Page:From Kulja, across the Tian Shan to Lob-Nor (1879).djvu/23

4 on the Syriac. They taught letters to the Mongols, and were in early times the most cultivated race of Eastern Asia. From these people Jinghiz Khan borrowed a creed for his nomads, and letters in which to reduce their language to writing. The accountants, secretaries, and civil servants of both Jinghiz and his immediate successor were almost always taken from the same nationality. Their principal seat was Bishbalik (Ourumtsi).

The empire of Kara Khitai had been founded by a fugitive from China, a scion of the royal race of the Liau or Khitan dynasty, who escaped when that dynasty was overturned and ejected by the Yueche or Kin. Its sovereigns were styled the Gurkhans. They ruled immediately over the area known to the older geographers as Little Bucharia or Dzungaria, the Arslan Khans of Kashgar and the chiefs of the Uighurs being subject to them. In A.D. 1208 Kushluk, son of the chief of the Naimans, took refuge at their court. The Gurkhan was then a weak prince, the Naiman treacherous and crafty. He asked permission to collect the debris of his father's army, which was then scattered in the countries of Imil Kayahk and Bishbalik. The Gurkhan allowed him to do so, gave him the title of Gushluk Khan, and also gave him his daughter in marriage. He then collected an army, and, treacherously leaguing himself with the Khuarezm Shah, proceeded to overturn the power of his patron, and took Gurkhan prisoner, but left