Qara Khitai establish Western Liao

1122

Yelu Dashi, a Khitan prince fleeing the collapse of the Liao dynasty in Manchuria, reached Central Asia with a few thousand horsemen and began building a new state that incorporated Turks, Chinese, and Mongols. Its Buddhist rulers would dominate the Silk Road for almost a century, governing a realm that stretched from the Aral Sea to the borders of the Song with a tolerance that made them anomalous among the steppe empires.