Is Genghis Khan Chinese? "We define him as a great man of the Chinese people, a hero of the Mongolian nationality, and a giant in world history," said Guo Wurong, the manager of the new Genghis Khan "mausoleum" in China's Inner Mongolia province. "Genghis Khan was certainly Chinese," he added.Dec 30, 2006
So here the thing about the mongolian spot. I'm a black american and it appear in our population at 96 percent and we don't have asian dna or native on average. The other thing to is african don't have large percentage of mongolian spot.
@@blackloki9 All Native Americans are Geneticaly Asian /Mongoloid. Black Americans are usually mixed. You probably have either East Asian or Native American DNA in your Family too. THe Mongolian Spot can appear in non Asians aswel but thats usually rare
Another piece of evidence for a more traditionally Mongolian Ghengis Khan is that the Chinese didn't make commentary on him having red hair. There are a few times I know of in Chinese history where red haired individuals were noted, such as Sun-Quan of the kingdom of Southern Wu, or the Di barbarians who were subjects of a purge, they noted red hair or even red beards as a strange or alien trait. And so when the Mongols became the enemies of the Southern Song one would expect there to be a lot of cursing of "That red bearded devil Ghengis and his brood." but there isn't because Ghengis Khan didn't have red hair. When it cat eyes, it's not uncommon to read comparisons to cats in devious or dangerous glints in a person's eyes, and I wonder if that might be what was meant.
Yes, excellent point and partly why I went chronologically to start off with and emphasize Zhao Gong's narrative. While Zhao obviously didn't see Chinggis himself, the fact that he didn't mention such a thing I find most damning at all.
That was actually my idea originally for cats' eyes as well. Given Juzjani's general feeling towards Chinggis, this would have been like saying "he has eyes of a predator." Because to me that seems a more natural quality to associate between a cat and a person you hate, rather than eye-colour. And it's situated between a list of physical and then character traits, which made me uncertain about which direction it leaned between the two groups. Given the general context of Juzjani's text and other references I found (such as the modern linguistics) the physical description seems more likely at this stage. Either option though is more convincing than any connection to eye colour, I find.
Thanks for the extensive research work. It is also true that having yellow or green eyes and reddish hair tone is not seldom among mongols. For example, the Torgut mongols are famous with their green eyes. I'm a buryat-mongol and have yellow- brown eyes. As a kid, my hair was reddish yellow and slowly darkened when I aged.
Great job! I wasn't aware that Ogedai had a birthmark. I always assumed that was a flaw or damage to the painting because in many versions it's not there.
Thank you! I've tried looking into the birthmark/mole on Ogedei several times, but I've never been able to find any research on it (only other people who had the same question as I). Most of these early (smaller) early Yuan portraits were copied in the years after their first creation. For instance, the Chinggis Khan portrait shown here supposedly as a near-identical copy housed in the National Museum in Beijing (but one I could find even find an image of it, frustratingly enough). Supposedly some people have even proposed it's the 1278 original. Regardless, it would not surprise me if the birthmark on Ogedei was the original, and then later copies (finding it unseemly to depict such a thing on an emperor) removed it... unless of course it is some sort of disfigurement on the painting (though personally, I always thought it looked too incorporated into the image to not be unintentional).
Thank you, Jack! What an informative video essay! Unfortunately, the claim that 🇲🇳 modern Mongolians are not the descendants of the medieval Mongols but of the Manchu/Tungus peoples is also popular among many Kazak nationalists.
Jack, thank you for adding English subtitles! Could you please refrain from adding text to the bottom third of the video? It's hard to see it when subtitles are on.
Thank you for the kind words again, my friend. Good point regarding the subtitles; I hadn't considered it (when you write/record/edit the thing so much you get so familiar with it that these things don't stand out to you anymore). I will keep that space clear for future work!
See that these guys simply called us Chinese even tho they don't know our history fully Mongol is packed up so many tribes most of them is gone through history but I know I'm descendant of Genghis cause my ancestors told me my family name our history where we came Now there's 5 tribes descendant left Buryata, Kalmykia oirat , Khalkha, inner Mongolia which is also Khalkha, and tuva, but tuva have Turkic and Mongolic mixed but they are descendant of great Subutai general
Hi, thank you for this video, I'm watching it at 2 a.m, while the internet in Iran is so bad, that my free vpn failed to give me access to your video and tomorrow I should go to school at 7a. m, but it was the most scientific video I had ever seen, good for you, for all of the knowledge you posses. last month I read plano de Carpini (it has been translated in Persian) and I read much of William of Rubruck(not translated) and also some of Marco polo and ibn Battuta, I have learned a little about Mongols, their history is so interesting and in a free Iran I will make videos about them although people in Iran doesn't like Mongol history (as may be expected) I read Jami altawarikh also, unfortunatelly persian texts doesn't havd any footnotes unlike English translation and the pdfs you granted me, helped me alot, and thanks for mentioning me in your video. it was a great honour for me to be mentioned by a master like you. I pray to Tangri to give you health and success🙏❤
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory Thank you too, I bought to epic poetry about mongol era, Shahnameye changizi by Kashani and Shahanshahname by Ahmad Tabrizi composed in the reign of Ilkhan uljeytu and Abusaid one of them with 16000 verses the other with 10000 verses, I haven't compared them with other sources, I don't know if they had ever been used by researchers, do you know? because they have information about the exploits of Mongols from Genghiz khan to the Ilkhans, and informations about Yuan, Chaghatayids and Jochid princes
Good analysis and very well said. I pay my respect to your tremendous hard work behind this 25 minutes. I especially appreciate the last part where you talked about about people of various nations depict Mongols with their own bias out of their own interests (ie. Chinese, Russian, Kazakh in particular). It is revealing to see many historical remains are discovered extensively nowadays coinciding with the development of technologies, giving us the baseline to retain the truth. Hopefully, the government oriented historians interpret the recent discoveries without any intervention of political interests, as I am greatly concerned with them having a possibility of doing further modifications or alternation of original contents on the historical remains to meet their advocative propaganda here in my hometown Inner Mongolia. Don’t let me disappear😂
Interesting video and love the dissection of the validity and trustworthiness of various sources. This was also a great lesson in historians' struggles in trying to unravel the truth through mistranslations, misunderstanding of cultural context, agenda/biases of the sources, etc. Love your content.
Very glad you found it interesting! To me, it's a good reminder about how much historical writing is essentially a game of "telephone," where people keep repeating things until they forget the original source. There's many cases of these popular claims (Subedei being obese, Venetians allying with Mongols against Europe, Mongols wearing silk-shirts to stop arrows and many more) which often can't be trace beyond some guy who wrote it down from 1880-1940 who essentially just made it up.
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory I'm actually trying to write a piece of historical fantasy, with the Mongols featuring prominently. Your content has proved invaluable
I am more than happy you have found my work useful, and you have taken on an exciting task here! do let me know if there any sources I can provide for you will that will help with your project!
Thank you! The Mongol Empire is a period which often surprises people how rich it is with sources; we are better informed on the Mongol Empire than we are on basically every preceding nomadic empire combined.
Thank you very much! I don't find the Bort Tigin/wolf prince too convincing an explanation personally (I think Rashid al-Din would have been perfectly capable of making that explanation if it was the case) but I include as it's one of the most common secondary explanations.
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory yes, it is. And Bor means brown color in Mongolian language; I have not found the meaning of jigin in Mongolian. maybe I am dead wrong to explain Borjigin in this separate manner. although wolf prince is quite a match with Borjigin, I did not find Bort meaning wolf in Mongolian. but we do have the words "Bohai" and "Chono" for naming wolves in Mongolian.
@@buh357 we mongols have many words for wolf as the actual name is taboo to say. Chinos,Chonos,Bori,Bort or more commonly Nogai(literal Dog) as saying the word for wolf is a bad luck. We uriankhai using the Turkic word Bore/Bori even though were Mongol.
@@teovu5557 ta sainu? Yes we have many word for wolf. I am from ujumchin tribe. We also name wolf as nohai or Tom amt. I did not know that uriankhai people using bore. Bayralla.
Great video! Very interesting, with great analysis of primary sources and presentation. That being said, a part of me always cringes a bit hearing the word "Caucasian" the way it's used in America. Makes me wonder how the actual Caucasian people (like Chechens, Dagestani Avars, Georgians, Armenians, etc.) feel about it?
Thank you! That's a good point re: Caucasian. When I was looking up the "red-hair truthers" I saw it pop up often ("did you know that Chinggis Khan was Caucasian?") and the alliteration of "Caucasian Chinggis," I could not get out of my head.
I actually find it more appropriate. Many of these claims about historical redheads (or blondes) are very much so directly rooted in 19th and 20th century theories of "scientific race", for which use of the term "caucasian" has some racial meaning (what, exactly, that meaning is depends on which theory you're referring to). Americans use the term for "white" people because they appropriated some of these theories for their own purposes of enforcing "white" power over others. So in my mind, using that term for this topic highlights the common, unsound, dangerous and even nefarious theories which these arguments tend to base themselves on and reenforce. (Edits to fix the word vomit).
Well summarized and a valuable counterpoint. An important reminder about how many people are interested in history only to the extent to which it connects to their "group," and their historical interests are therefore limited to just proving the importance and prominence of that group. Inherently silly
Please bare with me until I make my point: I'm semi-brown skinned and my youngest sister is the same. My eldest sister is white skinned and often told that she looks Asian. My other two sisters and brother are completely European looking. We share the same parents and everyone in the country - or territory - that I'm from share similar characteristics. My point is: That being white skinned with blue or green eyes does not automatically equal, ' of the white race ' ..
@@MariaLeeVegas oh there are red haired mongols with green eyes but any means they are not caucasians and has nothing to do with europeans they are asian but a bit diffrent
Very interesting! I thought the famous Yuan's portrait of Chinggis Khan was an invention, and had nothing to do with his real appearance. After watching the video my mind changed. Have you thought about making a video about Kublai's rule over the Empire and specifically the Yuan dynasty? The Toluid civil war? Maybe the four successor khanates of the Mongol Empire and their fate. I'd love to see more of these topics. Thank you very much.
Regarding the portrait: had you asked me a couple months ago, I probably would have said the same thing... an "idealized creation," rather than anything. Even while working on this I suspected I'd have to say something off hand expressing the same thing. But I was surprised to find how well it lined up. I still wouldn't say it's equivalent to photograph of the man, of course, but I think we can say it's merely the imagination of some 'Chinese painter' as you'll sometimes see it dismissed as.
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory other than a Mongolian person, u r the first person use the correct spelling and pronunciation. That's why I admire ur work. Hello from mobile, Alabama, USA
Ginghis khan look was a typical mongolian look, but I think the things that lead to this remorse it's that many tribes were red haired with green eyes in the eurasian steppes like the yuezhi and tocharians tribes who were from iranian origin there is also yeinsei kirgiz who were described by chiness as pale skinned with red hair and green eyes
It is interesting (and sometimes funny) to know how these ideas of "Caucasian Chinggis" come to be. The first cause must be nationalism, the narrative of "Caucasian Chinggis" is most pushed by the Turkic people (from my experience), most of them nowadays have caucasian features, hence.... I even encountered Kazakhs claim that they are the real descendants of the the 13th Mongols not the modern Mongolia. The second cause is more interesting, according to my friend, who is a russia historian, that under the Soviet era, there was some kind of a "legacy competition" between the Soviet influenced Central Asia, and the Chinese influenced Mongolia, both side tried to claimed as much legacy as possible, every great figure they could find, they would all claimed belong to their culture, ever wonder why Temur is the national hero of modern Uzbekistan despite the bad blood between Uzbeks and Timurid? You get the idea.
I hadn't know about that Soviet strategy, but not too surprised by it. It makes a suitable explanation for Temur's "rebirth" in Uzbekistan... likely something his heirs would have been a bit perplexed by, all things considered. Though I suppose the surviving Timurid architecture in Samarkand and Bukhara helps sell it a bit.
The Timurids didn’t fight the Uzbeks there was no Uzbek state in Central Asia during the conquests of Timur so how could there be bad blood? Timur is best described as a persianized Turk who legitimised his conquests by trying to restore the Mongol empire
@@phuvolethanh8811 there was no direct conflict with the khanate of Bukhara and the timurids it was the aq and qara qoyunlu turcomans who defeated the timurids and had direct conflict with them
@@phuvolethanh8811 also your comparison that “oh the Uzbeks were Turks and fought the timurids therefore they can’t be Turks” is stupid and if this is what you believe then you have no knowledge about the history of the Turks or Eurasia as a whole
Many Kazakhs have grayish? chaten hair, some of course have brownish hair. Probably Mongols had too. Crimean court, also direct descendants from Gengghis, retained asian facial features pretty far into history, only in 16-17 century under influence of intermarriages with Ottomans they started to look more european (if we are basing on traditional portraits).
These idiot people who claim Genghis was Caucasian remind me of those people who claim the ancient Hebrews were Black Africans, that Jesus and Moses and all Hebrew prophets were Black.
What we call "afro centrists" often rely on using the same kind of "racial" analysis of evidence as the "caucasianists". Reading (or, projecting) modern standards of race into descriptions of people, ancient art depictions, and so on.
@Pierre S. it was quite a long time ago now and I don't remember his precise "argument" as it were, (not that it really was one since he mostly just sent a message asserting it, and had some blog full of such things). Just another one of those "hidden history types," more or less, where "everyone who was ever important was of my people/group/country" essentially. Basically as if I decided that everyone who was ever important was actually Canadian, and went around writing blog posts about which simply repeated that sentence in a few variations.
@@AngryHistorian87 there are RUclips vids by Afro-Centrists who claim Chinese, Mayan, Greek and Egyptian civilization were all Black. But heck, there are white supremacists who still claim to be Aryans, to the chagrin of fanatical Hindu nationalists 😂
Large population of Mongolians are born with very light brunette/yellow hair and gradually it turns black or dark brunette. People around the north and northwestern Mongolian has green, grey or hazel colour eyes. So it is not far fetched Chinggis khan had green eyes because he was born in northern region.
It's not that such things are inherently impossible. It's that, despite it being a common claim, there is no 13th century textual evidence that supports him having such features.
It is very interesting to hear Turkic words in Mongolian interpretation. For instance, Altan Urag (Golden lineage) probably originated from Altyn (gold) and Ürüq (branch). This word Ürüq was used by turkic people meaning clans branching from tribes and later in some turkic languages reduced to "Ru" meaning "clan"
A yellow man in most kipchak and oguz languages literally means a blonde or light haired man. Sarı can be translated to the color yellow or in describing one's blonde hair.
According to all sources, it is certain that Genghis Khan was a Mongoloid with light skin, the color of this eyes and hair was most likely dark or dark with some lightness and these features are present in many Mongols
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory But there is a portrait of Ogodei in which he appears with Mongoloid features but with gray eyes and a brown beard. It is possible that Genghis Khan also had the same features
Hello sir, your videos are awesome! However, I would say Genghis Khan was a Sogdian-Turk, a “Tazhik u Turk”, a Scythian Iranian, totally had nothing to do with today’s Mongolians, the Atient Moguls were East Iranians & Turks, they were not living in today’s Mongolia, but in Sogdiana & Turkistan, were all Caucasians. His native language Negudari was a Perisian Turk Creole, definitely not today’s Mongolian, and He was born in Feb 8th, 1155 CE (11/26, 549 AH), Xuk. Just for your reference, Rgds!
There are similar ways to describe people in Turkish where a person is described as being "yellow" for simply having more pale skin as others and not having completely black/dark hair and or eyes. I was called this way for being paler than other family members and Turkish children and my hair having been lighter during childhood.
The reason why Alungoo said that she conceived her boys through light was her elder boys didn't liked the fact their mom bedded with servant man after their father died. And she lied with creative tale of pregnancy by light to soothe the family dynamic, I don't remember she said anything about red hair in the scriptures. She also taught her five boys about power of unity by giving arrow each to broke, all of them broke, gave them bundle of 5 arrows to broke noone broke. She told them to be unified, love and support each other in the Sacred book of Mongolia. She apparently were resourceful, smart and creative woman to discipline and direct her kids from different father successfully that they all became leaders of different important tribes of Mongolia. And green eyes and almost blonde like brown hair is common in Siberian part of Mongolia even to this day, Siberia is where whole of Mongolians, even Zurchid, Native Americans, Huns and many more nomads originated. For example my mom's side is from his birthplace and she has green eyes and I have light brown curly hair not dark straight like other Mongolians or majority of east Asians. And my hair looks red in the light. I wouldn't be surprised if he has both green/black eyes and brown/black hair cuz Mongolians has both still to this day.
@@19ate4 Timur claimed that he had common ancestry with Genghis Khan. His remains were excavated, and his face was reconstructed from his skull. His face is a typical Central Asian face with both Mongoloid and Caucasian features, and his sons and grandchildren have been married to Mongolians for generations. Their faces are more like those of Caucasoids.
Greetings, I was glad to see this video of yours about the appearance of Genghis Khan. Let me express my thoughts on this video. Anyone who knows several different languages will tell you that the same word can have different meanings in different languages. For example, you mentioned "Caucasian appearance" several times while, of course, implying "European appearance." However, in Russian, the word "Caucasian appearance" refers to the appearance of the inhabitants of the "Caucasian Mountains." For example, the appearance of the President of Azerbaijan is a typical Caucasian appearance in Russian. However, we understand that Ilham Aliyev's appearance is far from the European appearance of Joe Biden. Also in English, as far as I know, the European skin tone is called "white," the Africans "black," the Indians of America "red," and the Chinese "yellow." In the traditional Kazakh language, people are classified into two groups based on their skin color: "Sary" (yellow) and "Kara" (black). People with fair skin are referred to as "Sary" (yellow), so all Kazakhs with fair skin are called "Sary." The appearance of Europeans is also referred to as "Sary." People with a swarthy skin tone are called "Kara," so all swarthy Kazakhs are called "Kara." The appearance of Africans is also referred to as "Kara." My skin tone is "Kara-dark," despite the fact that my father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all had fair skin ("Sary"). My mother has a skin color of "Kara" so I became dark. I believe that the same situation happened to Kubilai Khan when he was born swarthy. Therefore, Genghis Khan was surprised and noted this moment, pointing out that the rest of the Borzhigin clan had the fair skin "Sary". By the name of Kubilai Khan, is there any reliable information about the origin of this name? In the Kazakh language, "Kubil" means "change," and perhaps the grandfather of Genghis Khan called his grandson Kubilai because of his swarthy skin, not similar to the Borzhigin clan. Also by eye color, Kazakhs with lighter eyes can be called "Kokkoz" (blue eyes); of course, this does not mean that these Kazakhs have the same blue eyes as some Europeans. Considering all this, I believe that the appearance of Genghis Khan did not correspond to the European idea of a blond with blue eyes, but rather to the Kazakh idea of "Sary and Kokkoz", about a person with fair skin and a light shade of eyes. Quote from the Compendium of Chronicles: «Borjiqin means having gray eyes, and as it happens the sons who were born to Yesügäi Bahadur and to his sons and offspring down to the present mostly have gray eyes and are of a yellowish color.». In this quote, we see that we are talking about light-colored eyes and a sary-yellow skin tone. As for the origin of the word "Borjigin," you say, "Borjigin indicates descent from an ancestor called Borjigidai." I think you mean the eighth ancestor of Genghis Khan. Chronicle quote: " Genghis Khan’s descent is as follows: -\-\-\-\ and his ancestor in the eighth degree was Bodonchar." However, in my opinion, the name "Borzhigin" is not connected with the name "Bodanchar." Here is what is written in the Compendium of Chronicles about the origin of the word "Borzhigin." Quote: «Although Genghis Khan and his forefathers and brothers were of the Qiyat tribe, the sons of Yesügäi Bahadur, Genghis Khan’s father, were called Qiyat Borjiqin. Therefore they are both Qiyat and Borjiqin. (In the Turkish language borjiqin means someone with yellowish gray eyes.)». The collection of chronicles indicates the Turkic origin of this word. I suppose the origin of the word "Borzhigin" is connected with another Turkic word, "Otchigin." Quote from the Collection of Chronicles: «otchigin means master of the fire and yurt. The youngest son is always called Otchigin.». «What remains belongs to the youngest son, who is called the otchigin, i.e. the son who gains possession of the fire and hearth, and indicates that the foundation of the home rests upon him. The Turkish word ot basically means fire, [785] and tegin means commander, i.e. he is the commander and lord of the fire.». According to the work of Kashgari from the 11th century, the word "tekin" means the word "prince." Therefore, if we assume the same origin of the words "Otchigin" and "Borzhigin," then the word "Borzhigin" consists of two words: "Bori-wolf" and "Tekin-prince." I believe the name "Borzhigin" indicates descent from a wolf or a dog. The SHM mentions the same miraculous conception of Alan-goa from a yellow dog. Quote from the Collection of Chronicles: «The third son was Yesügäi Bahadur, the father of Genghis Khan. The Qiyat and Borjiqin Qiyat are descended from him. Borjiqin means having gray eyes, and as it happens the sons who were born to Yesügäi Bahadur and to his sons and offspring down to the present mostly have gray eyes and are of a yellowish color. This is attributed to the fact that when Alan Qo’a was pregnant she said, “A light like a person comes before my eyes at night and then goes away. It is of a yellow color in form and has gray eyes.” When this trait re-emerged in the eighth generation, which was Yesügäi Bahadur, they said it was the sign Alan Qo’a had spoken of, that her sons would be rulers, and it indicated the truth of her words and that it was imminent.». Quote from SHM: «Then their mother Alan Qo’a said, ‘You, my sons Belgünütei and Bügünütei, are suspicious of me and said to each other, “These three sons that she has borne, of whom, of what clan, are they the sons?” And it is right for you to be suspicious. Every night, a resplendent yellow man entered by the light of the smoke-hole or the door top of the tent, he rubbed my belly and his radiance penetrated my womb. When he departed, he crept out on a moonbeam or a ray of sun in the guise of a yellow dog.».
There is a great video about hunting with birds of prey. When I watched this video, I noted to myself that the guy in the lead role has "Kokkoz", that is, "blue eyes" in Kazakh. Below is a link to this video if you want to understand what shade of eyes we are talking about. At 5.09-5.12 minutes, the guy's face is shown in a big frame, where you can see that the guy's eyes have a bright tint. ruclips.net/video/49geTmkJ6Qw/видео.html
Hello again, happy to see you back with more thoughtful words. I am happy to learn your examples of skin colours from Kazakh. It's an important reminder about how we must be careful interpreting colour meanings in other languages and cultures: much of this "Genghis Khan was Caucasian/white/european!" depends on people interpreting medieval terminology wrong, and in a modern American/European/Russian context. Usually the proponents of the Chinggis Khan = "white" argument know nothing about the period, sources or people of the Eurasian steppes today. An unfortunate view of the past, where the richness of history is lost, in favour of focusing only on skin colour I do not know if you saw this, but in Rashid al-Din's account (page 55 in Thackston's translations) he mentions that the meaning of Kereyid comes from Turkic Qara et, which he translates to black-skin; a continuity with the Kazakhs today (and something we can imagine some Russian scholar in 1900 taking to mean the Kereyid were all African...) Regarding Borjigidai: I do not think Rashid mentions him. But he is mentioned in the Secret History and a handful of other sources mention him (the Chinese Yuan accounts, and if I remember correctly one or two Timurid ones? But don't quote me for certain on that, i have not looked at any Timurid materials in a while so I may not be remembering correctly). These genealogies tend to shift a bit; if you read Rashid al-Din text closely, you'll notice he gives differing genealogies of certain family lines even within the Chinggisids (especially the Chagatais, possibly with the Jochids too). It seems he updated things as he got access to better or updated information (such as the now lost Altan Debter). Regardless, the SHM indicates that the clan name "Borjigin" began to be used for the descendants of Bondochar Munkhag; we might suspect, if the story of the Alan Qo'a/uncertain paternity of her sons was an authentic event, then by stressing his descent from his great-grandfather Borjigidai (by calling himself/his sons the Borjigin) Bodonchar was thus manuvering around claims of his uncertain paternity and rumours of him being a bastard by stressing that he was a descendant of the main family line. (a number of sources, from Abu'l Ghazi, the Mamluk author al-'Umari, the Secret History of the Mongols and others indicate rumours of adultery on the part of Alan Qo'a. The fact the "pro-Mongol" sources like the SHM, Rashid al-Din and others try to stress the chaste nature of Alan Qo'a indicates the efforts to combat these rumours) But of course, that depends if we chose to interpret these family legends as true events or not, and not later stories designed to explain clan names as they later developed.
Regarding Borjigin/Bort Tigin. Personally I have never found this explanation very convincing. Mostly because if it was the case, I think Rashid al-Din would have chosen to translate it like that, instead of the eye-colour explanation he tried to do. He was perfectly capable of translating some level of Turkic (I noted in my other comment to you, how he explains Qara et for example). Bort Tigin is simple enough Turkic that even I, whose has been to Turkiye and knows only very poor Turkish, could have explained such a meaning. I believe that if Borjigin meant Bort Tigin in the 13th century, Rashid would have said so. Regardless, wolves were undoubtedly important animals to the Mongol imperial ideology: hence, with Börte Chino/Blue-Grey wolf as the ancient ancestor for the family. It's quite likely this is some transformation of the Göktürk origin story.
The video you sent also is a beautiful thing. Watching such things helps me understand how the heart of the nomads desires a horse, the open steppe and cool air.
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory Since we are talking about the term "Borzhigin", let me ask you if you know about the Decree of the President of Mongolia No. 115 of 1991. According to this decree, the inhabitants of Mongolia had to indicate their tribal affiliation in their documents. Residents could choose this particular tribal affiliation on their own. As a result, most of the Khalkhas chose the genus "Borjigon," since they believe that Genghis Khan was from the Borjigon clan. I am concerned about another question, in general: did the Borjigon clan exist in the current territory of Mongolia after the fall of the Yuan dynasty? Also, could the descendants of Genghis Khan from Altyn Urug call their clan Borzhigon? At least among the descendants of Chagatai and Jochi, I never met the word "Borjigon"; as far as I know, they called themselves the descendants of Genghis Khan from Chagatai or Jochi. As for other related clans, such as Kiyat, Duglat, Barlas, and others, all these clans are often mentioned in subsequent primary sources, such as the works of Timur, Haidar Duglati, Babur, and so on.
Personality would be a tough one to do, actually. This is something I had considered doing a very long time ago, but I didn't feel at the time this was a project I could properly approach. Even today I am quite hesitant to say we can really rebuild his personality from the sources that we have. This video I released a few weeks ago dealt with it a bit and made me think about it again ruclips.net/video/o3xtXWZFywY/видео.html
hi jack! I just discovered you from your video about mongol weapons and I really like your channel. in these days I'm playing a game called ghost of Tsushima, where mongols are depicted using also double handed swords and two swords at the same time. was that a real thing?
Welcome, and thank you! Regarding the two-handed sword, it's possible: the Chinese of the time had a weapon called a Zhanmadao, a large, two-handed sword (supposedly) specially designed for cutting into horses' necks. A anti-cavalry weapon. We know the Mongols reused a lot of Song Dynasty equipment, so it's not impossible a few Mongols used them... but obviously, an anti-cavalry requiring both hands seems a bit unlikely for what was primarily horse-back warriors. Regarding the two swords, while we do see 14th century Mamluk training manuals with them armed with two swords, I've ever seen any evidence (textual or from paintings) of Mongols dual-wielding. I'm afraid that's basically just a video game trope on that one.
The Cumans might have looked overwhelmingly “blond hair blue eyed”, the Kipchaks, Kimaks and Kanglis might have been more Asiatic than the Cumans and looked Turanid, and the eastern Turkic and Mongolic tribes on the Mongolian plateau might have looked “reversed Turanid” or overwhelmingly Asiatic, but it is not impossible that there were Mongols with slight Caucasian features like many Mongols today have. Early migrations of different populations on the steppes is quite compilacated. Male and female“Western Euroasian” haplogroups are frequently found from time to time in that part of the world.
21:39 I respect that you say this because Europeans have whitened many historical dark skin or melanated people and black folks say that said people were black they get teased 😂😂
Red hair originates in Central Asia. Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan etc. have quite a few red heads. Makes total sense for him to have red hair.
The point is not that it is impossible that he had red hair. It is that 1) the commonly cited "evidence" for him having red hair does not actually indicate he has red hair at all 2) no medieval source or eye witness account of him indicates his hair colour besides the fact that it turned white in his old age 3) so while he may have red hair in his youth (something which is actually possible for Central Asians and Mongolians) the medieval sources do not actually indicate this.
I will add one more hypothesis of Borjigin ethnonym genesis, it is Turkic. Middle-Mongolian is abundant on turkic loanwords. Borjigin could originate from Börï-Tigin. Börï means "a lead wolf" and "experienced wolf". Tigin means "descendant", similarly to Gokturk Kultigin. Another legend describes Borjigins as descendants of a wolf similar to Ashina Turks
@@GreaterAfghanistanMovement It is true, but they also live in western Mongolia. There is even a monk named Lushan who created the largest rebellion and revolution in the history of China and killed millions of Chinese.
@@عليياسر-ذ5ب An-Lushan was a Sodighan was from what is now Tajikistan. He was not Mongol. Western Mongolia was inhabited originally by Turks which the consider their abode.
@@GreaterAfghanistanMovement No, the Turks lived in eastern Mongolia and they lusted after the Mongols, but the Sogdians, Tocharians, Scythians, and some Uyghurs were all Aryans.
Mogolian actor Batdorj-in Baasanjab is direct descendant of Genghis Khan's second son, Chagatai. He played Genghis Khan in the 2004 chinese television series about Genghis Khan's life. Very good show. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genghis_Khan_(2004_TV_series)
Yes I've heard recommendations about the show, and for a while (maybe it still is, I'm not sure) the full series was on RUclips with English subtitles. I've never gotten around to watching it but I've always wanted to.
Even if Genghis had green eyes and red-hair... it is not such a big mystery... Mongolia is right next to Russia. The gene flow goes both ways, if you look at modern Russians, a lot of them have Mongolian-shaped eyes...
Chingizkhan was from the tribe currently belong to the current Kazakhs. Mongul and current Mongolia people are different. Current Mongolia people doesn’t have any relation with Mongul or Chingizkhan. The Mongolia name given for them with a political propose in 19 century. I you carefully check, all old tribes related to Chingizkhan and his campaign currently belong to Kazakhs, you can not find these tribes from the people currently calling Mongol. For example Naiman, Kerey, Merket, Jalayr, Kiyat, Kongirat, etc are currently belong to Kazakhs not Mongol.
Lol what a joke. Kazakhs came to current kazakhstan only after oirat zuungars fell. Stop trying to claim legitimacy through Mongol great khaan! It is in the name.
Great video! Is insane how racista interpretations of two or one centuries ago still shape how we imagine great personalities from non european cultures in the popular cultres and how this only do harm in how we tend to understand non european (or eurocentric) history through some racist undertones
Current day Mongolia had significant west Eurasian genetic admixture at that time, Genghis Khan having red hair and and green eyes doesn’t surprise me in the slightest
Nonsense great Jackmeister. Why as a direct descendent of the man in question not only do I have tiny little abberrant growths of red hair in my beard, but indeed I can confirm that Chinggis Khaan was a huge red-haired blue eyed Viking, and that this attested in his very own saga written in Old Norse, an excerpt of which I shall write below followed with my own translation! "Temujin het mathr, sonr Yesugei. Temujin var mathr mikli, ok sva sterkr, at eigi varu hans jafningjar. En er hann var unga aldri, la hann i Vikingu ok herjathi. Med honu var i felgasskap a mathr er kallathr var Jamukha, ein gofugr mathr ok inn mesti afreksmathr at afli ok araethi. Theirr varr drenglig berserkir." - Temujinssaga ok Kapa Hans, chpter. 1 "Temujin was a man, the son of Yesugei. He was a big man, and so strong that none could prove his equal. When he was 20 years of age he went out viking and raiding. He had good fellowship with a man called Jamukha, a good-natured man who was valiant and full of daring. They were berserkers of a drengr nature." But seriously, great work.
as a mongolian i can confirm there are some mongols with redish hair and greenish/yellow eyes but they are not any means caucasians 😂 there are even mongols with eyes that has blueish/grayish hue
Yes! Another example is that of some Australian Aboriginals born with blond hair that gradually darkens, much like many contemporary Europeans. Different genetic mechanisms, same (sort of) functional outcome.
A small point: I have red hair and red hair only ever goes white with age because it has no dark pigment whereas my mother's, despite being blonde when she was younger, is now either black or silver. When I saw a video about a painting of Genghis Khan I was surprised to see that he had white hair and a pale-ish face, however I thought nothing of it because who on Earth would ever think that a Mongol would have red hair. So it could be true.
Also most of the people who reported what he looked like only ever saw him as an old man. One of my teachers was a redhead but I had no idea because by the time that I saw him he was 65.
Great question! I do not believe there was any blood relationship (if there was, then the Mongols would have claimed it to improve their own legitimacy). But, probably the idea of the wolf origin-story itself is taken from it. There is some very interesting research into how these similar origin myths spread across the Turkic and Mongolic speaking worlds. We know already that the Mongols tried to tap into some of the old aspects of imperial legitimacy associated with the older Türk and Uighur Empires as their empire expanded and was consolidated, and needed to formalize its ideology (such as building Qaraqorum in the Orkhon valley not far from the old Turkic capitals, adopting the title of Khaghan late in Chinggis' lifetime/start of Ögedei's reign. basically making the Mongols the heir to this old Turkic imperial tradition). It's entirely possible that at similar time (if they didn't have it already) they formalized this wolf-origin story for the imperial clan (likely based on the old-Ashina story. Even if Ashina themselves were forgotten, the story itself survived them).
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory Lineage of Ashina was extinct in the steppe at that time probably but there was a Japanese clan in Japan around the 16. century which named themselves as Ashina, descending from an ancestor called Ashinazuchi, meaning "Ashina elder". It is not Mongol history but perhaps you could shed some light into this if you're familiar with it.
I have heard of the Ashina in Japan, but I do not know anything about them unfortunately. I only know Japanese history for the period relating to the Mongol invasions; I am not much help for the centuries after that, I am afraid.
It seems that the Mongols or their ancestors were not yet on the "Mongol plateau" before the year 1000 and that they would have nothing to do with the first Turks who lived there.
This was a super interesting video but I'm left with one question: Zhao Gong describes the mongols as having noble/heroic features, but what those features are could vary a lot depending on the culture and time period, so do we know what specific features Zhao Gong was talking about?
Thank you! And yes, that's a good question; and yes, we do know what he means by this (I initially went into more detail on this in the video but cut it). Basically, what Zhao's text sets out to do, is make the reader see the Mongols as a sort of "noble-savage," a kind of simpler, more honest people reminiscent of what the Chinese used to be, in Zhao's opinion. So Mongolian hair, clothing etc. is usually described as if "this was our old fashion in the days of yore." And even though he describes the Mongols themselves as rather short and ugly (Zhao can't give them too much credit; they can be LIKE the Chinese, but they can't BE as good as them), Chinggis himself is described in terms that would be associated with a description of a heroic Chinese Emperor from the past. So, the broad forehead, good beard, strong, tall etc... very close to how the founder of the Han Dynasty, Gaozu of Han would be described. This is sort of reference the educated-scholar officials of Zhao's audience would understand, and comparing him a noble, good emperor of the past was a clear tool. The mongols appear as hard working, honest, straightforward, compared to the Jurchen Jin who are repeatedly called "caitiffs," "cowardly persons." It's all about comparison and contrast- but one that made me a little hesitant to rely too much on Zhao's description of Chinggis, given that he never saw himself. Which is why I cut that section down so much in the final video.
In short: you (that is, a well-read Song Dynasty official) are supposed to read Zhao's description and think a hero from the past has come to help them crush the hated Jin Dynasty once and for all.
Since the Song had once allied with the Jin against the Liao, only for the Jin and Song to go to war soon after, I think Zhao is also trying to say "Look, the Mongols won't betray us or anything! This time it will work out fine for us!"
I don't think he sat down and fabricated things; the work had to inform the Song on the Mongols and it couldn't do that if the materials was entirely false. We also know that he made the trip (from the details in his own account, and there is another mention elsewhere of him being sent on this journey). It's moreso that he presents things in a certain way to make his argument. So the description he gives of Mongol hair, clothing and language is accruate... but the comparison to ancient Chinese culture is not necessarily wholly accurate (but it's more convenient for him if the reader thinks these things are related!)
Is Genghis Khan Chinese? "We define him as a great man of the Chinese people, a hero of the Mongolian nationality, and a giant in world history," said Guo Wurong, the manager of the new Genghis Khan "mausoleum" in China's Inner Mongolia province. "Genghis Khan was certainly Chinese," he added.Dec 30, 2006
I can't stand discussions about the Tocharians, because 90% of any mention you will find of them on the internet ends up as "oh I guess that means Europeans actually owned these lands first." Which is just the dumbest shit, I have to tell you. It would be nice if some people had an history beyond just what peoples' skin colour was.
I think, there isn't any need to compare Tamerlan and Chingishan. Soviet antropologist M. Gerasimov reproduced the appearance of Timur (Tamerlan) using his sculp. It show that Timur had Caucasoid appearance despite his mongol (tribe of Barlas) origin. This tribe was accimilaterd by local turkik tribes who lived in Central Asia. However, it means that Rashid ad Dins' description of Timur and Chingishan has different meaning. There is no evidence that Chingishan has Caucasoid apperance. But there is the evidence that Timur has Caucasoid appearance.
It's not so much that we have to compare Chinggis and Temur at an academic level; but that in popular culture (especially in Russia/Europe/North America, probably this is less likely elsewhere) the two often get conflated. I looked through a number of writings relating to the red-hair story while researching this, and it was not uncommon for people to point to "finding red-hair on Temur's body" to serve as evidence for Chinggis Khan having red-hair. It's a strange phenomenon but one I found several occurrences of.
Do you really think that Mikhail Gerasimov's facial reconstruction of Timur look Caucasoid? All I can see is a Kazakh man with a beard. In fact, Gerasimov himself classifies his facial features to that of south siberian race, or the race of Kazakhs and Kyrgyz people. I know that many Uzbek nationalists would claim otherwise, but it is just a plain lie.
when the bible calls numerous israelite figures as “ruddy,” it seems to imply that same complexion you speak of: white with red undertones, maybe sun burnt. how is it that the growing black israelite community can use these same passages to insist that ruddy refers to copper colored black people?
I knew some Chinese has slight brown hair due to sun effect maybe that is what the real mean. The Turks and Persian ruler are caucasian so that's possible because some people in Northern Iran and Turkey have red hair
Ppl from the future will consider and contact you...2035 is a differential year. People from you time say the ISP runs deep..please supply all data U have always ❤
During the Tang Dynasty in China, a Sogdian (Persian) merchant traveled in and around Tang and left a travelogue. According to it, residents of Kyrgyzstan, a neighboring country of Mongolia, recorded that they had red hair and crystal eyes. It is said that they later became an equestrian race and left for the south. Today's Kyrgyz people are descendants of Tatars and Mongols who migrated from the west to escape the genocide when the Mongol Empire was weakened.
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory don't take it to personal you are incorrect here's a question for you what was the name of chingiz khan empire? You will not be able to answer it
Sorry but it seems you are pushing your narrative with a biased interpretation. Also, you seem to be assuming "people" are trying to prove European descent of Genghis or that such "people" are somehow nefariously motivated. This is not the case. There is significant evidence of red haired people that lived in China and surrounding region. The mummies found in Xinjiang, as well as evidence of the Sogdians that occupied the silk road are indeed enough to make such possibilities realistic. In fact, the red haired, light skinned mummies found date back many thousands of years making them actually indigenous to the region. Their DNA is more closely linked to Samurai in Japan - which is quite interesting. The Sogdians that were originally Zoroastrians, for example, translated much of the Buddhist texts from Sanskrit to Chinese and left symbols in caves in Dunhuang. Some of those symbols such as the Three Hares shows up much later in Devon England, Germany and France. It suggests they migrated to Europe actually. No, something is actually going on anthropologically that we still don't understand. And, I think people are merely raising questions. In fact, when you examine the prolific red-hair mummies around the world - one questions how such a small, minute percentage of the population could be found as mummies all around the world.
Cat eyes are round. But even with epicanthal folds someone could gave red hair and a fair completion, that's a different genetic variation. There's plenty of genetic evidence to show mongols were made up of a variety of ethic groups under a single culture and not a unified genetic identity. Kiyat Borjigin had roots to northern Iran and western Siberia. The R1b haplogroup originated in the eastern Asian step, with tons of examples of red hair throughout Eurasia today, along with historical Chinese records of clan battles featuring some Mongol tribes with European features. There are mummies dated to the early 1st century BC with the R1b haplogroup who still maintain not only their red hair but boat burrials, all from the same nomatic area as the Borjigin a few hundred years later. It's entirely possible for Genghis Khan to have been light skinned with red hair, even if he maintained predominantly asian facial characteristics. The skin color variation between Ghengis and his grandson isn't something that can be so easily glossed over, and the linguistic issues you've addressed leave ambiguity without supporting exclusively modern Mongol features. Red skin vs swarthy skin indicates genetic admixture and the people who turn the reddest, are the fairest in completion.
A Haplogroup is evidence of race. chromosome haplogroup C2c1a1a1-M407 is carried by Mongol descendants of the Northern Yuan ruler from 1474 to 1517, Dayan Khan, who is a male line descendant of Genghis Khan which was found out after geneticists in Mongolia conducted tests on them.
Haplogroup R is of East-Eurasian origin. It spreaded to Europe through a bottleneck. The Ancient North Eurasians had paternal East Asian ancestry yDNA R and West-Eurasian maternal ancestry mtDNA U.
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Now here's a project I spent much too long on in terms of research, recording and editing. But you gotta be thorough when you come to kill a myth.
He probably looked like boxers like Dimitry Bivol or Gennady Golovkin.
I am from India and I know a lot of Muslims who are descendants of Mughals (part Mongloid race) who dye their hair red with Henna.
Is Genghis Khan Chinese?
"We define him as a great man of the Chinese people, a hero of the Mongolian nationality, and a giant in world history," said Guo Wurong, the manager of the new Genghis Khan "mausoleum" in China's Inner Mongolia province. "Genghis Khan was certainly Chinese," he added.Dec 30, 2006
@@ntwrkntwrk8319 why chinese love and claim the man who massacred them in millions and treated han chinese as the same level as cockroachs?
As a Mongol from Mongolia, I really appreciate your hard work and solid analysis of our history. Thank you very much.
So here the thing about the mongolian spot. I'm a black american and it appear in our population at 96 percent and we don't have asian dna or native on average. The other thing to is african don't have large percentage of mongolian spot.
@@blackloki9 All Native Americans are Geneticaly Asian /Mongoloid.
Black Americans are usually mixed. You probably have either East Asian or Native American DNA in your Family too.
THe Mongolian Spot can appear in non Asians aswel but thats usually rare
Another piece of evidence for a more traditionally Mongolian Ghengis Khan is that the Chinese didn't make commentary on him having red hair. There are a few times I know of in Chinese history where red haired individuals were noted, such as Sun-Quan of the kingdom of Southern Wu, or the Di barbarians who were subjects of a purge, they noted red hair or even red beards as a strange or alien trait.
And so when the Mongols became the enemies of the Southern Song one would expect there to be a lot of cursing of "That red bearded devil Ghengis and his brood." but there isn't because Ghengis Khan didn't have red hair.
When it cat eyes, it's not uncommon to read comparisons to cats in devious or dangerous glints in a person's eyes, and I wonder if that might be what was meant.
Yes, excellent point and partly why I went chronologically to start off with and emphasize Zhao Gong's narrative. While Zhao obviously didn't see Chinggis himself, the fact that he didn't mention such a thing I find most damning at all.
That was actually my idea originally for cats' eyes as well. Given Juzjani's general feeling towards Chinggis, this would have been like saying "he has eyes of a predator." Because to me that seems a more natural quality to associate between a cat and a person you hate, rather than eye-colour. And it's situated between a list of physical and then character traits, which made me uncertain about which direction it leaned between the two groups. Given the general context of Juzjani's text and other references I found (such as the modern linguistics) the physical description seems more likely at this stage. Either option though is more convincing than any connection to eye colour, I find.
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory also, the look in someone's eyes is kind of a physically trait. It's like the consistent facial expression they have.
Thanks for the extensive research work. It is also true that having yellow or green eyes and reddish hair tone is not seldom among mongols. For example, the Torgut mongols are famous with their green eyes. I'm a buryat-mongol and have yellow- brown eyes. As a kid, my hair was reddish yellow and slowly darkened when I aged.
Bi Buriad hubuun as well💪🏼
Yes I've seen mongols with red hair Google it
Great job! I wasn't aware that Ogedai had a birthmark. I always assumed that was a flaw or damage to the painting because in many versions it's not there.
Thank you! I've tried looking into the birthmark/mole on Ogedei several times, but I've never been able to find any research on it (only other people who had the same question as I). Most of these early (smaller) early Yuan portraits were copied in the years after their first creation. For instance, the Chinggis Khan portrait shown here supposedly as a near-identical copy housed in the National Museum in Beijing (but one I could find even find an image of it, frustratingly enough). Supposedly some people have even proposed it's the 1278 original. Regardless, it would not surprise me if the birthmark on Ogedei was the original, and then later copies (finding it unseemly to depict such a thing on an emperor) removed it... unless of course it is some sort of disfigurement on the painting (though personally, I always thought it looked too incorporated into the image to not be unintentional).
Thank you, Jack! What an informative video essay!
Unfortunately, the claim that 🇲🇳 modern Mongolians are not the descendants of the medieval Mongols but of the Manchu/Tungus peoples is also popular among many Kazak nationalists.
Jack, thank you for adding English subtitles! Could you please refrain from adding text to the bottom third of the video? It's hard to see it when subtitles are on.
Thank you for the kind words again, my friend. Good point regarding the subtitles; I hadn't considered it (when you write/record/edit the thing so much you get so familiar with it that these things don't stand out to you anymore). I will keep that space clear for future work!
So ur telling me buryats inner and outer mongolians oirats are descendants of manchus ?
See that these guys simply called us Chinese even tho they don't know our history fully
Mongol is packed up so many tribes most of them is gone through history but I know I'm descendant of Genghis cause my ancestors told me my family name our history where we came
Now there's 5 tribes descendant left
Buryata, Kalmykia oirat , Khalkha, inner Mongolia which is also Khalkha, and tuva, but tuva have Turkic and Mongolic mixed but they are descendant of great Subutai general
@@tsekutsek4843 i mean obviously these russiafied kazakhs has no clue who they are
Hi, thank you for this video, I'm watching it at 2 a.m, while the internet in Iran is so bad, that my free vpn failed to give me access to your video and tomorrow I should go to school at 7a. m, but it was the most scientific video I had ever seen, good for you, for all of the knowledge you posses.
last month I read plano de Carpini (it has been translated in Persian) and I read much of William of Rubruck(not translated) and also some of Marco polo and ibn Battuta, I have learned a little about Mongols, their history is so interesting and in a free Iran I will make videos about them although people in Iran doesn't like Mongol history (as may be expected)
I read Jami altawarikh also, unfortunatelly persian texts doesn't havd any footnotes unlike English translation and the pdfs you granted me, helped me alot, and thanks for mentioning me in your video.
it was a great honour for me to be mentioned by a master like you.
I pray to Tangri to give you health and success🙏❤
Many thanks for your comments, my friend; it would not have been possible without your very kind assistance!
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory Thank you too, I bought to epic poetry about mongol era, Shahnameye changizi by Kashani and Shahanshahname by Ahmad Tabrizi composed in the reign of Ilkhan uljeytu and Abusaid one of them with 16000 verses the other with 10000 verses, I haven't compared them with other sources, I don't know if they had ever been used by researchers, do you know? because they have information about the exploits of Mongols from Genghiz khan to the Ilkhans, and informations about Yuan, Chaghatayids and Jochid princes
Good analysis and very well said. I pay my respect to your tremendous hard work behind this 25 minutes. I especially appreciate the last part where you talked about about people of various nations depict Mongols with their own bias out of their own interests (ie. Chinese, Russian, Kazakh in particular). It is revealing to see many historical remains are discovered extensively nowadays coinciding with the development of technologies, giving us the baseline to retain the truth. Hopefully, the government oriented historians interpret the recent discoveries without any intervention of political interests, as I am greatly concerned with them having a possibility of doing further modifications or alternation of original contents on the historical remains to meet their advocative propaganda here in my hometown Inner Mongolia.
Don’t let me disappear😂
Interesting video and love the dissection of the validity and trustworthiness of various sources. This was also a great lesson in historians' struggles in trying to unravel the truth through mistranslations, misunderstanding of cultural context, agenda/biases of the sources, etc. Love your content.
Very glad you found it interesting! To me, it's a good reminder about how much historical writing is essentially a game of "telephone," where people keep repeating things until they forget the original source. There's many cases of these popular claims (Subedei being obese, Venetians allying with Mongols against Europe, Mongols wearing silk-shirts to stop arrows and many more) which often can't be trace beyond some guy who wrote it down from 1880-1940 who essentially just made it up.
I started watching your content this passed week. Your channel is a gem
Welcome, very glad you enjoyed it!
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory I'm actually trying to write a piece of historical fantasy, with the Mongols featuring prominently. Your content has proved invaluable
I am more than happy you have found my work useful, and you have taken on an exciting task here! do let me know if there any sources I can provide for you will that will help with your project!
Very well researched. Didn't know many of these sources.
Thank you! The Mongol Empire is a period which often surprises people how rich it is with sources; we are better informed on the Mongol Empire than we are on basically every preceding nomadic empire combined.
A proper historian in the making!
Great work once more! Thanks for the shout-out, Norman.
Of course!
as a Mongolian,
the explanation about Borjigin as wolf prince in the Turkic language is interesting to me.
btw another great video, thanks, Bayralla,
Thank you very much!
I don't find the Bort Tigin/wolf prince too convincing an explanation personally (I think Rashid al-Din would have been perfectly capable of making that explanation if it was the case) but I include as it's one of the most common secondary explanations.
Also, Bort Tigin does not make much sense given the connection to Borjigidai.
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory yes, it is. And Bor means brown color in Mongolian language; I have not found the meaning of jigin in Mongolian. maybe I am dead wrong to explain Borjigin in this separate manner. although wolf prince is quite a match with Borjigin, I did not find Bort meaning wolf in Mongolian. but we do have the words "Bohai" and "Chono" for naming wolves in Mongolian.
@@buh357 we mongols have many words for wolf as the actual name is taboo to say. Chinos,Chonos,Bori,Bort or more commonly Nogai(literal Dog) as saying the word for wolf is a bad luck. We uriankhai using the Turkic word Bore/Bori even though were Mongol.
@@teovu5557 ta sainu? Yes we have many word for wolf. I am from ujumchin tribe. We also name wolf as nohai or Tom amt. I did not know that uriankhai people using bore. Bayralla.
Great video! Very interesting, with great analysis of primary sources and presentation.
That being said, a part of me always cringes a bit hearing the word "Caucasian" the way it's used in America. Makes me wonder how the actual Caucasian people (like Chechens, Dagestani Avars, Georgians, Armenians, etc.) feel about it?
Thank you!
That's a good point re: Caucasian. When I was looking up the "red-hair truthers" I saw it pop up often ("did you know that Chinggis Khan was Caucasian?") and the alliteration of "Caucasian Chinggis," I could not get out of my head.
I actually find it more appropriate. Many of these claims about historical redheads (or blondes) are very much so directly rooted in 19th and 20th century theories of "scientific race", for which use of the term "caucasian" has some racial meaning (what, exactly, that meaning is depends on which theory you're referring to). Americans use the term for "white" people because they appropriated some of these theories for their own purposes of enforcing "white" power over others. So in my mind, using that term for this topic highlights the common, unsound, dangerous and even nefarious theories which these arguments tend to base themselves on and reenforce.
(Edits to fix the word vomit).
Well summarized and a valuable counterpoint. An important reminder about how many people are interested in history only to the extent to which it connects to their "group," and their historical interests are therefore limited to just proving the importance and prominence of that group. Inherently silly
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory thanks! And very frustrating to see that. I agree...
This is so fire! I love it this is so nice.
Please bare with me until I make my point: I'm semi-brown skinned and my youngest sister is the same. My eldest sister is white skinned and often told that she looks Asian. My other two sisters and brother are completely European looking. We share the same parents and everyone in the country - or territory - that I'm from share similar characteristics. My point is: That being white skinned with blue or green eyes does not automatically equal, ' of the white race ' ..
There are Asians with naturally brownish hair that could look red in sunlight. Also, constant direct sunlight can further lighten the hair.
Yes. I am Asian and my beard hairs have turned into a light brown naturally.
@@MariaLeeVegas oh there are red haired mongols with green eyes but any means they are not caucasians and has nothing to do with europeans they are asian but a bit diffrent
Very interesting! I thought the famous Yuan's portrait of Chinggis Khan was an invention, and had nothing to do with his real appearance. After watching the video my mind changed.
Have you thought about making a video about Kublai's rule over the Empire and specifically the Yuan dynasty? The Toluid civil war? Maybe the four successor khanates of the Mongol Empire and their fate. I'd love to see more of these topics. Thank you very much.
Regarding the portrait: had you asked me a couple months ago, I probably would have said the same thing... an "idealized creation," rather than anything. Even while working on this I suspected I'd have to say something off hand expressing the same thing. But I was surprised to find how well it lined up. I still wouldn't say it's equivalent to photograph of the man, of course, but I think we can say it's merely the imagination of some 'Chinese painter' as you'll sometimes see it dismissed as.
Regarding those other ideas, I'd love to do them but my next project are already lined up for the next while. Perhaps once I am done with them!
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory It's alright, take your time! Good luck. I appreciate all your work.
I love ur channel and scholarly research. I appreciate the fact that use use the (from my understanding) Mongolian spelling of his name.
Thank you! Yes, that is the Mongolian spelling and pronunciation. It's even on the main airport in Ulaanbaatar.
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory other than a Mongolian person, u r the first person use the correct spelling and pronunciation. That's why I admire ur work. Hello from mobile, Alabama, USA
Ginghis khan look was a typical mongolian look, but I think the things that lead to this remorse it's that many tribes were red haired with green eyes in the eurasian steppes like the yuezhi and tocharians tribes who were from iranian origin there is also yeinsei kirgiz who were described by chiness as pale skinned with red hair and green eyes
It is interesting (and sometimes funny) to know how these ideas of "Caucasian Chinggis" come to be.
The first cause must be nationalism, the narrative of "Caucasian Chinggis" is most pushed by the Turkic people (from my experience), most of them nowadays have caucasian features, hence.... I even encountered Kazakhs claim that they are the real descendants of the the 13th Mongols not the modern Mongolia.
The second cause is more interesting, according to my friend, who is a russia historian, that under the Soviet era, there was some kind of a "legacy competition" between the Soviet influenced Central Asia, and the Chinese influenced Mongolia, both side tried to claimed as much legacy as possible, every great figure they could find, they would all claimed belong to their culture, ever wonder why Temur is the national hero of modern Uzbekistan despite the bad blood between Uzbeks and Timurid? You get the idea.
I hadn't know about that Soviet strategy, but not too surprised by it. It makes a suitable explanation for Temur's "rebirth" in Uzbekistan... likely something his heirs would have been a bit perplexed by, all things considered. Though I suppose the surviving Timurid architecture in Samarkand and Bukhara helps sell it a bit.
The Timurids didn’t fight the Uzbeks there was no Uzbek state in Central Asia during the conquests of Timur so how could there be bad blood? Timur is best described as a persianized Turk who legitimised his conquests by trying to restore the Mongol empire
@@zzhex6780 Maybe because I was not talking about Timur but the Timurid - successors of Timur?
@@phuvolethanh8811 there was no direct conflict with the khanate of Bukhara and the timurids it was the aq and qara qoyunlu turcomans who defeated the timurids and had direct conflict with them
@@phuvolethanh8811 also your comparison that “oh the Uzbeks were Turks and fought the timurids therefore they can’t be Turks” is stupid and if this is what you believe then you have no knowledge about the history of the Turks or Eurasia as a whole
Many Kazakhs have grayish? chaten hair, some of course have brownish hair. Probably Mongols had too. Crimean court, also direct descendants from Gengghis, retained asian facial features pretty far into history, only in 16-17 century under influence of intermarriages with Ottomans they started to look more european (if we are basing on traditional portraits).
I think it will help you to draw right conclusion. This is link to the video of Russian antropologist
ruclips.net/video/y5k26J-sDdM/видео.html
щас бы восточных азиатов монголов с тюрками кипчаками да еще и с османами в одну кучу смешивать, а че, все кочевники же да?
Nomadic gigachads took foreign women all the time
With other words: A variation of the "Black Irish" problem. Hair colors can truly cause much confusion.
These idiot people who claim Genghis was Caucasian remind me of those people who claim the ancient Hebrews were Black Africans, that Jesus and Moses and all Hebrew prophets were Black.
Once I got a message from a person claiming that Chinggis was African. The internet is at once a wonderful and horrible thing.
What we call "afro centrists" often rely on using the same kind of "racial" analysis of evidence as the "caucasianists". Reading (or, projecting) modern standards of race into descriptions of people, ancient art depictions, and so on.
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistoryI’m sorry, what? 🤨😂
@Pierre S. it was quite a long time ago now and I don't remember his precise "argument" as it were, (not that it really was one since he mostly just sent a message asserting it, and had some blog full of such things). Just another one of those "hidden history types," more or less, where "everyone who was ever important was of my people/group/country" essentially. Basically as if I decided that everyone who was ever important was actually Canadian, and went around writing blog posts about which simply repeated that sentence in a few variations.
@@AngryHistorian87 there are RUclips vids by Afro-Centrists who claim Chinese, Mayan, Greek and Egyptian civilization were all Black. But heck, there are white supremacists who still claim to be Aryans, to the chagrin of fanatical Hindu nationalists 😂
So he was a Mongolian man.
I would say so, yes.
Large population of Mongolians are born with very light brunette/yellow hair and gradually it turns black or dark brunette. People around the north and northwestern Mongolian has green, grey or hazel colour eyes. So it is not far fetched Chinggis khan had green eyes because he was born in northern region.
It's not that such things are inherently impossible. It's that, despite it being a common claim, there is no 13th century textual evidence that supports him having such features.
So they’re mixed basically, even today
It is very interesting to hear Turkic words in Mongolian interpretation. For instance, Altan Urag (Golden lineage) probably originated from Altyn (gold) and Ürüq (branch). This word Ürüq was used by turkic people meaning clans branching from tribes and later in some turkic languages reduced to "Ru" meaning "clan"
Great work!
Thanks!
A yellow man in most kipchak and oguz languages literally means a blonde or light haired man. Sarı can be translated to the color yellow or in describing one's blonde hair.
According to all sources, it is certain that Genghis Khan was a Mongoloid with light skin, the color of this eyes and hair was most likely dark or dark with some lightness and these features are present in many Mongols
Yes, that is more or less the findings of this video.
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory But there is a portrait of Ogodei in which he appears with Mongoloid features but with gray eyes and a brown beard. It is possible that Genghis Khan also had the same features
Great video mate
Very glad you enjoyed it!
Hello sir, your videos are awesome!
However, I would say Genghis Khan was a Sogdian-Turk, a “Tazhik u Turk”, a Scythian Iranian, totally had nothing to do with today’s Mongolians, the Atient Moguls were East Iranians & Turks, they were not living in today’s Mongolia, but in Sogdiana & Turkistan, were all Caucasians. His native language Negudari was a Perisian Turk Creole, definitely not today’s Mongolian, and He was born in Feb 8th, 1155 CE (11/26, 549 AH), Xuk. Just for your reference, Rgds!
Least delusional turk nationalist
There are similar ways to describe people in Turkish where a person is described as being "yellow" for simply having more pale skin as others and not having completely black/dark hair and or eyes. I was called this way for being paler than other family members and Turkish children and my hair having been lighter during childhood.
The reason why Alungoo said that she conceived her boys through light was her elder boys didn't liked the fact their mom bedded with servant man after their father died. And she lied with creative tale of pregnancy by light to soothe the family dynamic, I don't remember she said anything about red hair in the scriptures. She also taught her five boys about power of unity by giving arrow each to broke, all of them broke, gave them bundle of 5 arrows to broke noone broke. She told them to be unified, love and support each other in the Sacred book of Mongolia. She apparently were resourceful, smart and creative woman to discipline and direct her kids from different father successfully that they all became leaders of different important tribes of Mongolia. And green eyes and almost blonde like brown hair is common in Siberian part of Mongolia even to this day, Siberia is where whole of Mongolians, even Zurchid, Native Americans, Huns and many more nomads originated. For example my mom's side is from his birthplace and she has green eyes and I have light brown curly hair not dark straight like other Mongolians or majority of east Asians. And my hair looks red in the light. I wouldn't be surprised if he has both green/black eyes and brown/black hair cuz Mongolians has both still to this day.
Hmongs and mongols have this gene. Blue eyes blonde hair or even red hair green eyes non related to Europeans.
the credits were strangely funny
Great video
do you have an explanation for why Ogedei's eyes in his portrait appear light-colored or blue?
Timour is another example, you can even google search for a bust of him in turkey that speaks for itself
@@19ate4 Timur claimed that he had common ancestry with Genghis Khan. His remains were excavated, and his face was reconstructed from his skull. His face is a typical Central Asian face with both Mongoloid and Caucasian features, and his sons and grandchildren have been married to Mongolians for generations. Their faces are more like those of Caucasoids.
Maybe he was like the sayians asian with blond hair and blue eyes....ince he powered up....
Their was an article i read a while back stating r1b m343 was found in a royal Mongol burial
Greetings, I was glad to see this video of yours about the appearance of Genghis Khan.
Let me express my thoughts on this video.
Anyone who knows several different languages will tell you that the same word can have different meanings in different languages.
For example, you mentioned "Caucasian appearance" several times while, of course, implying "European appearance."
However, in Russian, the word "Caucasian appearance" refers to the appearance of the inhabitants of the "Caucasian Mountains." For example, the appearance of the President of Azerbaijan is a typical Caucasian appearance in Russian.
However, we understand that Ilham Aliyev's appearance is far from the European appearance of Joe Biden.
Also in English, as far as I know, the European skin tone is called "white," the Africans "black," the Indians of America "red," and the Chinese "yellow."
In the traditional Kazakh language, people are classified into two groups based on their skin color: "Sary" (yellow) and "Kara" (black). People with fair skin are referred to as "Sary" (yellow), so all Kazakhs with fair skin are called "Sary." The appearance of Europeans is also referred to as "Sary." People with a swarthy skin tone are called "Kara," so all swarthy Kazakhs are called "Kara." The appearance of Africans is also referred to as "Kara."
My skin tone is "Kara-dark," despite the fact that my father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all had fair skin ("Sary"). My mother has a skin color of "Kara" so I became dark.
I believe that the same situation happened to Kubilai Khan when he was born swarthy. Therefore, Genghis Khan was surprised and noted this moment, pointing out that the rest of the Borzhigin clan had the fair skin "Sary".
By the name of Kubilai Khan, is there any reliable information about the origin of this name?
In the Kazakh language, "Kubil" means "change," and perhaps the grandfather of Genghis Khan called his grandson Kubilai because of his swarthy skin, not similar to the Borzhigin clan.
Also by eye color, Kazakhs with lighter eyes can be called "Kokkoz" (blue eyes); of course, this does not mean that these Kazakhs have the same blue eyes as some Europeans.
Considering all this, I believe that the appearance of Genghis Khan did not correspond to the European idea of a blond with blue eyes, but rather to the Kazakh idea of "Sary and Kokkoz", about a person with fair skin and a light shade of eyes.
Quote from the Compendium of Chronicles:
«Borjiqin means having gray eyes, and as it happens the sons who were born to Yesügäi Bahadur and to his sons and offspring down to the present mostly have gray eyes and are of a yellowish color.».
In this quote, we see that we are talking about light-colored eyes and a sary-yellow skin tone.
As for the origin of the word "Borjigin," you say, "Borjigin indicates descent from an ancestor called Borjigidai."
I think you mean the eighth ancestor of Genghis Khan.
Chronicle quote: " Genghis Khan’s descent is as follows: -\-\-\-\ and his ancestor in the eighth degree was Bodonchar."
However, in my opinion, the name "Borzhigin" is not connected with the name "Bodanchar."
Here is what is written in the Compendium of Chronicles about the origin of the word "Borzhigin."
Quote:
«Although Genghis Khan and his forefathers and brothers were of the Qiyat tribe, the sons of Yesügäi Bahadur, Genghis Khan’s father, were called Qiyat Borjiqin. Therefore they are both Qiyat and Borjiqin. (In the Turkish language borjiqin means someone with yellowish gray eyes.)».
The collection of chronicles indicates the Turkic origin of this word. I suppose the origin of the word "Borzhigin" is connected with another Turkic word, "Otchigin."
Quote from the Collection of Chronicles:
«otchigin means master of the fire and yurt. The youngest son is always called Otchigin.».
«What remains belongs to the youngest son, who is called the otchigin, i.e. the son who gains possession of the fire and hearth, and indicates that the foundation of the home rests upon him. The Turkish word ot basically means fire, [785] and tegin means commander, i.e. he is the commander and lord of the fire.».
According to the work of Kashgari from the 11th century, the word "tekin" means the word "prince."
Therefore, if we assume the same origin of the words "Otchigin" and "Borzhigin," then the word "Borzhigin" consists of two words: "Bori-wolf" and "Tekin-prince."
I believe the name "Borzhigin" indicates descent from a wolf or a dog.
The SHM mentions the same miraculous conception of Alan-goa from a yellow dog.
Quote from the Collection of Chronicles:
«The third son was Yesügäi Bahadur, the father of Genghis Khan. The Qiyat and Borjiqin Qiyat are descended from him. Borjiqin means having gray eyes, and as it happens the sons who were born to Yesügäi Bahadur and to his sons and offspring down to the present mostly have gray eyes and are of a yellowish color. This is attributed to the fact that when Alan Qo’a was pregnant she said, “A light like a person comes before my eyes at night and then goes away. It is of a yellow color in form and has gray eyes.” When this trait re-emerged in the eighth generation, which was Yesügäi Bahadur, they said it was the sign Alan Qo’a had spoken of, that her sons would be rulers, and it indicated the truth of her words and that it was imminent.».
Quote from SHM:
«Then their mother Alan Qo’a said, ‘You, my sons Belgünütei and Bügünütei, are suspicious of me and said to each other, “These three sons that she has borne, of whom, of what clan, are they the sons?” And it is right for you to be suspicious. Every night, a resplendent yellow man entered by the light of the smoke-hole or the door top of the tent, he rubbed my belly and his radiance penetrated my womb. When he departed, he crept out on a moonbeam or a ray of sun in the guise of a yellow dog.».
There is a great video about hunting with birds of prey. When I watched this video, I noted to myself that the guy in the lead role has "Kokkoz", that is, "blue eyes" in Kazakh. Below is a link to this video if you want to understand what shade of eyes we are talking about. At 5.09-5.12 minutes, the guy's face is shown in a big frame, where you can see that the guy's eyes have a bright tint.
ruclips.net/video/49geTmkJ6Qw/видео.html
Hello again, happy to see you back with more thoughtful words.
I am happy to learn your examples of skin colours from Kazakh. It's an important reminder about how we must be careful interpreting colour meanings in other languages and cultures: much of this "Genghis Khan was Caucasian/white/european!" depends on people interpreting medieval terminology wrong, and in a modern American/European/Russian context. Usually the proponents of the Chinggis Khan = "white" argument know nothing about the period, sources or people of the Eurasian steppes today. An unfortunate view of the past, where the richness of history is lost, in favour of focusing only on skin colour
I do not know if you saw this, but in Rashid al-Din's account (page 55 in Thackston's translations) he mentions that the meaning of Kereyid comes from Turkic Qara et, which he translates to black-skin; a continuity with the Kazakhs today (and something we can imagine some Russian scholar in 1900 taking to mean the Kereyid were all African...)
Regarding Borjigidai: I do not think Rashid mentions him. But he is mentioned in the Secret History and a handful of other sources mention him (the Chinese Yuan accounts, and if I remember correctly one or two Timurid ones? But don't quote me for certain on that, i have not looked at any Timurid materials in a while so I may not be remembering correctly). These genealogies tend to shift a bit; if you read Rashid al-Din text closely, you'll notice he gives differing genealogies of certain family lines even within the Chinggisids (especially the Chagatais, possibly with the Jochids too). It seems he updated things as he got access to better or updated information (such as the now lost Altan Debter). Regardless, the SHM indicates that the clan name "Borjigin" began to be used for the descendants of Bondochar Munkhag; we might suspect, if the story of the Alan Qo'a/uncertain paternity of her sons was an authentic event, then by stressing his descent from his great-grandfather Borjigidai (by calling himself/his sons the Borjigin) Bodonchar was thus manuvering around claims of his uncertain paternity and rumours of him being a bastard by stressing that he was a descendant of the main family line. (a number of sources, from Abu'l Ghazi, the Mamluk author al-'Umari, the Secret History of the Mongols and others indicate rumours of adultery on the part of Alan Qo'a. The fact the "pro-Mongol" sources like the SHM, Rashid al-Din and others try to stress the chaste nature of Alan Qo'a indicates the efforts to combat these rumours) But of course, that depends if we chose to interpret these family legends as true events or not, and not later stories designed to explain clan names as they later developed.
Regarding Borjigin/Bort Tigin. Personally I have never found this explanation very convincing. Mostly because if it was the case, I think Rashid al-Din would have chosen to translate it like that, instead of the eye-colour explanation he tried to do. He was perfectly capable of translating some level of Turkic (I noted in my other comment to you, how he explains Qara et for example). Bort Tigin is simple enough Turkic that even I, whose has been to Turkiye and knows only very poor Turkish, could have explained such a meaning. I believe that if Borjigin meant Bort Tigin in the 13th century, Rashid would have said so. Regardless, wolves were undoubtedly important animals to the Mongol imperial ideology: hence, with Börte Chino/Blue-Grey wolf as the ancient ancestor for the family. It's quite likely this is some transformation of the Göktürk origin story.
The video you sent also is a beautiful thing. Watching such things helps me understand how the heart of the nomads desires a horse, the open steppe and cool air.
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory Since we are talking about the term "Borzhigin", let me ask you if you know about the Decree of the President of Mongolia No. 115 of 1991.
According to this decree, the inhabitants of Mongolia had to indicate their tribal affiliation in their documents. Residents could choose this particular tribal affiliation on their own. As a result, most of the Khalkhas chose the genus "Borjigon," since they believe that Genghis Khan was from the Borjigon clan.
I am concerned about another question, in general: did the Borjigon clan exist in the current territory of Mongolia after the fall of the Yuan dynasty?
Also, could the descendants of Genghis Khan from Altyn Urug call their clan Borzhigon?
At least among the descendants of Chagatai and Jochi, I never met the word "Borjigon"; as far as I know, they called themselves the descendants of Genghis Khan from Chagatai or Jochi.
As for other related clans, such as Kiyat, Duglat, Barlas, and others, all these clans are often mentioned in subsequent primary sources, such as the works of Timur, Haidar Duglati, Babur, and so on.
Hi jackmiester could you make a video about genghis khans personality? Love your videos BTW!
Personality would be a tough one to do, actually. This is something I had considered doing a very long time ago, but I didn't feel at the time this was a project I could properly approach. Even today I am quite hesitant to say we can really rebuild his personality from the sources that we have. This video I released a few weeks ago dealt with it a bit and made me think about it again ruclips.net/video/o3xtXWZFywY/видео.html
hi jack! I just discovered you from your video about mongol weapons and I really like your channel. in these days I'm playing a game called ghost of Tsushima, where mongols are depicted using also double handed swords and two swords at the same time. was that a real thing?
Welcome, and thank you! Regarding the two-handed sword, it's possible: the Chinese of the time had a weapon called a Zhanmadao, a large, two-handed sword (supposedly) specially designed for cutting into horses' necks. A anti-cavalry weapon. We know the Mongols reused a lot of Song Dynasty equipment, so it's not impossible a few Mongols used them... but obviously, an anti-cavalry requiring both hands seems a bit unlikely for what was primarily horse-back warriors. Regarding the two swords, while we do see 14th century Mamluk training manuals with them armed with two swords, I've ever seen any evidence (textual or from paintings) of Mongols dual-wielding. I'm afraid that's basically just a video game trope on that one.
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory thank you very much for the detailed answer!
@@filippo2806 Happy to be of assistance when I can!
Super super sources Mr. thank you
The Cumans might have looked overwhelmingly “blond hair blue eyed”, the Kipchaks, Kimaks and Kanglis might have been more Asiatic than the Cumans and looked Turanid, and the eastern Turkic and Mongolic tribes on the Mongolian plateau might have looked “reversed Turanid” or overwhelmingly Asiatic, but it is not impossible that there were Mongols with slight Caucasian features like many Mongols today have. Early migrations of different populations on the steppes is quite compilacated. Male and female“Western Euroasian” haplogroups are frequently found from time to time in that part of the world.
His Cat-eye (Lady's eye) may be his top unique feature, just compare it with Hubilay`s sad eyes 16:33 (Ogoday also has it)
21:39 I respect that you say this because Europeans have whitened many historical dark skin or melanated people and black folks say that said people were black they get teased 😂😂
0:02 I think Uygurs are turkic nation, they have caucasian some people have red hair. And Uygurs kingdom founded in 8th century in modern Mongolia.
Red hair originates in Central Asia. Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan etc. have quite a few red heads. Makes total sense for him to have red hair.
The point is not that it is impossible that he had red hair. It is that
1) the commonly cited "evidence" for him having red hair does not actually indicate he has red hair at all
2) no medieval source or eye witness account of him indicates his hair colour besides the fact that it turned white in his old age
3) so while he may have red hair in his youth (something which is actually possible for Central Asians and Mongolians) the medieval sources do not actually indicate this.
But Mongols are not Central Asians let alone Indo-European. People from Afghanistan are however.
@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory Are you saying that Hulagu the Great is lying to his grandfather? 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Hallo Jackmeister. What do you think about Dawlatshah Samarqandi's Idea who mentioned Amir Khusrau Dehlavi as Hazara?
I've never looked into the claim and I've never had access to Samarqandi's works, so I cannot judge it myself.
I will add one more hypothesis of Borjigin ethnonym genesis, it is Turkic. Middle-Mongolian is abundant on turkic loanwords. Borjigin could originate from Börï-Tigin. Börï means "a lead wolf" and "experienced wolf". Tigin means "descendant", similarly to Gokturk Kultigin. Another legend describes Borjigins as descendants of a wolf similar to Ashina Turks
If he was european, shouldnt european gene marker dominate mongolia? But we all kniw thats not the case. Mongolia is almost exclusively haplogroup c
In the past, Aryans such as the Scythians, Sogdians, Torcharians, and Kushans lived in western Mongolia.
@@عليياسر-ذ5ب Says who? All those people lived in what is now Afghanistan, West China, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
@@GreaterAfghanistanMovement It is true, but they also live in western Mongolia. There is even a monk named Lushan who created the largest rebellion and revolution in the history of China and killed millions of Chinese.
@@عليياسر-ذ5ب An-Lushan was a Sodighan was from what is now Tajikistan. He was not Mongol. Western Mongolia was inhabited originally by Turks which the consider their abode.
@@GreaterAfghanistanMovement No, the Turks lived in eastern Mongolia and they lusted after the Mongols, but the Sogdians, Tocharians, Scythians, and some Uyghurs were all Aryans.
Mogolian actor Batdorj-in Baasanjab is direct descendant of Genghis Khan's second son, Chagatai. He played Genghis Khan in the 2004 chinese television series about Genghis Khan's life. Very good show.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genghis_Khan_(2004_TV_series)
Yes I've heard recommendations about the show, and for a while (maybe it still is, I'm not sure) the full series was on RUclips with English subtitles. I've never gotten around to watching it but I've always wanted to.
Even if Genghis had green eyes and red-hair... it is not such a big mystery... Mongolia is right next to Russia. The gene flow goes both ways, if you look at modern Russians, a lot of them have Mongolian-shaped eyes...
Chingizkhan was from the tribe currently belong to the current Kazakhs. Mongul and current Mongolia people are different. Current Mongolia people doesn’t have any relation with Mongul or Chingizkhan. The Mongolia name given for them with a political propose in 19 century. I you carefully check, all old tribes related to Chingizkhan and his campaign currently belong to Kazakhs, you can not find these tribes from the people currently calling Mongol. For example Naiman, Kerey, Merket, Jalayr, Kiyat, Kongirat, etc are currently belong to Kazakhs not Mongol.
Lol what a joke. Kazakhs came to current kazakhstan only after oirat zuungars fell. Stop trying to claim legitimacy through Mongol great khaan! It is in the name.
Great video! Is insane how racista interpretations of two or one centuries ago still shape how we imagine great personalities from non european cultures in the popular cultres and how this only do harm in how we tend to understand non european (or eurocentric) history through some racist undertones
racist
Current day Mongolia had significant west Eurasian genetic admixture at that time, Genghis Khan having red hair and and green eyes doesn’t surprise me in the slightest
Nonsense great Jackmeister. Why as a direct descendent of the man in question not only do I have tiny little abberrant growths of red hair in my beard, but indeed I can confirm that Chinggis Khaan was a huge red-haired blue eyed Viking, and that this attested in his very own saga written in Old Norse, an excerpt of which I shall write below followed with my own translation!
"Temujin het mathr, sonr Yesugei. Temujin var mathr mikli, ok sva sterkr, at eigi varu hans jafningjar. En er hann var unga aldri, la hann i Vikingu ok herjathi. Med honu var i felgasskap a mathr er kallathr var Jamukha, ein gofugr mathr ok inn mesti afreksmathr at afli ok araethi. Theirr varr drenglig berserkir."
- Temujinssaga ok Kapa Hans, chpter. 1
"Temujin was a man, the son of Yesugei. He was a big man, and so strong that none could prove his equal. When he was 20 years of age he went out viking and raiding. He had good fellowship with a man called Jamukha, a good-natured man who was valiant and full of daring. They were berserkers of a drengr nature."
But seriously, great work.
Surely you jest
Dolph Lundgren can now play Temujin in a film because of this
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory if we invade, we invade.
One of most important question on Chingizkhan: was he Red haired Irishman?
Chinggis O'Shaughnessy
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory O'Khanessy
Tíngis Ó Cháinigh
Chinggis Taoiseach
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory Says 'Top of the morning to you' as he burns your city and takes your women as concubines.
Red hair and green eyes are actually quite typical for Mongols
It's not
@@NubiansNapata it is. me as an example
@@eugenic12 I've been to Mongolia. It's literally rare. They all look Chinese
as a mongolian i can confirm there are some mongols with redish hair and greenish/yellow eyes but they are not any means caucasians 😂 there are even mongols with eyes that has blueish/grayish hue
Are you saying that Hulagu and Kublai, the descendants of Genghis Khan, are lying? They will kill you as evil as they killed him
Yes! Another example is that of some Australian Aboriginals born with blond hair that gradually darkens, much like many contemporary Europeans. Different genetic mechanisms, same (sort of) functional outcome.
Dude, those traits don’t just appear by magic those people are indeed mixed
@@ChopPlop-m5l inbreeding in to 2nd cousins for few generations straight also develops that trait
@Neverdyingpride look it up, there’s a small west Eurasian genetic contribution in all Mongolians. Historically it was much higher
Amazing and very interesting video
A small point: I have red hair and red hair only ever goes white with age because it has no dark pigment whereas my mother's, despite being blonde when she was younger, is now either black or silver. When I saw a video about a painting of Genghis Khan I was surprised to see that he had white hair and a pale-ish face, however I thought nothing of it because who on Earth would ever think that a Mongol would have red hair. So it could be true.
Also most of the people who reported what he looked like only ever saw him as an old man. One of my teachers was a redhead but I had no idea because by the time that I saw him he was 65.
Lots of East Asian thick dark hair goes white too when they age 😭
Is Borjigin related to Ashina which is also believed to descend from a wolf?
Great question! I do not believe there was any blood relationship (if there was, then the Mongols would have claimed it to improve their own legitimacy). But, probably the idea of the wolf origin-story itself is taken from it. There is some very interesting research into how these similar origin myths spread across the Turkic and Mongolic speaking worlds. We know already that the Mongols tried to tap into some of the old aspects of imperial legitimacy associated with the older Türk and Uighur Empires as their empire expanded and was consolidated, and needed to formalize its ideology (such as building Qaraqorum in the Orkhon valley not far from the old Turkic capitals, adopting the title of Khaghan late in Chinggis' lifetime/start of Ögedei's reign. basically making the Mongols the heir to this old Turkic imperial tradition). It's entirely possible that at similar time (if they didn't have it already) they formalized this wolf-origin story for the imperial clan (likely based on the old-Ashina story. Even if Ashina themselves were forgotten, the story itself survived them).
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory Lineage of Ashina was extinct in the steppe at that time probably but there was a Japanese clan in Japan around the 16. century which named themselves as Ashina, descending from an ancestor called Ashinazuchi, meaning "Ashina elder". It is not Mongol history but perhaps you could shed some light into this if you're familiar with it.
I have heard of the Ashina in Japan, but I do not know anything about them unfortunately. I only know Japanese history for the period relating to the Mongol invasions; I am not much help for the centuries after that, I am afraid.
It seems that the Mongols or their ancestors were not yet on the "Mongol plateau" before the year 1000 and that they would have nothing to do with the first Turks who lived there.
The report siad that he had eyes like cat....no where it said he had green eyes
It was orange after he spilled the blood of his enemies…
You look so handsome in that cap🥰
You're too kind!
Answer: Count Dankula is basically a Scottish Genghis Khan
I’m pretty sure grey eyes are considered a form of blue eyes.
Fascinating content😅
Glad you liked it!
This was a super interesting video but I'm left with one question: Zhao Gong describes the mongols as having noble/heroic features, but what those features are could vary a lot depending on the culture and time period, so do we know what specific features Zhao Gong was talking about?
Thank you! And yes, that's a good question; and yes, we do know what he means by this (I initially went into more detail on this in the video but cut it).
Basically, what Zhao's text sets out to do, is make the reader see the Mongols as a sort of "noble-savage," a kind of simpler, more honest people reminiscent of what the Chinese used to be, in Zhao's opinion. So Mongolian hair, clothing etc. is usually described as if "this was our old fashion in the days of yore." And even though he describes the Mongols themselves as rather short and ugly (Zhao can't give them too much credit; they can be LIKE the Chinese, but they can't BE as good as them), Chinggis himself is described in terms that would be associated with a description of a heroic Chinese Emperor from the past. So, the broad forehead, good beard, strong, tall etc... very close to how the founder of the Han Dynasty, Gaozu of Han would be described. This is sort of reference the educated-scholar officials of Zhao's audience would understand, and comparing him a noble, good emperor of the past was a clear tool. The mongols appear as hard working, honest, straightforward, compared to the Jurchen Jin who are repeatedly called "caitiffs," "cowardly persons." It's all about comparison and contrast- but one that made me a little hesitant to rely too much on Zhao's description of Chinggis, given that he never saw himself. Which is why I cut that section down so much in the final video.
In short: you (that is, a well-read Song Dynasty official) are supposed to read Zhao's description and think a hero from the past has come to help them crush the hated Jin Dynasty once and for all.
Since the Song had once allied with the Jin against the Liao, only for the Jin and Song to go to war soon after, I think Zhao is also trying to say "Look, the Mongols won't betray us or anything! This time it will work out fine for us!"
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory that's really interesting! So Zhao's description is likely more deliberate propaganda than fact?
I don't think he sat down and fabricated things; the work had to inform the Song on the Mongols and it couldn't do that if the materials was entirely false. We also know that he made the trip (from the details in his own account, and there is another mention elsewhere of him being sent on this journey). It's moreso that he presents things in a certain way to make his argument. So the description he gives of Mongol hair, clothing and language is accruate... but the comparison to ancient Chinese culture is not necessarily wholly accurate (but it's more convenient for him if the reader thinks these things are related!)
Is Genghis Khan Chinese?
"We define him as a great man of the Chinese people, a hero of the Mongolian nationality, and a giant in world history," said Guo Wurong, the manager of the new Genghis Khan "mausoleum" in China's Inner Mongolia province. "Genghis Khan was certainly Chinese," he added.Dec 30, 2006
No he had a brown eyes and black hair so why painting and illustrations from his h children had asian features
Yes, that is what this video goes on to demonstrate.
I even saw a history book which claims his ancestors were Turkified/Mongolized Tocharians😅
I can't stand discussions about the Tocharians, because 90% of any mention you will find of them on the internet ends up as "oh I guess that means Europeans actually owned these lands first." Which is just the dumbest shit, I have to tell you. It would be nice if some people had an history beyond just what peoples' skin colour was.
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory The tocharians descend from Indo Europeans, and they usually has an European look. If that means anything.
I think, there isn't any need to compare Tamerlan and Chingishan. Soviet antropologist M. Gerasimov reproduced the appearance of Timur (Tamerlan) using his sculp. It show that Timur had Caucasoid appearance despite his mongol (tribe of Barlas) origin. This tribe was accimilaterd by local turkik tribes who lived in Central Asia. However, it means that Rashid ad Dins' description of Timur and Chingishan has different meaning. There is no evidence that Chingishan has Caucasoid apperance. But there is the evidence that Timur has Caucasoid appearance.
It's not so much that we have to compare Chinggis and Temur at an academic level; but that in popular culture (especially in Russia/Europe/North America, probably this is less likely elsewhere) the two often get conflated. I looked through a number of writings relating to the red-hair story while researching this, and it was not uncommon for people to point to "finding red-hair on Temur's body" to serve as evidence for Chinggis Khan having red-hair. It's a strange phenomenon but one I found several occurrences of.
Do you really think that Mikhail Gerasimov's facial reconstruction of Timur look Caucasoid?
All I can see is a Kazakh man with a beard. In fact, Gerasimov himself classifies his facial features to that of south siberian race, or the race of Kazakhs and Kyrgyz people.
I know that many Uzbek nationalists would claim otherwise, but it is just a plain lie.
Thanks!
Thank you very much!
This is a real discussion?
when the bible calls numerous israelite figures as “ruddy,” it seems to imply that same complexion you speak of: white with red undertones, maybe sun burnt. how is it that the growing black israelite community can use these same passages to insist that ruddy refers to copper colored black people?
Great video but please fix audio
I wonder if that chronic ruddiness had anything to do with the Kublai's alcoholism
Welcome to Mongolia Mr.
Greetings from the Kirgiz Republic, thanks for the video, hopefully in the future we will partly recover our old, ancient genes.
I knew some Chinese has slight brown hair due to sun effect maybe that is what the real mean. The Turks and Persian ruler are caucasian so that's possible because some people in Northern Iran and Turkey have red hair
Ppl from the future will consider and contact you...2035 is a differential year. People from you time say the ISP runs deep..please supply all data U have always ❤
Can you slow it down please? Way to fast.
Could "rus" (as in Rus Vikings) have meant "red"?
Rus is name of their tribe
During the Tang Dynasty in China, a Sogdian (Persian) merchant traveled in and around Tang and left a travelogue. According to it, residents of Kyrgyzstan, a neighboring country of Mongolia, recorded that they had red hair and crystal eyes. It is said that they later became an equestrian race and left for the south. Today's Kyrgyz people are descendants of Tatars and Mongols who migrated from the west to escape the genocide when the Mongol Empire was weakened.
Heyy, he was from Scotland.. duh
Red hair he was Mongolian not scottish
Red hair originated in Siberia not Scotland
Sorry to disappoint you sir you are far from truth I am a direct descendant of chingiz khan second son chughtai khan
There are plenty of them.
I am also a descendant of some guy, probably.
@@buh357 where are they?
@@aftekharyounas4841 Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Inner Mongolia.
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory don't take it to personal you are incorrect here's a question for you what was the name of chingiz khan empire? You will not be able to answer it
He had blue eyes and red hair
cope
Sorry but it seems you are pushing your narrative with a biased interpretation. Also, you seem to be assuming "people" are trying to prove European descent of Genghis or that such "people" are somehow nefariously motivated. This is not the case. There is significant evidence of red haired people that lived in China and surrounding region. The mummies found in Xinjiang, as well as evidence of the Sogdians that occupied the silk road are indeed enough to make such possibilities realistic. In fact, the red haired, light skinned mummies found date back many thousands of years making them actually indigenous to the region. Their DNA is more closely linked to Samurai in Japan - which is quite interesting. The Sogdians that were originally Zoroastrians, for example, translated much of the Buddhist texts from Sanskrit to Chinese and left symbols in caves in Dunhuang. Some of those symbols such as the Three Hares shows up much later in Devon England, Germany and France. It suggests they migrated to Europe actually. No, something is actually going on anthropologically that we still don't understand. And, I think people are merely raising questions. In fact, when you examine the prolific red-hair mummies around the world - one questions how such a small, minute percentage of the population could be found as mummies all around the world.
If he did he was albino
Alan goa is she is genkis wife or concubine??
His ancestor on his father's side. Several generations before Chinggis Khan was born.
👍👍👍
🙌
I believe rashid al din lied about this among other things.
Cat eyes are round. But even with epicanthal folds someone could gave red hair and a fair completion, that's a different genetic variation.
There's plenty of genetic evidence to show mongols were made up of a variety of ethic groups under a single culture and not a unified genetic identity. Kiyat Borjigin had roots to northern Iran and western Siberia. The R1b haplogroup originated in the eastern Asian step, with tons of examples of red hair throughout Eurasia today, along with historical Chinese records of clan battles featuring some Mongol tribes with European features.
There are mummies dated to the early 1st century BC with the R1b haplogroup who still maintain not only their red hair but boat burrials, all from the same nomatic area as the Borjigin a few hundred years later. It's entirely possible for Genghis Khan to have been light skinned with red hair, even if he maintained predominantly asian facial characteristics. The skin color variation between Ghengis and his grandson isn't something that can be so easily glossed over, and the linguistic issues you've addressed leave ambiguity without supporting exclusively modern Mongol features. Red skin vs swarthy skin indicates genetic admixture and the people who turn the reddest, are the fairest in completion.
A Haplogroup is evidence of race. chromosome haplogroup C2c1a1a1-M407 is carried by Mongol descendants of the Northern Yuan ruler from 1474 to 1517, Dayan Khan, who is a male line descendant of Genghis Khan which was found out after geneticists in Mongolia conducted tests on them.
Haplogroup R is of East-Eurasian origin. It spreaded to Europe through a bottleneck. The Ancient North Eurasians had paternal East Asian ancestry yDNA R and West-Eurasian maternal ancestry mtDNA U.
Solid myth busting!
We wuz Kangz
We were kings and such. Cope turk.