Silverberg, Robert. "A Sleep and a Forgetting"
Divergence: 1178 CE
What if: Genghis Khan was abducted at age 11, and after being sold into slavery became a prince's guard in Constantinople.
Summary: Modern scientists in our timeline somehow communicate with a palace guard in old Constantinople, and one reminds him of sense of destiny.
Published: In Playboy, July 1989; What Might Have Been? Volume 2: Alternate Heroes (eds. Gregory Benford and Martin H. Greenberg), q.v.; The 1990 Annual World's Best SF (eds. Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha), DAW 1990 (0886774241); The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg: Volume I, Secret Sharers, Bantam 1992 (055308996X, 0553370685); and The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg: Volume II, The Secret Sharer, Grafton 1993 (0586213708).
Original in: English.
Translation: French by Hélègne Collon as "Le Sommeil et l'oubli", in Le nez de Cléopâtre, q.v.
Translation: German by Denis Scheck as "Ein Schlaf und ein Vergessen", in Mondaugen (ed. Wolfgang Jeschke), Heyne 1990 (3453039149).
Translation: German by Michael Kubiak as "Ein Schlaf und ein Vergessen", in World's best SF 9 (eds. Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha), Bastei-Lübbe 1990 (3404241320).