The Khitan people (Khitan small script: ; Chinese: 契丹; pinyin: Qìdān) were a historical nomadic people from Northeast Asia who, from the 4th century, inhabited an area corresponding to parts of modern Mongolia, Northeast China and the Russian Far East.

[3] The Khitan people founded and led the Liao dynasty (916–1125), which dominated a vast area of Siberia, Mongolia and Northern China.

The modern-day Daur people, a recognized minority ethnic group in Northeast China, are the genetic descendants of Khitans.

[7] According to the History of Liao compiled in the 14th century, a "sacred man" (shen-ren) on a white horse had eight sons with a "heavenly woman" (tiannü) who rode in a cart pulled by a grey ox.

[9][10] The Khitan shaved their heads, leaving hair on their temples which grew down to the chest, in a similar fashion to the related Kumo Xi, Shiwei, and Xianbei whom they are believed to be descended from.

[14] The Khitans were less politically united than the Turkic tribes, but often found themselves involved in the power games between the Turks and the Sui and Tang dynasties.

The Tang Empress, in what scholars consider a major strategic error, formed an ill-fated alliance with the Turkic leader Qapaghan Qaghan to punish the Khitan for raiding Hebei province.

Khitan territory was much closer to northern China proper than Turkic lands, and the Turks used it to launch their own raids into Hebei.

[17] The Khitans rose to prominence in a power vacuum that developed in the wake of the Kyrgyz takeover of the Uyghur Khaganate, and the collapse of the Tang dynasty.

The Liao territory included modern day northern and northeastern China, Mongolia, and parts of Central Asia and Siberia.

[20] In 934 Yelü Bei, Abaoji's son, wrote to his brother Emperor Taizong of Liao from the Later Tang court: "Li Cong Ke has slain his liege-lord, why not attack him?

Shi Jing Tang became emperor of the Later Jin dynasty and, in exchange for their support, the Khitans gained sixteen new prefectures.

[22][20] The Later Jin dynasty remained a vassal of the Khitans until the death of Shi Jing Tang in 942, but when the new emperor ascended, he indicated that he would not honor his predecessor's arrangement.

During the reign of the Emperor Daozong of Liao, corruption was a major problem and prompted dissatisfaction among many people, including the Jurchens.

[30] The Jurchens and their Manchu descendants had Khitan linguistic and grammatical elements in their personal names like suffixes.

After its fall, a small part under Buraq Hajib established a local dynasty in the southern Persian province of Kirman.

The ruling class of the Liao dynasty still undertook hunting campaigns in late summer in the tradition of their ancestors.

There were festivals to mark the catching of the first fish and wild goose, and annual sacrifices of animals to the sky, earth, ancestors, mountains, rivers, and others.

The Khitan believed that the souls of the dead rested at a place called the Black Mountain, near Rehe Province.

[46] They also practiced a form of divination where they went to war if the shoulder blade of a white sheep cracked while being heated (scapulimancy).

[49] A 2020 study published in Cell analyzed the DNA of 3 Khitan burials from Bulgan Province, located in Northern Mongolia.

During the Khitan and Mongol empires, a male bias for East-Asian related ancestry is observed in the eastern steppe region.

[50] Two studies found evidence of Khitan mtDNA ancestry in modern-day people of the Daur ethnicity.