Did Genghis Khan Have Red Hair and Green Eyes?

Tracing the historical origins of a popular internet rumor

A few months ago, when I wrote about what the first blue-eyed person looked like, some of you asked if Genghis Khan had red hair and green eyes. Though it sounds absurd, Genghis Khan’s appearance has sparked a huge debate on social media.

In my Telegram group, I received the following image, which claimed Genghis Khan was Anglo-Saxon because of his reported red hair and green eyes.

We can dismiss the poorly photoshopped picture as an internet hoax. But claims about Genghis Khan’s appearance aren’t new. In 1899, scholar Carlos C. Closson likened Genghis Khan’s features to that of a Norman. Why did Closson say so? Was there a hidden agenda, or did he come across historical sources talking about how the Great Khan looked?

We’ll review Closson’s comments and the shoddy research behind them. But first, let’s find out the origins of Genghis Khan’s rumored red hair and green eyes.

Genghis Khan’s red hair: Lost in translation

Before diving into the textual references to Genghis’ appearance, keep in mind red hair isn’t unusual among people of Inner Asia. Some Kyrgyz, Mongolians, and Kazakhs are born with natural red hair.

Chinese records from the 10th century mention the Yenisei Kyrgyz, a Turkic tribe living along the Yenisei River in Northern Mongolia and Siberia, as having red hair and green eyes.

But does this suggest Genghis Khan had red hair and green eyes? Is there any proof of his hair and eye color?

Those who promote the idea of Genghis Khan as a Caucasian man with red hair and green eyes cite the 13th-century historian Rashid-al-din Hamdani, a vizier of the Ilkhante. The Ilkhante was the Mongol realm based in parts of present-day Iran, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

Hamdani was born twenty years after the death of Genghis. He never met the conqueror. Hamdani’s source of information was Bolod Chingsang, an official from Kublai Khan’s court to the Ilkhanate. Kublai was Genghis’ grandson and was twelve when the Great Khan died.

Did Hamdani describe Genghis Khan based on the memory of his twelve-year-old grandson?

Not exactly.

Let’s look at what Hamdani actually said about Genghis. When Kublai was born, Genghis met his newborn grandson and commented:

“all our children are of a ruddy complexion, but this child is swarthy like his maternal uncles. Tell Sorqoqtani Beki to give him to a good nurse to be reared.”

Hamdani discusses the complexions of Kublai and Genghis. Kublai is said to have dark skin, similar to his mother Sorghaghtani’s family. In contrast, Genghis and his sons are referred to as “ruddy”, meaning reddish. Anyone exposed to chilly steppe winds is likely to have a reddish complexion. The Eurasian Steppes are still home to “ruddy” looking people.

The most important thing to remember about Hamdani’s commentary is that he was referring to the skin tones, not hair colors, of Genghis and Kublai.

Why did the red hair confusion arise?

Hamadani, in his work Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh (Compendium of Chronicles) says Genghis Khan used to style his mustache with wax from the red “ubchir” fruit. Perhaps the wax could’ve given his mustache a red hue.

The Persian historian also says Genghis’ forelock turned white when he was young. Hamdani provides only these two brief descriptions of the Khan’s hair. It’s possible that several unrelated details were jumbled and twisted on purpose to fit a narrative.

Why?

We’ll see in a later section.

But first, let’s tackle the rumor about the Great Khan’s eyes.

Cat eyes or green eyes?

The earliest reference to Genghis Khan’s eyes comes from historian Juzjani, who lived in the Delhi Sultanate in the 1250s. In his work Tabaqat-i Nasiri, Juzjani describes Genghis Khan as:

Trustworthy persons have related that the Chingiz Khan, at the time when he came into Khurasan, was sixty-five years old, a man of tall stature, of vigorous build, robust in body, the hair on his face scanty and turned white, with cats’ eyes, possessed of great energy, discernment, genius, and understanding, awe-striking, a butcher, just, resolute, an overthrower of enemies, intrepid, sanguinary, and cruel.

Note that this is a second-hand account; Juzjani never met Genghis Khan. He describes Genghis as having “cat eyes.” Some interpret this as Genghis having green eyes. Juzjani calls Turks and Mongols “narrow-eyed” people in his later works, a reference to the epicanthic fold that many Asians have in their eyes. Most scholars of Mongol history believe the term “cat-eye” refers to the shape of the eyes rather than their color.

I don’t think cats only have green eyes, even if we take the phrase “cat eyes” literally.

What did Rashid-al-din Hamdani have to say about Genghis Khan’s eyes? He describes the lineage of Genghis, the Borjigin clan, as:

Borjiqin means having gray eyes, and as it happens the sons who were born to Yesügäi Bahadur and to his sons and offspring down to the present mostly have gray eyes and are of a yellowish color. This is attributed to the fact that when Alan Qo’a was pregnant she said, “A light like a person comes before my eyes at night and then goes away. It is of a yellow color in form and has gray eyes.” When this trait re-emerged in the eighth generation, which was Yesügäi Bahadur (Genghis Khan’s father), they said it was the sign Alan Qo’a had spoken of, that her sons would be rulers, and it indicated the truth of her words and that it was imminent.

The Borjigin clan believed it descended from the legendary blue-gray wolf, Börte Chino, who mated with a red doe, Gua Maral, starting the lineage. According to the Secret History of the Mongols, Alan Gua was a mythical widow of the Borjigin clan, who was impregnated by a ray of light from heaven as a “yellow man.” She was blessed with sons who started famous Mongol families, including Genghis Khan’s. Hamdani connected the eye color of Genghis and his ancestors with this immaculate conception event.

The Persian historian says Genghis Khan’s clan, Borjigin, was “yellow-eyed.” But he also remarks that Borjigin means dark-eyed or grey-eyed or yellowish-grey-eyed. There was confusion in the scholar’s mind about the true meaning of Borjigin.

Hamdani’s description of Borjigin isn’t accepted by modern researchers of Mongol history. A better translation of Borjigin could be Bort Tigin (meaning “wolf prince” in Turkic) or Borjin (meaning “wild duck” in Mongolian). I find the “wolf-prince” theory most plausible because of the connection of Genghis’ ancestors to the legendary blue-gray wolf and the reverence of the animal in Mongol society.

Some have connected Hamdani’s confused understanding of Borjigin with the “cat-eye” reference by Juzjani to conclude Genghis Khan had green eyes. But neither historian said anything about the Great Khan’s eyes being green.

So why does this rumor persist?

Why bother about Genghis Khan’s appearance?

The myth of Genghis Khan having a European appearance stems from a time when racial science was at its peak. We discussed Closson’s claims about Genghis resembling a Norman in the introduction. Here’s what he says:

The great Genghis Khan, and Tamerlane were of the race Europeans and contemporary portraits describe them with the traits of the Germans and Scandinavians. Rubruquis compares Genghis Khan to a Norman gentleman, Jean de Beaumont.

There are various issues with this fictitious story of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, though we’ll concentrate on the Great Khan. William of Rubruck (Rubruquis), a Franciscan friar, visited the Mongol capital over two decades after Genghis died. Rubruck never saw Genghis, but he met his grandsons, Batu Khan and Mongke Khan. He compared Batu’s height to that of a Norman, not his hair color, skin tone, or eye color. There are no contemporary portraits of Genghis Khan. But the paintings of the conqueror commissioned by his successors after his death don’t show him with Northern European characteristics, as Closson asserts. Genghis Khan had a typical Mongolian look.

So, why are medieval accounts misinterpreted? Those who do so have a nefarious motive for promoting racial superiority. Unsurprisingly, these allegations are popular on social media in alt-history circles.

A group of Chinese historians who see Genghis Khan as a Chinese person and the Mongol conquest of China as a unifying event share similar sentiments. There are some Russian scholars who say that Genghis and his family were Slavic.

Nationalist historiography views foreign conquests as a fight between two similar peoples. It’s inconceivable that someone different could’ve triumphed. What better way to deny credit to an uneducated man from the Mongolian plains who built the world’s largest land empire than arguing, “Well, he did so because he was one of us?”

You’ll seldom find such arguments extended to conquerors like Alexander or Julius Caesar. Their appearance is never up for debate.

Key Takeaways: What did Genghis Khan look like?

Could Genghis Khan have had red hair in his youth? Because there are no surviving records of the great conqueror’s appearance before he was well into his early sixties, the only way to know is if we find his body.

Given his secret burial, this may remain an unsolved mystery. Based on the descriptions we have, it’s unlikely he ever had green eyes or red hair.

So, how did Genghis Khan look? Yes, you guessed it: the most popular portrait of Genghis commissioned by his grandson Kublai is also the most accurate.

Here’s what you need to remember next time you come across this rumor.

• Red hair and green eyes are not exclusive to Caucasians, people of Inner Asia have naturally occurring red hair and green eyes.
• The legend of Genghis Khan’s hair color stems from a misunderstanding of Rashid-al-Din Hamdani’s description of the great Khan’s complexion color as “ruddy,” or red when compared to his grandson Kublai’s darker skin.
• Juzjani describes Genghis Khan as cat-eyed and Hamdani says Genghis’ lineage, the Borjigin clan, was yellow or gray-eyed. Some have mixed up the two commentaries to promote the idea that the Great Khan was green-eyed.
• The purpose behind promoting the Caucasian appearance of Genghis Khan lies in 19th-century race science and ideas of racial supremacy. The goal is to rule out the possibility that a so-called barbarian people could have the knowledge required to conquer sophisticated civilizations.

Rumors about Genghis Khan are not limited to his appearance. Earlier, I had tackled another popular misconception of him being a “green conqueror” and reducing human emissions, triggering a mini-Ice Age. If you’d like to know more, check out the following story.

If you liked this story please clap, highlight, and leave your feedback in the comments. Subscribe to my posts and never miss an update.

References

• H. J. Raverty (1881–99) translation Ṭabaḳāt-i-Nāṣirī: A General History of the Muhammadan Dynasties of Asia, including Hindustan; from A.H. 194 (810 A.D.) to A.H. 658 (1260 A.D.) and the Irruption of the Infidel Mughals into Islam, 2 vols., London.
• Closson, Carlos C. (1899), The Races of Europe, Journal of Political Economy.
• Boyle, John Andrew (1971).Rashīd al-Dīn. The Successors of Genghis Khan.
• Jackson, Peter and Morgan, David (1990), The Mission of Friar William of Rubruck: His Journey to the Court of the Great Khan Möngke, 1253–1255.
• Rachewiltz, Igor de (2004), The Secret History of the Mongols.
• Lung, Rachel (2011). Interpreters in Early Imperial China. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
• Wilson, Jack (2023), Medievalists, Did Chinggis Khan have red hair and green eyes?