Genghis Khan established the greatest land empire ever known. His heirs saw to it that his accomplishments be remembered in a number of now classic works, like the Secret Histories of the Mongols, the Compendium of Histories by Rashiduddin, and Juvayni’s History of the World Conqueror. But souvenirs of Genghis Khan also survived in folk tales of the Tatar peoples, where they were transformed for cultural and political purposes, as shown in Mária Ivanics’s masterful editing of The Činggis Legend.
These tales survive in manuscripts from the 17th and 18th century. The copyists demonstrate good handwriting and a command of the languages of high Muslim culture: Turkish, Persian and Arabic. With a gap of 500 years from the events described, they made errors in transcription of unfamiliar, especially Mongolian words. Nevertheless they faithfully recorded a number of historic elements, even when these clashed with Islamic orthodoxy. It was more important for the copyist to emphasize their identity as heirs of the Golden Horde, than to fit their stories into a Muslim worldview.
In common with the “scientific” histories of Rashiduddin and Juwayni, Genghis Khan’s origins are described as nothing short of miraculous, difficult to square with Islamic beliefs. Genghis Khan proceeds from not one but two virgin births, that of his grandmother and of his mother. The grandmother’s story recalls that of Danae, shut away in a tower by her emperor parents to protect her from the world, she falls pregnant from a sunbeam. This princess of the west is then sent in a sealed ship to the far ends of the earth, where she marries a local khan. Her son dies before he can impregnate his wife, but his seed descends in a sunbeam and generates Genghis Khan. This emphasizes Genghis Khan’s claim to world domination, since his great grandparents are described as emperors. It also underlines his connection to a solar dynasty, since in two generations his progenitors are the sun itself. What the folk story misses is the origin of the name Genghis Khan, since it attributes this name to him at birth, rather than his given name, Temüjin.
Likewise inconsistent with Islamic orthodoxy, but more realistic, the tale describes the agency and freedom enjoyed by Mongol women, which probably continued among the pastoralist Turks of the Golden Horde. When Genghis Khan returns from exile to take control of his people, he has his enemies massacred, along with all their families. A woman takes pity on four little boys, and hides them in her tent. When Genghis Khan discovers this treachery, he angrily summons her to surrender the boys, but is not prepared for her appearance. “No one had seen such a beautiful [woman] person at that time. She was born to be so beautiful by God’s command. She had hair the length of forty fathoms and her two nurses carried it after her on a golden tray.” The lovestruck Khan forgives her and asks her to become his wife. Readers of the Secret History of the Mongols will recognize the strong-willed Börte Khatun as the beautiful heroine of this story. She bears Genghis Khan four sons, who carry on his line.
Linking the legendary times of Genghis Khan with their present, the narrators attribute to the world conqueror the bestowing on each clan their ancestral battle cry (uran, compare with original Hungarian “Hoorah”), their totemic bird and tree, and their horse brand or tamgha. These are the most tangible signs of their identity, of belonging to one people. In this way, the legacy of Genghis Khan stays on as a lived environment.
The narrative moves on to the career of Timur-e Lang, which poses a problem for the Genghisid-centric story. Although Timur probably came from middle-ranking beys in the service of the Genghisids, the narrative here describes him as a scrappy ragamuffin who assembles a gang of young toughs and takes over from the legitimate khan in a roadside ambush. Thereafter, however, the figure of Timur that emerges in this tale is consistent with his own official histories, like the Zafarnama of Yazdi and Hafez-e Abru. The iron emir is ruthless with his enemies. He spares from annihilation one group of pastoralists only on condition that they convert to Islam. During another massacre he kills all those people who accuse him of evil or cruelty, but pardons a group who acknowledge that he is merely the instrument of God’s wrath. However when Tamerlane’s reign is over, a legitimate Genghisid replaces him.
For centuries thereafter, the heirs of Genghis Khan remain an essential element in the governance of the steppe. His descendants provide the all-important function for pastoralist peoples, to assign pastures to each clan. When the Tatar khans grow too weak to enforce their judgment, their people began to ask Moscow’s Tsar to adjudicate. They address Ivan the Terrible as a direct descendant of Genghis Khan, since they cannot conceive of a powerful monarch without this lineage.
The epopee of Genghis Khan and his heirs draws to a close as the Russians take on this ever greater role in governing the steppe. Many Tatars convert to Christianity. Despite the revolts of the Bashkirs and of Stenka Razin the Russians occupy Tatar capitals, including Kasimov, Kazan, Astrakhan and Azov. Halley’s comet passes through the sky, heralding even darker days to come.
Mária Ivanics’s edition, with a facsimile of the manuscripts, a transcription into Latin letters, translation and erudite notes makes this work accessible to a wide range of readers. It contains a treasure trove of insight into the culture of Russia’s Tatar people, and the lasting legacy of Genghis Khan in Russia.
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