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The Rise and Fall of the Khitan Empire
Paperback
Central Asian HistoryChinese History
Publisher: Silverback Books
Published: Mar 30 2026
Pages: 802
Weight: 2.01
Height: 1.77 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
The Rise and Fall of the Khitan Empire
For two centuries, the Khitan people ruled one of the most sophisticated empires in medieval East Asia - yet their story remains one of history's most overlooked chapters. Rising from obscurity in the northeastern steppe after the collapse of the Tang dynasty, the Khitan under the visionary Yelü Abaoji founded the Liao dynasty in 916 CE and built an institutional masterpiece: the Dual Administration System, which governed nomadic and sedentary populations simultaneously without forcing either to abandon its identity. Their empire produced remarkable Buddhist monuments, two independent writing systems, a distinctive artistic tradition, and some of the most powerful women in pre-modern Asian history.
This is the full story of the Khitan - empire builders, institutional pioneers, and the people who named a world.
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