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The Khitan seal dated 1197 upended the story Western scholars told
A Khitan bronze seal dated 1197 surfaces on the Ustyurt Plateau - how did a refugee-led Qara Khitai empire hold together across Central Asia?
The Khitan seal dated 1197 upended the story Western scholars told
In this episode, we follow the discovery of a bronze Khitan seal and trace how a displaced Khitan leader built a trans-Central Asian state from a single garrison and twenty thousand soldiers. What explains Yelü Dashi’s rapid creation and governance of the Qara Khitai, and what does the seal reveal about power at the edge of the known world?
Person: Yelü Dashi
Date: 1197 (seal); 1123-1137…
The skinny
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