Chingisid

A Borjigin, ; ; russian: Борджигин, Bordžigin; English plural: Borjigins or Borjigid (from Middle Mongolian);''Histoire des campagnes de Gengis Khan'', p. 119. Manchu plural: is a member of the Mongol sub-clan, which started with Bodonchar Munkhag of the Kiyat clan. Yesugei's descendants were thus said to be Kiyat-Borjigin. The senior Borjigids provided ruling princes for Mongolia and Inner Mongolia until the 20th century.Humphrey & Sneath, p. 27. The clan formed the ruling class among the Mongols and some other peoples of Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Today, the Borjigid are found in most of Mongolia, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, and additionally genetic research has shown that descent from Genghis Khan and Amir Timur Barlas is common throughout Central Asia and other regions.

Origin and name

The patrilineage began with Blue-grey Wolf (Börte Chino) and Fallow Doe (Gua Maral). According to ''The Secret History of the Mongols'', their 11th generation descendant Dobu Mergen's widow Alan Gua the Fair was impregnated by a ray of light. Her youngest son became the ancestor of the later Borjigid. He was Bodonchar Munkhag, who along with his brothers sired the entire Mongol nation. According to Rashid-al-Din Hamadani, many of the older Mongolian clans were founded by members of the Borjigin — Barlas, Urud, Manghud, Taichiut, Chonos, Kiyat, etc. The first Khan of the Mongol was Bodonchar Munkhag's great-great-grandson Khaidu Khan. Khaidu's grandsons Khabul Khan and Ambaghai Khan (founder of the Taichiut clan) succeeded him. Thereafter, Khabul's sons, Hotula Khan and Yesugei, and Khabul's grandson Temujin (Genghis Khan, son of Yesugei) ruled the Khamag Mongol. By the unification of the Mongols in 1206, virtually all of Temujin's uncles and first cousins had died, and from then on only the descendants of Yesugei Baghatur, his brother Daritai, and nephew Onggur formed the Borjigid.

According to Paul Pelliot and Louis Hambis, Rashid al-Din Hamadani once explained that "''borčïqïn''" designated in the Turkic languages a man with dark-blue eyes ( ar, اشهل, translit=ašhal, label=none), and did so again without mentioning the said language, adding that Yesugei's children and the majority of their own children had had such eyes per coincidence, also recalling that the genie which had impregnated Alan Gua after her husband's death had had dark-blue eyes ("''ašhal čašm''"). Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur later paraphrased Hamadani by relating that Yesugei's eyes were dark-blue (" شهلا ''šahlā''"), that the Mongols ("''Moɣol''") called such eyes "''borǰïɣïn''" (بورجغن), that his sons and most of their descendants had dark-blue eyes ("''ašhal''"), and that one recognized thus in Yesugei's lineage the characteristic sign of the genie which had visited Alan Gua and had "''borǰïɣïn''" eyes, adding that the Arabs called "''ašhal''" a man whose iris ("''bübäčik''") was black, cornea white ("''aq''"), and whose limbal ring was red. This explanation was questioned by Paul Pelliot and Louis Hambis before. 14th century Arabic historian Shihab al-Umari disputed Rashid al-Din's translation and claimed Alan Gua falsified the origin of her clan to escape death sentence. Historians such as Denise Aigle claimed that Rashid al-Din mythicized the origin of Genghis Khan ancestors (the Borjigin clan) through his own interpretations of The Secret History of the Mongols. Italian historian Igor de Rachewiltz claimed that the Mongol origins of the early ancestors of Genghis Khan were animals born from the blue-grey wolf (Borte Chino) and the fallow doe (Qo'ai Maral) that was described in the early legends, that their ancestors were animals.

History

The Borjigin family ruled over the Mongol Empire from the 13th to 14th century. The rise of Genghis (Chingis) narrowed the scope of the Borjigid-Kiyad clans sharply.Atwood, p. 45. This separation was emphasized by the intermarriage of Genghis's descendants with the Barlas, Baarin, Manghud and other branches of the original Borjigid. In the western regions of the Empire, the Jurkin and perhaps other lineages near to Genghis's lineage used the clan name Kiyad but did not share in the privileges of the Genghisids. The Borjigit clan had once dominated large lands stretching from Java to Iran and from Indo-China to Novgorod. In 1335, with the disintegration of the Ilkhanate in Iran, the first of numerous non-Borjigid-Kiyad dynasties appeared. Established by marriage partners of Genghisids, these included the Suldus Chupanids, Jalayirids in the Middle East, the Barulas dynasties in Chagatai Khanate and India, the Manghud and Onggirat dynasties in the Golden Horde and Central Asia, and the Oirats in western Mongolia.

In 1368, during the reign of Toghun Temür (Emperor Huizong of Yuan), the Yuan dynasty was overthrown by the Ming dynasty but members of the family continued to rule over northern China and the Mongolian Plateau into the 17th century, known as the Northern Yuan dynasty. Descendants of Genghis Khan's brothers, Hasar and Belgutei, surrendered to the Ming in the 1380s. By 1470 the Borjigin lines were severely weakened, and the Mongolian Plateau was almost in chaos.

Post-Mongol Empire

After the breakup of the Golden Horde, the Khiyat continued to rule the Crimea and Kazan until the late 18th century. They were annexed by the Russian Empire and the Chinese. In Mongolia, the Kublaids reigned as Khagan of the Mongols, however, descendants of Ögedei and Ariq Böke usurped the throne briefly.

Under Dayan Khan (1480–1517) a broad Borjigid revival reestablished Borjigid supremacy among the Mongols proper. His descendants proliferated to become a new ruling class. The Borjigin clan was the strongest of the 49 Mongol banners from which the Bontoi clan proper supported and fought for their Khan and for their honor. The eastern Khorchins were under the Hasarids, and the Ongnigud, Abagha Mongols were under the Belguteids and Temüge Odchigenids. A fragment of the Hasarids deported to Western Mongolia became the Khoshuts.

The Qing dynasty respected the Borjigin family and the early emperors married the Hasarid Borjigids of the Khorchin. Even among the pro-Qing Mongols, traces of the alternative tradition survived. Aci Lomi, a banner general, wrote his ''History of the Borjigid Clan'' in 1732–35. The 18th century and 19th century Qing nobility was adorned by the descendants of the early Mongol adherents including the Borjigin.

Asian dynasties descended from Genghis Khan included 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. As a rule, the Genghisid descent played a crucial role in Tatar

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