The only Chinese official notice of the Qara Khitai, a few pages at the end of juan 30. It gives the gurkhans in order with their reign eras: Yelü Dashi, the regent empress Tabuyan, Yelü Yilie, the empress Pusuwan, and Yelü Zhilugu, who ruled in 1200 and whom the text carries to his deposition by Kuchlug in 1211 and the fall in 1218. It names Balasagun as the capital and lists the subject peoples, but it is thin, late and drawn from Khitan tradition filtered through the Yuan; Juvayni and Ibn al-Athir give more for the gurkhan's relations with Khwarazm, Samarkand and the Uyghurs.
About this source
- Title
- Liao shi (遼史), juan 30: the Western Liao (Qara Khitai)
- Author
- Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office
- Author's dates
- Toqto'a 1314 to 1356
- Written
- 1343 to 1344
- Language
- Chinese
- Covers
- 907 to 1125 for the Liao; the appendix in juan 30 follows the Western Liao from Yelü Dashi's flight in 1124 to the end of the state in 1218
- Kind
- History
Wittfogel and Feng, History of Chinese Society: Liao (1949), translate and discuss the Western Liao notice in English; not free online. The Liao shi's chronology for the Western Liao is a few years off in places and should be checked against the Muslim sources.
Where to read it
Editions
- Zhonghua Shuju punctuated edition, 5 vols (1974) (not freely online)
Translations
Read it online
About the source
Realms this source covers in 1200
- The Qara Khitai: the gurkhan's own lands
- The Uyghur kingdom of Qocho and Beshbaliq
- The oasis lordships of the Tarim, vassals of the Qara Khitai
- Kashgar: the Eastern Qarakhanids
- Samarkand: the Western Qarakhanids
- The Khwarazmshah's realm
- The Qarluq and the nomads of the Ili, the Zhetysu and Dzungaria
- The Jin empire of Zhangzong
- The Khitan and Xi under the Jin