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( Cathay)
Cathay is the Anglicized version of "Catai" and an alternative name for China in English. It originates from the word Khitan[1](Chinese ??, Qìdan), the name of a nomadic people who founded the Liao Dynasty which ruled much of Northern China from 907 to 1125, and who had a state of their own (Kara-Khitan Khanate) centered around today's Kyrgyzstan for another century thereafter. Originally, "Catai" was the name applied by Central and Western Asians and Europeans to northern China; it obtained wide currency in Europe after the publication of Marco Polo's book (he referred to southern China as Manji). A form of the name Cathai is attested in a Uyghur Manichaean document circa 1000.[2] Soon the name became known in Muslim Central Asia as well when in 1026, the Ghaznavid court (in Ghazna, in today's Afghanistan) was visited by envoys from the Liao ruler, he was described as a "Qata Khan", i.e. the ruler of Qata; Qata or Qita appears in writings of al-Biruni and Abu Said Gardezi in the following decades.[2] The Persian scholar and administrator Nizam al-Mulk (1018–1092) mentions Khita and China in his Book on the Administration of the State, apparently as two separate countries[2] (presumably, referring to the Liao and Song Empires, respectively). The name's currency in the Muslim world survived the replacement of the Khitan Liao Dynasty with the Jurchen Jin Dynasty in the early 12th century. When describing the fall of the Jin Empire to the Mongols (1234), Persian history described the conquered country as Khitay or Djerdaj Khitay(i.e., "Jurchen Cathay").[2] The Mongols themselves, in their Secret History (13th century) talk of both Khitans and Kara-Khitans.[2]
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