Kara-Khanid Khanate - Kara-Khitan Invasion

Kara-Khitan Invasion

The Khitans were a Mongolian people of the Liao Dynasty who moved west from Northern China when the Jurchens invaded in 1125 and destroyed the Liao Dynasty. They were led by Yelu Dashi who also recruited warriors from various tribes and moved westward. Yelu occupied Balasagun on the Chu River, then defeated the Western Karakhanids in Khujand in 1137. In 1141 Kara-Khitan Khanate became the dominant force in the region after they defeated Sultan Sanjar, the last Great Seljukid, at the Battle of Qatwan near Samarkand. Several military commanders of Karakhanid lineages such as the father of Osman of Khwarezm, escaped from Karakhanid lands during the Kara-Khitan invasion.

The Kara-Khitan Khanate, however, did not destroy the Karakhanid dynasty. Instead, the Khitans stayed at Semirech'e with their headquarter near Balasaghun, and allowed some of the Karakhanids to rule as vassals in Samarkand and Kashgar, with the Karakhanids acting as their tax-collectors and administrators on Muslim sedentary populations (the same practice was adopted by the Golden Horde on the Russian Steppes). The Kara-Khitans were Buddhists and shamanists ruling over a largely Muslim Karakhanids, although they were considered fair-minded rulers whose reign was marked by religious tolerance. Islamic religious life continued uninterrupted and Islamic authority preserved, while Kashgar was a Nestorian metropolitan see and Christian gravestones in the Chu valley appeared beginning this period. However, Kuchlug, a Naiman who usurped the throne of the Kara-Khitan Dynasty, instituted anti-Muslim policies on the local populations under his rule.