Exiles #3: The Black Khitans

In recent years, a remote nation across the barbarian sea chose a leader who would guide it toward a cultural wasteland.

He is not the only one in history to do so, but Yelü Dashi, by contrast, had no choice.

The Khitans were a nomadic people, closely related in language and culture to the later Mongols, who grazed their herds on the vast grasslands north of the Gobi Desert. Since the dawn of history, the nomads of the Eurasian steppe were linked to the sedentary civilizations to their south. They had a particularly unique relationship with the rich Chinese culture, which they invaded, traded with, and occasionally established permanent rule over. In doing so, they would found a strictly "Chinese" dynasty and adopt the whole shebang (an academic term) of such a dynasty—complete with imperial symbols, civil service entrance exams, official histories, and the like.

This is precisely what happened to the Khitans, who, following an overly successful military campaign, established the Liao Dynasty (907–1125) in northern China, Mongolia, and Manchuria. As legitimate Chinese rulers in their own eyes, the Khitans promoted Chinese culture and excelled in art, architecture, and the development of Buddhism. At the same time, they maintained many of their traditional customs and were particularly noted for their treatment of women, who enjoyed a status largely equal to that of men; riding and hunting, managing the household economy, and premarital sex were all accepted practices.

As is the way of empires, the Khitan empire eventually declined due to internal and external shocks and was finally conquered by the Jurchens—a Manchurian people who were quick to found a Chinese dynasty of their own, the Jin. Final rearguard actions were fought until the Khitan royal house was nearly annihilated and defeat became certain. It was Yelü Dashi, an eighth-generation descendant of the dynasty's founder, who took it upon himself to lead the remnants of his people far west into the unknown. Accompanied by some ten thousand followers, Dashi crossed the vast steppe until he finally stood at the threshold of the Muslim world—specifically, on the border of the Kara-Khanid Khanate.

After his attempt to conquer Kashgar failed, Dashi managed—through stratagem and likely no small measure of luck—to seize control of the Kara-Khanid capital at Balasagun, in modern-day Kyrgyzstan. From there, he expanded his regional control toward the Tarim Basin.

The renewed Khitan empire, known in sources as the Western Liao or the Qara Khitai ("Black Khitans"), continued to expand gradually, eventually conquering the Fergana Valley, the cultural heart of Muslim Central Asia.

As a de facto Chinese dynasty, the Khitan royal house renewed its traditions in its new seat of power through Confucian court ceremonies, Chinese reign names, and a Chinese-style administration, all while being deeply rooted in the heart of Asia. It is possible that maintaining this cultural connection with China even facilitated their rule over Muslim peoples, due to the prestige China enjoyed among them, even as a non-Muslim civilization.

We do not know much about the internal dynamics and cultural ties that made up life within the Qara Khitai Empire, but the blend of a Chinese dynasty with Buddhist, Confucian, and Shamanistic elements ruling over and interacting with a Turkic-Iranian Muslim population must have been fascinating.

The Qara Khitai Empire thus represented the first instance of Muslim territory being conquered by non-Muslim peoples from the East, serving as a sort of dress rehearsal for the Great Mongol Empire that would replace it about a century after its founding.

Furthermore, the Western Liao was the only legitimate Chinese dynasty to rule entirely outside the borders of historical China, demonstrating great cultural flexibility—befitting a state with one foot dipped in Chinese culture and its refinements, and the other planted firmly in the harsh steppe.

*In the attached paintings, one can get an impression of the Khitans as depicted by contemporary artists. Note their characteristic large saddle blankets, their unique "tonsure" hairstyles, and their highly developed hunting culture.*