A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

82 A history of Inner Asia
for that of the Kyrgyz.The Khitan too showed only marginal interest in
Mongolia, although they maintained some degree of sovereignty over
the area even after they had conquered northern China by 965 and
established their own rule there under the dynastic name of Liao.That
sovereignty ended with the destruction of Liao rule by new invaders
from the northeast, the Jürchen of Manchuria, in 1124 and the establishment
of their own rule in northern China under the dynastic name
of Chin.Unlike the Liao, the Chin paid no attention to Mongolia, and
from then on until the rise of Genghis Khan toward the end of the
twelfth century, there was a shifting mosaic of tribal movements, alliances,
and conflicts.The people still consisted of various Turkic tribes –
whose presence, after the emigration of the Uighurs and the withdrawal
of the Kyrgyz, indicates the fluidity of nomadic habitat in the Inner Asia
of the period – but also to an increasing degree of Mongols.The two
groups – Turks and Mongols – shared the common lifestyle of pastoral
nomads; the literary and religious culture of the Kök Turks and Uighurs
was forgotten, and shamanism dominated their successors’ spiritual
outlook, despite minor though tenacious inroads of Nestorian
Christianity and Buddhism.