Genghis Khan

[Silver Rusher]

W00t! Thanks for the info.

Over the past day I have gained a sudden surge of interest in the man, bit of a coincidence that theres a documentary on about him.

EDIT: By the way, I have been wanting to know. How many people was Genghis Khan responsible for the deaths of? I heard 50 million, that right? According to Wikipedia, 60 million died in China after his conquest of it, but it is unclear how many of these Genghis Khan was responsible for himself.

[Orda Khan]

The claims are very exaggerated, but a small nation with a relatively small army turned to psychological warfare above all to secure their borders and/or recent aquisitions. The deaths in Khwarazm certainly achieved their aims. After the Shah's defeat the nation still had the capability to raise an army large enough to threaten Mongol borders. As to the total of lives lost to his conquests, I would not even begin to try to work that out

......Orda

[The Wizard]

The claims are very exaggerated, but a small nation with a relatively small army turned to psychological warfare above all to secure their borders and/or recent aquisitions. The deaths in Khwarazm certainly achieved their aims. After the Shah's defeat the nation still had the capability to raise an army large enough to threaten Mongol borders. As to the total of lives lost to his conquests, I would not even begin to try to work that out

Orda speaks the truth. Mostly, Mongol savagery and penchant for butchery was a nice piece of propaganda instituted by the Mongols themselves, who, thousands of miles from home and very far away from any reinforcement, would rather have the enemy run before them than turn and fight.

The fact that Timur-i-Lenk, with all his savagery and even more brutal symbols of terror (skull towers come to mind), is referred to as "Mongol" in almost every source didn't help matters much, either. Or perhaps it did; I think Chingis would have a chuckle, having heard that his reputation of awesome terror has been preserved over eight hundred years.

Missed the doc today, though

[gunslinger]

I remember reading an article about scientists tracking human migration by studying the "Y" chromosome in current populations. Fathers pass the "Y" on to their sons, and it is never changed due to intermarriage because women don't have "Y" chromosomes, so studying this aspect of DNA is very useful for studying the history of populations. Anyhow, they had an overwhelming number of one certain "Y" show up in a certain region. I forget the numbers, but a HUGE percentage of people in the region possessed this same DNA, which was totally unlike the DNA of anyone else in the region. Now, like all DNA, "Y" chromosomes mutate gradually with time, so the scientists could, by comparing the subtle differences in the "Y" chromosomes of the modern donors, estimate the time elapsed since the original grandfather spawned this line.

The calculations showed that the original ancestor lived in the time period during which Ghengis Khan invaded that particular part of the world. Given the Khan's appetite for the women of his enemies, the scientists were able to postulate that the otherwise unexplainable incidence of this particular "Y" chromosome resulted from thousands of male children born to women who were raped by G.K.

I think I read this in National Geographic about a year ago. It may have been in Popular Science though.

[Orda Khan]

Yes the documentary was a repeat. Even though it was very brief (I remember saying that it should have been in maybe 6 parts first time I saw it) it did give some insight at least

......Orda

[Leet Eriksson]

Orda did you see the chinese series of Ghengis Khan? (i know its offtopic but i was wondering)

[Subedei]

Orda did you see the chinese series of Ghengis Khan? (i know its offtopic but i was wondering)

Well, I ain´t Orda, but do you mean the 8 part TV documentary? I think it is very interesting....

[Orda Khan]

Orda did you see the chinese series of Ghengis Khan? (i know its offtopic but i was wondering)

No I've not but I have a feeling last nights documentary was an adaption of it. I could be wrong

.....Orda