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In the 13th century, Mongol hordes invaded most of the known world and Genghis Khan's nobles had strong legacies to rule in China, Iran and Central Asia in the the following centuries. What about the Mongol soldiers and common people in the areas? Were they assimilated or dissolved in any sense or do the descendants of Mongols still live in areas other than Mongol proper?

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@Dagvadorj to respond to someone use the "@" sign followed by his name. (like I did). – Joe Shmoe Oct 11 '11 at 22:25

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The vast majority of Genghis Khan's Mongols either were driven back to Mongolia or were absorbed into the general population of China. Some modern-day Chinese do retain their Mongol heritage as evidenced in the following linguistic map of Mongol Languages:

enter image description here

Some of the Mongol populations include: Bonan, Mongour, Dongxiang, Yugur, Sogwo Arig, Sichuan Mongols, Yunnan Mongols. Thanks to Dagvadorj for correcting me and pointing that out.

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I guess your college course made generalization in this issue. There are Mongolic-speaking Muslim and Taoist ethnic groups in China who are descendants of Genghis Khan's soldiers. I guess they were not worth noting in the course. These people are called Bonan, Mongour, Dongxiang, Yugur, Sogwo Arig, Sichuan Mongols, Yunnan Mongols, ... – Dagvadorj Oct 11 '11 at 22:28
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@JoeHobbit - Can you provide references to confirm what you are claiming is correct? The Khan's traveled a long distance and it is well known that a country still exists called Mongolia. Your claim that they were just absorbed into China is spurious. – xiaohouzi79 Oct 11 '11 at 22:49
@Dagvordorj I have never heard of these groups. How large are the surviving Genghis-Mongol groups? – JoeHobbit Oct 12 '11 at 3:30
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@xiaohouzi I was paraphrasing my history Professor, Dr. David Greer (Phd. in History). I never said that Mongolia ceased to exist. Rather I said Ghenghis Kahn's soldiers did not keep themselves separate from the peoples they conquered and so gradually lost their distinctness as mongols. Even the wikipedia says they intermarried often. – JoeHobbit Oct 12 '11 at 3:33
@JoeHobbit Modern-day Mongols in Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, Kalmykia and Buryatia (those living in Mongol proper) are already Genghis Khan's Mongols. The question is originally about these living outside Mongol proper: like Bonan, Mongour, Hazara etc. You can look them up by Googling. – Dagvadorj Feb 20 at 2:55
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Wikipedia provides an excellent answer on the Descendants of Genghis Khan.

Some of the main points:

  • Another important consideration is that Genghis's descendants intermarried frequently. For instance, the Jochids took wives from the Ilkhan dynasty of Persia, whose progenitor was Hulagu Khan. As a consequence, it is likely that many Jochids had other sons of Genghis Khan among their maternal ancestors.

  • Among the Asian dynasties descended from Genghis Khan were the Yuan Dynasty of China, the Ilkhanids of Persia, the Jochids of the Golden Horde, the Shaybanids of Siberia, and the Astrakhanids of Central Asia.

  • The ruling Wang Clan of the Korean Goryeo Dynasty became descendants of the Genghisids through the marriage between King Chungnyeol and a daughter of Kublai Khan. All subsequent rulers of Korea for next 80 years, through King Gongmin, were thus descended from Genghis Khan.

  • After the Mongol invasion of Russia, the Rurikid rulers of Russian principalities were eager to obtain political advantages for themselves and their countries by marrying into the House of Genghis.

  • ...Hence, it is not surprising to note that from Nurhaci to the Shunzhi Emperor, all the empresses and major concubines were Mongols.

It is also worth noting The Ian Ashworth Effect also mentioned in the link above and in this SE Skeptics discussion:

It has been claimed and researched (link to paper) that:

8% of all Asian men and thus 0.5% of all men would be descendant of Genghis Khan.

The conclusion from Skeptics was that the research stacked up:

It appears to have a robust result, that it seems reasonably to provisionally accept unless counter evidence is produced.

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You've left out one of the big ones: the Mughal Empire which ruled over much of northern India from 1526 to the 1700s for sure and nominally until 1857 was founded by Babur, a descendant of both Genghis Khan and Timur-i-Lung (Timur the Lame). The last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah II is claimed to be the last ruler of the Timurid dynasty. – Gaurav Oct 12 '11 at 6:07
Interesting side note: Down's syndrome used to be known as Mongolism, because people thought that children suffering from it were throwbacks - that one of the parents' 13th century ancestors had been raped by a Mongolian soldier. – Rose Ames Feb 1 '12 at 17:07
@RoseAmes Your side note while interesting is also apocryphal. – coleopterist Nov 20 '12 at 16:03
Saying somebody is a descendant is no big deal. Eventually, unless I am childless, all humans too will be my descendant. What is the proportion of gengish khan gene compared to other genes. – Jim Thio Dec 24 '12 at 12:46
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Genghis Khan's empire had at least four main parts: (modern) Russia, the Middle East (mainlhy Persia), Central Asia (Kazakhstan), and China-Mongolia.

The soldiers who occupied the first three parts (mostly) intermarried with local women. In China-Mongolia (under Kublai Khan), many Mongolians intermarried with Chinese. Only a few Mongolians (between modern Mongolia and Lake Baikal) remained relatively "pure," which is why there are so few of them today. The genes of the others ended up elsewhere.

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The answer starts correct. However, it has some misleading information in the second paragraph. Actually, I remember that there was a law that restricted Mongolians to marry Chinese in Yuan dynasty much like the laws in later Qing dynasty that restricted Mongolians and Manchurians to marry Chinese. That is how there are Mongols in Qinghai-Gansu and Yunnan-Sichuan who were left out of the Mongol population moved back to Mongol proper when Yuan collapsed. Modern-day Mongols in Mongolia and Inner Mongolia are not originated from Baikal region, rather either were there or moved there from Yuan. – Dagvadorj Feb 20 at 2:49
@daagvadorj: That may have been true during the Yuan dynasty. But after the Ming overthrew them, some Mongols "stayed" and married Chinese, while others went north (to modern Mongolia) and remained relatively "pure." Probably SOME modern Mongols' families originated from Lake Baikal (before the time of Genghis Khan), when to China, and then back to modern Mongolia. – Tom Au Feb 20 at 13:29

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