Big Daddy Khan

Statue of Genghis Khan in front of the Government Building in Sükhbaatar
Square, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.  Image courtesy of GenuineMongol/Wikipedia.

In December of 1241, Mongol armies stood poised to invade Vienna and northern Albania.  Thus far they had been unstoppable as they spread into Europe.  Led by Batu Khan, grandson of Genghis by his son Jochi, at the last minute he was informed of the death of the current great Khan, Ogedei.  According to Mongolian military tradition, when a Khan died all the princes immediately met to elect a successor.  Europe was saved from what would have been an inevitable takeover.

Coin of Genghis Khan minted at Balkh, Afghanistan in 1221 CE.
Image courtesy of PHGCOM/Wikipedia.

The Khan lineage did manage a huge takeover in another realm - genetically.  For centuries most Asian potentates have claimed descent, many spurious, from the House of Borjigin - the most famous family in Central Asia.  Members of the clan are still found throughout Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Kazakhstan.  According to legend, one of the female ancestors was impregnated by a ray of light, and the spawn of that light sired the entire Mongol nation.

Portrait of Genghis Khan.  Image courtesy of Cultural China.

However, with the advent of genealogical DNA testing, which examines the nucleotides at specific locations on a DNA strand, it is possible to really trace the ancestry of the Great Mongol ruler Genghis Khan.  A man's patrilineal ancestry can be traced using the DNA on his Y chromosome.  The Y chromosome passes down virtually unchanged from father to son, unlike other parts of the genome which recombine.  A man's test results are compared to another man's to determine when they shared a "most recent common ancestor" or MRCA.  (Matrilineal ancestry can be using mitochondrial DNA, or mtDNA.)

Portrait of Genghis Khan from the 14th century.  Paint and
ink on silk.  Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

In 2003, an international group of scientists identified a Y-chromosomal lineage present in about 8% of the men in a large region of Asia (amounting to about 0.5% of all men in the world), or about 16 million descendants living today.  The pattern of variation they found led to their hypothesis that the lineage originated in Mongolia some 1,000 years ago, which makes it prior to the birth of Genghis Khan, but consistent with the founding of the Borjigin clan.

Reverse of a 100 Tenge coin from Kazakhstan.
Image courtesy of the Nat'l Bank of Kazakhstan.

This kind of spread is considered to be too rapid to have been caused by genetic drift, the effects of which are much smaller in large populations.  Therefore it has to have been the result of selection.  The 23 authors of the 2003 study proposed that the lineage was carried by male descendants of Genghis Khan and his close male relatives which spread through social selection.  This is consistent with the then  prevalent Mongol custom of having several wives, concubines, and unfortunately, the rape of conquered women.

The Mongol Empire circa 1311.  Map courtesy of Wikipedia.

One of the authors, geneticist Spencer Wells, stated, "It's the first documented case when human culture has caused a single genetic lineage to increase to such an enormous extent in just a few hundred years."  When Genghis Khan died, his empire extended across Asia, from the Pacific Ocean to the Caspian Sea.  Whole populations were slaughtered, but the most beautiful women were taken for harems, and Big Daddy got first pick.

Portrait of Empress Xiao Zhuang Wen (1613-1688), historically
the mother of the Qing dynasty, she was a descendant of
Genghis Khan.  Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Included in the spreading of the great Khan's genes were some of the ruling descendant groups:  The Yüan Dynasty, the Chaghatai Khans, the Ilkhanids of Persia, the Shaybanids of Siberia, the Korean Goryeo Dynasty, and the Astrakhanids of Central Asia.  There have been many specious claims of descent from Genghis Khan, including western genealogists who have tried to link Queen Elizabeth II to him.

Chokan Valikhanov (l) (1835-1865) shown here with Doestoevsky.
Valikhanov was a well-known Kazakh scholar and historian who
was a descendant of Genghis Khan.  Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

One of the populations, the Hazaras of Pakistan, had a long tradition of claiming descent from Genghis Khan.  This group was the only one from the study found outside of Mongolia, proving their claim.  However, the most conclusive proof will be had once the great Khan's grave is found and DNA extracted from his remains. The search for his final resting place has been ongoing and futile. Legend has it that everyone involved in his burial will killed for secrecy, and a river was diverted over his gravesite to confuse future seekers.

Portrait of Genghis Khan on a Mongolian hillside for the 2006 Naadam
celebration - a summer festival held for centuries comprised of three games:
wrestling, horse racing, and archery.  Image courtesy of Vidor/Wikipedia.

Which begs the question:  Who's your daddy?

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Click here to see an article from The American 

Journal of Human Genetics from 2003.

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The Amir Timur Museum

Amir Timur.

Museums are the direct descendants of the cabinets of curiosities that became popular in Renaissance Europe.  In the 19th century as countries emerged as nation-states they exhibited a need to establish a paternity.  A collection of cultural artifacts did much toward this end.

Uzbekistan did not exist as a national idea until the Soviets created it in the 1920s, and the nation itself did not officially come into being until 1991 (with the dissolution of the Soviet Union).  It is one of two doubly landlocked countries in the world - a landlocked country in the middle of landlocked countries.  (The other is Liechtenstein.) Sometime in the 15th century, a tribe within the Golden Horde emerged as a distinct ethnic group, calling themselves Uzbeks, who headed south in their desire to leave behind the nomadic lifestyle and adopt a more sedentary one along the Silk Road.  They took over the area of the Timurid dynasty, which was founded by another interloper, Amir Timur.  Establishing an identity in this case is difficult. The only way to do it is by geography, claiming anyone who once lived here - which includes the Persians, Arabs, Turks, Mongols, and Russians.

Map courtesy of www.lonelyplant.com.

A 14th century conqueror and ruler of Central Asia whose capital was in Samarkand, Amir Timur, made the Uzbekistani  province of Mawarannahr into a cultural center by gathering scholars and artisans from the lands he conquered.  He initiated the exchange of knowledge with neighboring countries.  His grandson, Ulugh Beg, was a great astronomer and mathematician, especially noted for his contributions to trigonometry and spherical geometry.  His great-great-grandson was Babur, who founded the Mughal dynasty in India.  Timur's motto was "Rosti Rusti" - "Strength is in justice".

Forensic facial reconstruction of
Timur by M. Gerasimov, 1941.

Timur (1336-1405), also known in the West as "Tamerlane", was the founder of the Timurid Empire and the Timurid dynasty.  Although he is often mistakenly referred to as a direct male descendant of Genghis Khan, in actuality he was associated with the family of Chagatai Khan through marriage, rendering him unable to assume the "Khan" title.  He was a contrary figure in his own time and remains so.  He wished to bring back the Mongol Empire, yet fought against the Tatar Golden Horde (Mongol Khanate).  He was an urbanite, not a steppe nomad, and preferred city life.  Although he was a great patron and promoter of the arts, his campaigns destroyed much of what he came across.  He was lame from a battle injury to his foot, and hence was called Tīmūr-e Lang, "Timur the Lame" in Persian, which led to his westernized name of Tamerlane.

Statue of Timur in his birthplace
of Shahrisabz (formerly known
as Kash) in Uzbekistan.

The talented artists from other conquered lands were given free latitude to create, and much of the architecture that he commissioned is still extant.  Perhaps it's for this architectural legacy that modern Uzbekistan has chosen to honor him as a national figure and hero.  In 1996, the Amir Timur Museum opened in Tashkent, commemorating the 660th anniversary of his birth.  The blue dome and ornate interior are typical of Islamic architecture in Central Asia.  

Image courtesy of Jiri Planicka.

The museum's collection consists of items contemporary to his rule, including a 14th century Syrian Quran.  There are paintings, engravings, ancient manuscripts, musical instruments, military attire, weaponry, and jewelry.  Timur's military career is depicted.  Of course, his bloody destruction is overlooked.  This is an obvious attempt to venerate Timur and create a national legacy.  Let's ignore the fact that Timur was from a Turko-Mongolian tribe, and not of the Uzbek Khanate, which eventually took over after the fall of the Timurids.  We will also ignore that he slaughtered tens of thousands of Kipchaks - the forefathers of the modern Uzbeks. This is a prime example of national myth-making.

Quran photo courtesy of Tenil.

Timur defeats the Sultan of Delhi, Nasin
Al-Din Mahmu Tughluq, winter of 1397.

There is also an exhibit in the Museum for Islam Karimov, who has served as the first president of Uzbekistan since 1990.  Karimov has repeatedly extended his presidency through a series of elections that have been called unfair by virtually everyone, even the U.S.  In December of 2007 he was elected for a third term despite a two-term rule. The Karimov administration has been critized internationally on human rights issues and freedom of the press.  The United Nations revealed that torture is rampant in the justice system, and Karimov has been deemed one of the world's worst dictators.

Mural from the museum with Timur north of center, and
Karimov bottom left.

Due to an absence of reliable historical documents, as well as their nomadic nature, it is difficult to trace the early history of Central Asian peoples.  After centuries of migration and invasion there has been a lot of ethnic intermingling of Turkic and Mongol (related to Turkic) tribes.  Situated along the Silk Road, the region itself gained much importance.  However the Uzbeks arrived rather late on the scene and appropriated many aspects of Central Asian culture that technically don't belong to them, claiming all to be Uzbeks by virtue of their living in the area now called Uzbekistan.  Thus, when you have little to choose from, you go with what you can, which makes the Amir Timur Museum an ironic piece of cultural identity - foreign invasion, war, torture, and tyranny.  But then again, maybe that's appropriate.

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Unless otherwise noted, images courtesy of Wikipedia.

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