A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

Seljukids and Ghaznavids 99
was, however, more serious; and with the benefit of hindsight, we can
add that it portended a terrible calamity.
The conquerors who invaded Transoxania and defeated Sanjar were
the Qarakhitay, descendants of the aforementioneed Khitan who had
two centuries earlier invaded northern China and, adopting the dynastic
name of Liao, founded their own state there.By 1125, however, that
scenario was replayed when another invader from the northeast, the
Tungus Jürchen, drove out the Khitan and ruled northern China under
the dynastic name of Chin.A substantial number of the Khitan
migrated westward, approximately following the northern Silk Road,
and gained strength to the point of defeating an eastern Qarakhanid
khan in Sinkiang a mere three years after their ouster from China.It was
then the turn of the western Qarakhanids and of their suzerain, Sanjar.
The sultan and his vassals met them on the Qatvan steppe, a short distance
to the northeast of Samarkand, in 1141.The Khitan soundly beat
them, and Sanjar barely escaped.
To Islamic historians, these western Khitan (who probably spoke a
Mongol language) came to be known as Qarakhitay, and they were as
much a puzzle to them as they are to modern historians.The
Qarakhitay allowed some of the Qarakhanids to continue their rule as
vassals, and themselves lived in Semireche with their headquarters,
remembered by the Turco-Mongol name of Ordubaliq, near
Balasaghun.The Uighur idiqut of Turfan too acknowledged their suzerainty,
as did the Qarluq rulers of Almaliq and Qayaliq.The Khitan
were partially Sinicized by the time the Jürchen drove them out of
China, and they retained that veneer throughout their second incarnation:
the sources mention only the Chinese form of their names, and
their coins have Chinese legends; and despite their relatively long rule of
eighty years in a mostly Muslim territory, they never converted to Islam.
Living under infidel rule is anathema to Muslims, yet Muslim historians
grudgingly concede that the Qarakhitay were surprisingly fair-minded
and tolerant rulers.
With the benefit of hindsight, however, we can say that there was
something sinister about the manner in which the Qarakhitay defeated
Sanjar and his allies in 1141.The newcomers had despite their Chinese
veneer remained essentially steppe nomads, and they overcame the
larger host of a Turkic monarch who had in contrast become more
accultured to the ways of Near Eastern sedentaries and their manner
of fighting.Greater mobility, together with superior maneuvering of
cavalry and archers, carried the day for the Qarakhitay.The same