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East Asia · Fragmentation, Song and the conquest dynasties

Qara Khitai

1124–1218

The Qara Khitai (1124–1218) was founded in Central Asia by Yelü Dashi, a Liao prince who fled west after the Jurchen conquest, capital Balasagun. Ruling a diverse, largely Muslim population with religious tolerance, it defeated the Seljuks at the Battle of Qatwan (1141).

Existed
1124–1218
Shown on the map
1126–1219
Peak area
2.5M km²
Region
East Asia

Overview

The Qara Khitai (1124–1218) was founded in Central Asia by Yelü Dashi, a Liao prince who fled west after the Jurchen conquest, capital Balasagun. Ruling a diverse, largely Muslim population with religious tolerance, it defeated the Seljuks at the Battle of Qatwan (1141). It was usurped by the Naiman prince Kuchlug and conquered by the Mongols in 1218.

Common questions

What was Qara Khitai?
The Qara Khitai (1124–1218) was founded in Central Asia by Yelü Dashi, a Liao prince who fled west after the Jurchen conquest, capital Balasagun. Ruling a diverse, largely Muslim population with religious tolerance, it defeated the Seljuks at the Battle of Qatwan (1141).
When did Qara Khitai exist?
Qara Khitai existed 1124–1218. On this map it is drawn 1126–1219.
How large was Qara Khitai?
At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Qara Khitai covered about 2.5 million km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.

Sources

This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia article for each polity as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by Encyclopaedia Britannica, chinaknowledge.de, the World History Encyclopedia, museum and university sources, and the academic works it lists. The article this entry is anchored on:

This entry was last updated .

This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made

Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.

Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).

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