Mongolian Khaganates
The Kara Khitai, known in Chinese as the Western Liao, were the Khitans who refused to submit to the Jurchen Jin after the fall of the Liao. In 1124 the Liao prince Yelü Dashi led his followers west; by 1132 he had taken the title gurkhan, 'universal khan', and in 1134 he made Balasagun his capital. His victory over the Seljuk sultan Sanjar at Qatwan in 1141 made the Karakhanids, Khwarazm, the Uyghurs of Qocho and the Karluks his vassals. The gurkhans ruled directly only the lands around Balasagun; elsewhere they left local rulers in place in return for tribute, governing in the Chinese manner with reign names and in the steppe manner as khans. Two empresses ruled as regents. In 1211 the Naiman prince Kuchlug seized power, and in 1218 the Mongols under Jebe took the empire. A Kara Khitai officer, Buraq Hajib, founded the Qutlugh-Khanid dynasty, which ruled Kirman in Iran under the Mongols.
6 Rulers
The Kara Khitai rulers from Yelü Dashi to Kuchlug. The gurkhan title was held by Yelü Dashi, Yelü Yilie and Yelü Zhilugu; Xiao Tabuyan and Yelü Pusuwan ruled as regents with their own reign names, and Muslim writers treated them as sovereigns. Kuchlug, a Naiman, ruled in the name of the dynasty after 1211.
Liao prince who refused to submit to the Jin, led his followers west and founded the Kara Khitai; took the title gurkhan, captured Balasagun in 1134 and crushed the Seljuk sultan Sanjar at Qatwan in 1141.
Read the profileWidow of Yelü Dashi who ruled for her son as Empress Gantian; she had the envoy of the Jin, who demanded her submission, put to death in 1146.
Read the profileSon of Yelü Dashi; ordered a census of the directly ruled lands, which counted 84,500 households, and kept the Karakhanids and the Karluks in check.
Read the profileDaughter of Yelü Dashi who ruled for her nephew as Empress Dowager Chengtian; made Tekish shah of Khwarazm in 1172, and was killed in 1177 by her father-in-law over an affair.
Read the profileLast Khitan gurkhan; ruled for three decades as Khwarazm grew stronger, lost Transoxiana to the Khwarazmshah Muhammad in 1210, and was overthrown by his son-in-law Kuchlug in 1211.
Read the profileNaiman prince who fled Genghis Khan, married the gurkhan's daughter and seized the Kara Khitai throne in 1211; his persecution of Muslims turned his subjects against him, and Jebe's Mongols hunted him down in 1218.
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