The Stele of Genghis Khan ( mn, Чингисийн чулууны бичиг, ), also known as the Stele of Yisüngge, is a granite

stele A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...

inscribed with a dedication to Yisüngge, nephew of

Genghis Khan ''Chinggis Khaan'' ͡ʃʰiŋɡɪs xaːŋbr />Mongol script: ''Chinggis Qa(gh)an/ Chinggis Khagan'' , birth_name = Temüjin , successor = Tolui (as regent)Ögedei Khan , spouse = , issue = , house = Borjigin , ...

, for performing a feat of archery during a gathering of noyans after the Mongol conquest of the Khwarazmian Empire, dated to c. 1224–1225. It was discovered in 1802, close to the remains of Khirkhira, a 13th-century settlement in Transbaikal that served as the center of the territories of Qasar and his descendants. Since 1936 it has kept at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is important for containing the first known inscription in Mongolian Script.

History

According to the inscription, the stele commemorates an event that occurred in the settlement of Buqa Sočiγai, whose location is unknown. It was found, however, near Khirkhira in the Transbaikal region, which according to the

Jami' al-tawarikh The ''Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh'' (Persian/Arabic: , ) is a work of literature and history, produced in the Mongol Ilkhanate. Written by Rashid al-Din Hamadani (1247–1318 AD) at the start of the 14th century, the breadth of coverage of the work h ...

, was part of the

Ulus Ulus may refer to: Places *Ulus, Bartın, a district in Bartin Province, Turkey *Ulus, Ankara, an important quarter in central Ankara, Turkey **Ulus (Ankara Metro), an underground station of the Ankara Metro Other uses * ''Ulus'' (newspaper), a d ...

of Qasar.

Rediscovery

The first message about a stone with an inscription carved with "oriental inscriptions" was left by Russian historian and explorer Grigory Spassky in the journal ''Sibirskii Vestnik'' (Siberian Bulletin) in 1818. Later it turned out that the stone was discovered in 1802, not far from the remains of a settlement known as Khirkhira. Khirkhira was located on a low terrace above the flood-plain, close to the mouth of the Khirkhira River, which, through the Urulyunguy River, was a tributary of the Argun River. Local interpreters were able to read the initial two words of the inscription, "Genghis Khan", which led to it being named the "Stele of Genghis Khan". The stele was for a time kept in the "Natural History" room at the mining school of

Nerchinsky Zavod Nerchinsky Zavod (russian: Не́рчинский Заво́д) is a rural locality (a '' selo'') and the administrative center of Nerchinsko-Zavodsky District of Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia, located near the Sino-Russian border. As of the 2010 ...

. Between 1829 and 1832, along with a load of gold, it was transported to Saint Petersburg, during which period it was accidentally broken in the middle. Once in Saint Petersburg, it was first transferred to the Ministry of Finance and then to the Academy of Sciences and embedded in the wall in the entrance hall of the Asiatic Museum. In 1936, it was transferred to the Hermitage, to this day occupying a central place in the permanent exhibition of the Mongolian Art Hall in the third floor of the museum.

Copies

Copies of the stele exist in various museums, including the National Museum of Mongolia in Mongolia and the

Inner Mongolia Museum The Inner Mongolia Museum () is a regional museum in the city of Hohhot in Inner Mongolia, in north China. History and location In 2007, a newer and 10 times bigger modern museum was constructed about 5 kilometers to the east, located at the int ...

in Inner Mongolia. A volumetric model of the stele was created in 2017 by the Hermitage's Laboratory for Science Restoration of Precious Metals, so that an exact polymer replica could be grown layer-by-layer. The replica was presented to Mongolia in 2019 to be placed in the under-construction

Genghis Khan Museum ''Chinggis Khaan'' ͡ʃʰiŋɡɪs xaːŋbr />Mongol script: ''Chinggis Qa(gh)an/ Chinggis Khagan'' , birth_name = Temüjin , successor = Tolui (as regent)Ögedei Khan , spouse = , issue = , house = Borjigin , ...

in Ulaanbaatar.

Inscription

The text of the stele consists of 5 lines - the first line, containing the name

is elevated as a sign of respect, as is the fourth line that contains the name of his nephew Yisüngge (but lower than the first). The scribe's writing style is also uncommon, as they write a few distinct letters with the same forms, such as ᠭ(γ) and ᠬ(q), making the stele somewhat difficult to read. According to Igor de Rachewiltz (2010), the inscription reads (with letters in parentheses being unclear):

As the ''ald'' is a unit of measure equal to the length between someone's outstretched arms, approximating 160 cm = one ald results in 335 ald being equal to ~536 m.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{Cite book, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DuCRAgAAQBAJ, title=The Mongolic Languages, last=Janhunen, first=Juha, date=2006-01-27, publisher=Routledge, isbn=978-1-135-79690-7, language=en{{Rp, 38–39 {{cite web, url=http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_Ru/08/hm89_0_2_123.html, title=Зал искусства Монголии, accessdate=2009-01-20, archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090408150657/http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_Ru/08/hm89_0_2_123.html, archivedate=2009-04-08 {{cite web , url=https://tass.ru/kultura/7281689 , title=Эрмитаж подарил Монголии копию Чингисова камня - Культура - ТАСС , format= , work= , accessdate=2021-12-05 , date=2019-12-06 {{cite web , url=https://mongoltoli.mn/history/h/477 , title=Чингисийн чулууны бичиг , format= , work= , accessdate=2021-12-05 {{cite web , url=https://www.atarn.org/mongolian/mongol_1.htm , title=WHAT IS THE SCRIPT ON THE CHINGGIS KHAN'S STELE ABOUT? A monument to top athletic performance? A Monument to the Uigarjin Mongolian script? , website=ATARN Home Page , work= , accessdate=2021-12-05 , date=2019-12-06 , author=Dr Gongor LHAGVASUREN {{cite web , url=http://ez.chita.ru/encycl/concepts/?id=4974 , title=Чингисов камень , website=Энциклопедия Забайкалья , format= , work= , accessdate=2021-12-05 , author= {{cite book , author=Rachewiltz , title=Introduction to Altaic philology : Turkic, Mongolian, Manchu , publisher=Brill , publication-place=Leiden Boston , year=2010 , isbn=978-90-04-18889-1 , oclc=707926722 {{cite journal , last1 = Kradin , first1= N.N. , last2 = , first2 = , date = , title = WHO WAS THE BUILDER OF MONGOL TOWNS IN TRANSBAIKALIA?* , url = https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326077318_Who_Was_the_Builder_of_Mongol_Towns_in_Transbaikalia , journal = ЗОЛОТООРДЫНСКОЕ ОБОЗРЕНИЕ / GOLDEN HORDE REVIEW , volume = , issue = , pages = , doi = 10.22378/2313-6197.2018-6-2.224-237 , access-date = 2021-12-05 , doi-access= free 13th-century inscriptions Steles Monuments and memorials in Russia Collection of the Hermitage Museum History of the Mongolian language Mongolia–Russia relations mn:Чингисийн чулууны бичиг Mongolian inscriptions