The Khitans found the Liao dynasty
The people who gave China the name 'Cathay'
Under Abaoji the nomadic Khitans founded in 916 an empire that ruled northern China and Mongolia for over two centuries. Their neighbours in Central Asia and Rus' named the whole country after them — hence the Russian 'Kitai' and medieval Europe's 'Cathay'.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 10th century
Did you know
The Russian word for China, Kitai, comes from a people who were not Chinese: the nomadic Khitans, who founded the Liao empire in northern China in 916. Medieval Europe made the same name into Cathay. Share →
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- c. 939 Eldgjá eruption — 23 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- c. 895 Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin — 21 years earlier
Africa
- c. 900 The bronzes of Igbo-Ukwu — 16 years earlier
- 909 Proclamation of the Fatimid Caliphate — 7 years earlier
Americas
- c. 900 Rise of Chichen Itza — 16 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Igor of Kiev (aged 38)
- Æthelstan (aged 22)
- Otto the Great (aged 4)
- Edward the Elder (aged 42)