ninme

No wonder John Kerry was so upset.

The Times - How I am related to Genghis Khan. By Mark Henderson
A US accountant has proof that he is descended from the Mongol warlord

He has little in common with his infamous ancestor. He is not a keen horseman. Though a Republican, his politics are moderate.

Good lord that amuses me.

Professor Robinson’s genetic past was uncovered by Brian Sykes, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Oxford. His company, Oxford Ancestors, offers genetic tests to help people to trace their family trees.

Samples of Professor Robinson’s DNA were first taken four years ago. Tests suggested that his paternal forebears came from the Caucasus, while his mother’s ancestors originated in the Pyrenees.

Then a study in 2003 suggested that up to 16 million people worldwide — and 8 per cent of Asian men — were descended from Genghis Khan, and Professor Sykes decided to trawl through his database of approximately 25,000 male clients for a match.

The link is revealed by the Y chromosome, a packet of DNA that determines male sex, which is passed down from father to son. Men who share a Y chromosome are invariably descended from the same man at some point in the past, and the accumulation of mutations can be used to date the common ancestor. Women do not have a Y chromosome, so they cannot be tested in the same way, although millions are likely also to be descended from the warlord.

Curses!

FROM MONGOLIA TO MIAMI

• Temüjin Borjigin acquired the name Genghis Khan (the king) when he became the Mongol emperor
• He united the Mongol and Turkic tribes of Central Asia, forming the Mongol empire in 1206
• The Mongol horde first conquered Western Xia in northern China. Over several centuries, the empire grew to include much of Eurasia.
• The Mongols also won victories in Eastern Europe, though never established colonies there
• Genghis Khan developed a mounted professional army of 200,000 men
• He had four legitimate sons with his primary wife, Borte, but had dozens if not hundreds more children
• In modern Mongolia he is regarded as a national hero

Didn’t he (or was it his kid) finally shut down Baghdad?

And:

The Times - Genghis calm
Time for a reassessment of the Mongol warlord

Yet, Tom Robinson is not what might be expected. He is a mild-mannered professor of accountancy in Florida, not a weapon-wielding horseman bent on world domination. Some will contend that Khan’s DNA must have been diluted as it went through multiple generations and many mutations. There is, though, another explanation. That the man himself was not all bad.

Khan was, admittedly, responsible for creating an empire that stretched from the Sea of Japan to the Caspian. Property rights were, however, rather more sketchy in the 13th century than is the case today. Furthermore, as one account puts it, his armies, despite the popular misconception, “did not torture, mutilate or maim” their enemies. They just “merely slaughtered” them. There was an exception when Khan had one foe executed by pouring molten silver into his eyes and ears. That upstart had, nonetheless, been shockingly rude to him and never said sorry.

A look at the whole record leaves a more rounded impression. Khan lived a simple life and shared out the wealth with his (surviving) subjects. He took a dim view of the kidnapping of women and of animals — making both illegal. He pioneered a successful system for the regulation of hunting, more than new Labour has managed. He was an astute administrator who introduced accurate record keeping throughout his domain. These are skills that the Home Office could do with. In short, he was a moderniser. Professor Robinson should be proud of his ancestor.

Hehehe.