatar chieftain his father had captured. When Genghis Khan was nine years old, his father was killed by a rival. Disowned by his tribe, Genghis Khan and his mother lived in poverty.

Gradually, his half-brother rose to become the leader of the tribe, much to his displeasure. His feelings of discontent culminated in him personally shooting his half-brother to death.

Determined to unite the nomadic tribes of the Mongolian plateau, he took a foreign wife and fathered four sons with Borte. They were named Jochi, Chagatai, Ögedei, and Tolui. He had many more children. Genghis Khan raised an army of 20,000 warriors to destroy the Tartars and led them across the continent. He taught them to ride without using their hands, so they could wield their spears and javelins to kill their enemies.

Every time he won a battle, he ordered the execution of young men and men taller than 90 cm. He took any woman he saw as his concubine. Genghis Khan's army grew to 80,000 men by 1206. When he defeated all the hostile Mongol tribes the following year, he was called Genghis Khan, meaning universal ruler, supreme god of the nation.

"A man's greatest joy is to defeat his enemies, drive them before him, take away all they have, see his loved ones shed tears, ride their horses, hold their wives and daughters in his arms," ​​said Genghis Khan.

Over the next 20 years, he ruled most of modern-day Russia, China, Iraq, Korea, Eastern Europe, and India. Genghis Khan’s slaughter of 40 million people on his conquests reduced humanity’s carbon emissions by 700 million tons.

Descendants of Genghis Khan

In 2003, an international team of geneticists asked the question: “How many people are descendants of Genghis Khan?” To find out, they studied 5,000 blood samples collected over a 10-year period from more than 40 populations living in and near the Mongol Empire. Only one population outside the empire’s former borders carried his genes: the Persian-speaking Hazaras of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"The Hazaras provide us with our first clue to a relationship with Genghis Khan," said Spencer Wells, a geneticist and co-author of the study. " They have a long-standing oral tradition of being direct descendants of Genghis Khan."

The Hazaras of Pakistan, descendants of Genghis Khan. ( Photo: Wiki )

Wells focused on the Y chromosome in the blood samples. Because it doesn’t undergo recombination like other genes, but is always passed from father to son, it doesn’t change. Random mutations can occur, but this allows researchers to detect that they all come from the same lineage.

"We identified a lineage of the Y chromosome that carries an unusual trait," the study writes. "It is found in 16 ethnic groups across a large area of ​​Asia, stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the Caspian Sea, and occurs at a high frequency: 8% of men in the 16 ethnic groups carry it, which is equivalent to 0.5% of the world's population (nearly 16 million people)."

Experts have found a unique lineage dating back 1,000 years to Genghis Khan, saying one in every 200 men alive today is descended from him. This coincides with estimates by some scholars that he impregnated more than 1,000 women during his reign. Geneticists add that there is a correlation between Genghis Khan’s extensive conquests and the spread of his lineage.

Hunting for Genghis Khan's descendants

It is unclear how many biological children Genghis Khan had. Only his first four children with Borte are officially recognized. Jochi had at least 16, while Chagatai had 15.

"This is clear evidence that culture plays a major role in patterns of genetic variation and diversity within human populations," Wells said. "This is the first documented case of human culture causing a single gene lineage to expand to such a large extent in just a few hundred years."

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