The coinage of qara khitay: a new evidence (on the reign title of the Western Liao Emperor Yelü Yilie)

Abstract

The dual (Chinese and Inner Asian) nature of the Qara Khitay Empire (Western Liao dynasty) is a well-known and thoroughly investigated fact. The cited duality was evident in all aspects of life of the Qara Khitay society – political, economical, social, cultural, etc. No exception in this regard is the numismatic aspect as well, although the very existence of intrinsic Qara Khitay coinage has been disputable until recently. The problem of coin production and money circulation in the state of Western Liao still belongs to the least studied, first of all due to particular difficulties with singling the proper Qara Khitay coins out of the entire numismatic legacy of pre-Mongol Central Asia. For the moment being we know about a few coin issues undertaken in the Muslim (Qarakhanid) state, just most of those issues could be related to the Qara Khitays only on the basis of other sources witnessing that in the given years, mostly within the 2nd half of the 12th century, those towns or regions – in particular, Balkh and Tirmidh (modern Termez/Termiz) – were ruled by the Qara Khitay khans; however, the coins proper may not bear such indications at all – neither specific names nor any other obvious features; equally scarce are the respective publications on the topic [FEDOROV 2000; KOCNEV 2001; FEDOROV 2004; KOCNEV 2006].