Free meal for Genghis Khan kin

LONDON – A London restaurant is offering diners the chance to learn whether they are descended from the rampaging Mongol ruler Genghis Khan – and win a free meal if they are.

The promotion by the restaurant Shish has proved surprisingly popular, exemplifying how Genghis Khan, once reviled in the West as a tyrant, has gained new respect in his own country and among academics.

“We’ve had Mongolian people who’ve traveled across London to give us their details,” said Hugo Malik, bar manager of Shish, which is giving away one DNA test at each of its two London branches every day through Friday.

“They said, ‘Grandad always used to tell us we were descended from Genghis Khan.’ “

Granddad may have been right. Oxford Ancestors, the firm doing the testing, says as many as 17 million men in Central Asia share a pattern of Y chromosomes within their genetic sequences, indicating a common ancestor.

Since Genghis Khan conquered vast tracts of Asia and Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries and sired many offspring, it was assumed that the men share his genetic fingerprint.

“He was an all-conquering tribal leader,” said David Ashworth, a geneticist and chief executive of Oxford Ancestors. “He took their cities, he took their land, he took their women.”

Because there are no known tissue samples from Genghis Khan, the genetic tests are based on an assessment of probabilities.