The Prolific Love Life of Genghis Khan
By: Peter Preskar
Tags: Asia, Sex, Culture, History, Sexuality

The Prolific Love Life of Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan — artistic depiction (Image: Artstation/@Thahn Tuan)

Genghis Khan (1162–1227) is the greatest conqueror in the history of humankind. His armies created the largest land empire the world has ever seen—the Mongol Empire. When he was not busy subjugating the nations across Asia, he spent his time with women. He had six wives and around five hundred concubines. Geneticists estimate that sixteen million males (0.5% of the Earth’s male population) are genetically linked to Genghis Khan. This means he fathered hundreds of children during his lifetime.

Genghis Khan might be your distant relative.

Genghis and his Y-chromosome

In the study of historical genetics, published in 2003, geneticists focused on Y-chromosomes.

The Y-chromosome passes down directly and only from father to son. The chromosome is basically unchanged, except for random, traceable mutations, called markers.

Once geneticists find a marker, they can trace which males are genetically linked. The Y-chromosome that was traced in the study belongs to sixteen million males in Asia.

There is only one man in history who could father a lot of children all over the Middle East to China. The concerned area corresponds with the area of the Mongol Empire at the time of his death.

Obviously, Genghis Khan had plenty of sex with a huge number of women.

The descendants of Genghis ruled across Asia for centuries after his death. Their position in society meant they could have more women and consequently more children.

For example, Genghis’s son Toshi had forty sons. Genghis’s grandson, Kublai Khan, known for hosting Marco Polo, had twenty-two legitimate sons. Also, he added thirty virgins to his harem each year. Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire in India, was also the direct descendant of Genghis Khan. He had six wives and eighteen children.

For Genghis, a ruler with absolute power and god-like status, getting women was not a problem.

Genghis took the most beautiful women

A Mongolian beauty (Image:nasvete.com)

After the conquest, Genghis Khan took for himself the most beautiful women. He liked women with small noses, rounded hips, long hair, and a beautiful voice.

He measured women with points. If a woman‘s score was too low, he gave her to his lieutenants.

He preferred to sleep with the wives and daughters of the defeated enemy rulers.

His soldiers believed he had extraordinary sexual prowess. A belief which he promulgated, since he had sex with multiple women every night.

On one occasion, Genghis Khan had a conversation with a Taoist monk who claimed to be over 300 years old. Genghis asked the monk how he could get a long life. Monk advised him to stop hunting, having sex, and taxing Taoist monks. Genghis agreed to follow only one piece of advice. For sure, quitting sex was not the one.

According to the legend, sex caused Genghis’s death in 1227. He was about to rape a Chinese princess when she castrated him. The legend is probably not true.

Did Genghis die because of castration?

In 1226, Genghis Khan returned from Persia to crush the Tangut rebellion in China. The Tangut royal family had restored their independence while Genghis was away.

The legend says that during the night before the decisive battle in 1227, Genghis had a dream of red blood on white snow. Genghis’s oracles explained the blood meant the blood of the Tangut prince and the snow was the prince’s daughter.

The next day, the Mongols defeated the Chinese and killed the prince. Genghis Khan took the prince’s beautiful daughter to his tent as spoils of war. He was preparing to rape her when she drew a hidden dagger from her hair and castrated him. The princess then committed suicide by jumping in a river. Ever since people call this river the Khatun Gol (the River of Princess).

Genghis Khan's marriages

A wax sculpture of Genghis Khan and his wife Börte (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Genghis’s love life included raping and concubines. However, on the other side of the coin, he showed a lot of respect and love towards his wives, especially Börte, his first wife.

Genghis and Börte’s parents arranged their marriage when they were around ten years old. He married her when he was sixteen years old. Shortly after the marriage, the rival Merkit tribe kidnapped Börte.

In the Mongol steppes, it was a common practice to steal women from another tribe and marry them. Genghis’s father stole his mother from the Merkit tribe many years earlier. By kidnapping Börte, the Merkits had retaliated to the Genghis’s tribe.

However, Genghis was no ordinary man, he attacked the Merkits and saved Börte. By then, they had held her prisoner for eight months and had raped her many times. Soon after Genghis saved her, she gave birth to a son, Jochi. Genghis acknowledged Jochi and treated him as his own son. Nevertheless, the widespread belief that he was not Genghis’s biological son persisted.

Genghis respected and followed the advice from his wife Börte. Mongol men listened to their wives, they believed a smart wife prevented them from making stupid life decisions.

Börte became the Grand Empress of the Mongol Empire. Only sons by Börte were Genghis’s legitimate descendants.

In Mongol society, polygamy was acceptable if you could afford it. Genghis certainly belonged to the category of wealthy men. He had six wives.

He was very fond of his second wife, Khulan. She accompanied him on many military campaigns. He also married two Tartar princesses after killing their father in battle.

Each wife lived in a separate tent together with her children. Each had her own court and territory to rule. Genghis’s first wife, Börte, had the most power among all his wives.

Conclusion

The life of Genghis Khan is full of superlatives.

His armies killed ten percent of the world’s population in the 13th century (around forty million). His Mongol Empire was the largest land empire in history (almost a quarter of the Earth’s surface). He has sixteen million male descendants.

We could continue the list of superlatives further, but the fundamental question is: Do we need to assess his feats? If we share our opinions, will this encourage or discourage others from trying to repeat his deeds?