Qara Khitai: A Visual History

The Qara Khitai, or Western Liao, was founded by Yelu Dashi, a Liao prince who fled west after the Jurchen destroyed his dynasty in 1125. From Balasagun in the Chu valley he defeated the Karakhanids and, in 1141, the Seljuk sultan Sanjar at Qatwan, making Transoxiana, Khwarazm and the Tarim Basin his tributaries. His descendants ruled a tolerant, Chinese-styled state over a Muslim population for 80 years, until the Naiman fugitive Kuchlug usurped the throne in 1211 and Genghis Khan's general Jebe swept it away in 1218.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Qara Khitai (Western Liao). The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Qara Khitai territory

Timeline of the Qara Khitai (Western Liao)

1. 1124
   Yelu Dashi breaks with the Liao
2. 1134
   Balasagun taken; title gurkhan
3. 1141
   Battle of Qatwan
4. 1143
   Yelu Dashi dies
5. 1210
   Khwarazm breaks away
6. 1211
   Kuchlug usurps the throne
7. 1218
   Mongols conquer Qara Khitai

Yelu Dashi's trek

Dashi, a Liao imperial clansman and jinshi degree holder, broke with the last Liao emperor and led a small band north and west through the Uyghur lands of Turfan, gathering Khitan and other followers. Invited to settle at Balasagun by its weak Karakhanid ruler, he took the city and the title gurkhan (universal khan) around 1134.

Qatwan and empire

In September 1141 Dashi's army destroyed the Seljuk-Karakhanid host of Sultan Sanjar on the Qatwan steppe near Samarkand, one of the great battles of the age; the news, garbled, may have fed the European legend of Prester John, a Christian king in the East. Khwarazm and the Karakhanids became tributary. The gurkhans ruled lightly through local dynasties, kept a Chinese-style administration and reign titles, and tolerated Islam, Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity and Manichaeism.

Kuchlug and the Mongols

The Khwarazmshah Muhammad threw off Qara Khitai overlordship around 1210. Kuchlug, a Naiman prince fleeing Genghis Khan, married the gurkhan's daughter, then seized power in 1211 and, having converted to Buddhism, persecuted the Muslims of Kashgar and Khotan. Jebe's Mongol army arrived in 1218 as liberators; Kuchlug was hunted down and beheaded, and the Qara Khitai lands became the western gateway for the Mongol invasion of Khwarazm.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Liao dynasty (916 to 1125)
• Jin dynasty (1115-1234) (1115 to 1234)
• Great Seljuk Empire (1037 to 1194)
• Khwarazmian Empire (1077 to 1231)
• Mongol Empire (1206 to 1368)
• Ghurid dynasty (1148 to 1215)

Wars of the same era and region

• Mongol invasions and conquests (1206 to 1368)

8 surprising things about the Qara Khitai (Western Liao)

1. The Qara Khitai were the only Chinese-style dynasty to rule a Muslim population; the Muslim world called them 'Khitay' and their state 'Chin'.
2. News of Qatwan reaching Europe in 1145 is a likely origin of the Prester John legend.
3. The gurkhans issued Chinese-style coins and reign titles, and Yelu Dashi's widow and daughter both ruled as regents.
4. The Qara Khitai are the reason Russians call China Kitai and English once said Cathay: the Khitans had spread the name across Asia.
5. Kuchlug forced Muslims to convert to Buddhism or Christianity and crucified the imam of Khotan on his own madrasa door.
6. Jebe proclaimed religious freedom on entering Kashgar and was welcomed as a deliverer.
7. The Qara Khitai kept a Khitan script and Chinese classical learning 3,000 km west of China for a century.
8. A Qara Khitai officer, Buraq Hajib, later founded the Qutlugh-Khanid dynasty of Kerman in Iran.

Sources

• Qara Khitai Wikipedia
• Karakitai Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Yelu Dashi Wikipedia
• Michal Biran, The Empire of the Qara Khitai in Eurasian History (2005) Cambridge University Press

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