Qara Khitai

The Qara Khitai or Kara Khitai, officially the Great Liao, also known as the Western Liao, was a dynastic state based in Central Asia, ruled by the Yelü clan of the Khitan people, a SinicizedPara-Mongolic people from modern day eastern Mongolia and Northeast China. The Khitans had ruled the Liao dynasty (907–1125), covering much of Northeast Asia, until they were defeated by the Jurchens. A group of displaced Khitans led by Yelü Dashi fled to Central Asia and continued to rule as a continuation of the Liao dynasty. The state developed into a multicultural empire synthesizing Khitan and Liao traditions with Chinese administrative forms while governing a predominantly Turkic and Iranian population.

The territories of the Qara Khitai corresponded to parts of modern-day China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The Anushtegin dynasty, the Karluks, Qocho kingdom, the Kankalis, and the Kara-Khanid Khanate were vassal states of the Qara Khitai at some point in history. Chinese and Muslim historiographical sources, such as the History of Liao, considered the Qara Khitai to be a legitimate Chinese dynasty.

The empire was usurped by the Naiman prince Kuchlug in 1211. Traditional Chinese, Persian and Arabic sources generally treat this usurpation as the end of the Khitan dynasty, although the state itself survived until the Mongol conquest of the Qara Khitai in 1218. Some western Khitan remnants later established the Qutlugh-Khanid dynasty in southern Iran.