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Western Liao (Qara Khitai)

Type Object Region Asia Time 1124–1218

Western Liao, called Qara Khitai in Persian and Muslim sources, was a Khitan polity founded by Yelü Dashi after the fall of the Liao dynasty when he …

Timeline

  1. 1124–1132Emil · DzungariaOn the eve of Liao's fall, Yelü Dashi led his followers west, proclaimed himself king in 1124, and gathered Khitans, Han troops, and local peoples. Around 1131–1132 he took the title Gurkhan in the Emil region, completing the transition from Liao remnants to an independent Central Asian polity.
  2. c. 1134–1141Balasagun · ZhetysuAt the invitation of the Eastern Qarakhanids, Dashi entered Zhetysu, made Balasagun his capital, and collected tribute from the Uyghurs of the Western Regions and the Qarakhanid tribes without fully overhauling their internal affairs. In the 1141 Battle of the Khatwan steppe he decisively defeated Seljuk Sultan Sanjar, and Western Liao became the supreme suzerain of Transoxiana and the northern Tianshan route.
  3. c. 1143–1218Balasagun · ZhetysuAfter Dashi's death, Western Liao continued to govern its multi-ethnic territories through Khitan imperial clansmen and Chinese-style official titles, and was relatively tolerant of Buddhism, Islam, and Nestorian Christianity. In the early 13th century Kuchlug of the Naimans seized the throne, and the polity was destroyed by the Mongols in 1218.

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