The Anushtegin dynasty, the Karluks, Qocho kingdom, the Kankalis, and the Kara-Khanid Khanate were vassal states of the Qara Khitai at some point in history.

Muslim historians initially referred to the state simply as "Khitay" or "Khitai;" they may have adopted this form of "Khitan" via the Uyghurs of Kocho in whose language the final -n or -ń became -y.

[22][24] He later returned in 1134 and conquered the Karakhanid city of Balasaghun (in modern Kyrgyzstan), resulting in the vassalization of the nearby Kankalis, Karluks, Kyrgyz, and the Kingdom of Qocho.

[34] The Qara Khitai in 1143 constituted a realm encompassing a territory roughly equivalent to modern Xinjiang, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and south Kazakhstan.

The small number, less than Samarkand's 100,000 households in the pre-Mongol era, was likely due to being geographically limited to only Balasagun and the surrounding area that the Khitans directly ruled.

[45] There is no evidence that the Khitans were directly involved in the conflict of Khorasan, however the Turkic leaders all paid tribute to them to gain their favor during this time.

In 1156, a Jin army led by Po Longdun met with a Qara Khitan raiding group several hundred strong at Kedun.

The Eastern Karakhanids sent 10,000 riders to reinforce Samarkand, however the Khwarazmian force was too large to comfortably engage, and a truce was achieved with the help of religious dignitaries.

In 1172, the Qara Khitai crossed the Amu Darya to attack Khwarazm, whose ruler Il-Arslan had neglected to pay tribute.

The older brother, Tekish, fled to the Qara Khitai court and asked for their support in installing him as the new ruler of Khwarazm in return for a share of its treasures and annual tribute.

[52] At the time of Zhilugu's accession, a large Qara Khitai army under the command of the late empress's husband, Xiao Duolubu, was accompanying Sultan Shah to Khwarazm.

Tekish managed to halt the Qara Khitai advance by flooding the Amu Darya's dikes and blocking their path.

Xiao Duolubu decided to retreat but Sultan Shah offered him a large sum in return for leaving part of his troops behind.

The cessation of hostilities was probably a financial agreement as several Muslim sources assert that Tekish dutifully paid tribute to the Qara Khitai and ordered his son to continue to do so.

In 1188, Wanyan Xiang, a leading Jin official, came back from a tribute collecting mission among the northern tribes and presented to the emperor a detailed program and map to prevent their subjects from defecting to the Qara Khitai.

[57] In the early 1190s, the khan of the Keraites, Toghrul, fled to the Qara Khitai seeking military support after he was ousted by his own family.

Ghiyath al-Din agreed to help with the compensation on the condition that Tekish offered his obedience to the Caliph and returned territories taken earlier by the Qara Khitai.

[59] The Ghurids took advantage of Tekish's death to conquer certain parts of Khorasan, including Merv and Sarakhs, where they installed Hindu Khan, Muhammad II's nephew, as their subject.

Muhammad II hurried back to Khwarazm and opened the dikes and burned the meadows in an effort to slow the Ghurid advance.

The Khwarazmian forces suffered a heavy defeat against the Ghurids near a canal east of Gurganj and Muhammad II fled to the Qara Khitai.

All versions of events, however, agree that the Qara Khitai chased the Ghurids to Andkhud, a village between Merv and Balkh, where Muhammad of Ghor took refuge in a castle.

According to one account, Uthman advised the Ghurids to move their forces in and out of the castle by night to create the appearance of reinforcements arriving, thereby boosting their negotiating position.

[63] Muhammad II saw the Qara Khitai's recognition of his claims as a sign of weakness and started interfering in Transoxiana in 1207 when Sanjar, son of a shield maker, revolted against local leadership in Bukhara.

[65] During Muhammad II's absence, his brother Ali Shah (viceroy in Tabaristan) and Kozli (commander in Nishapur) had tried to set themselves up as rulers of Khorasan.

The Uyghur ruler, Barchuq Art Tegin, reported the incident to the Qara Khitai, but at this point individuals at Qocho had already started defecting to the Mongols.

Zhilugu was allowed to remain as the nominal ruler but died two years later, and many historians regarded his death as the end of the Qara-Khitai empire.

Another segment of the Qara-Khitans, in a dynasty founded by Buraq Hajib, survived in Kirman as a vassal of the Mongols, but ceased to exist as an entity during the reign of Öljaitü of the Ilkhanate.

In the 14th century, they began to lose their ethnic identity, traces of their presence however may be found as clan names or toponyms from Afghanistan to Moldova.

The rest of their empire consisted of highly autonomous vassalized states, primarily Khwarezm, the Karluks, the Kingdom of Qocho of the Uyghurs, the Kankalis, and the Western, Eastern, and Fergana Kara-Khanids.

The Chinese emperor, together with the rulers of the Turks, Arabs, India and the Byzantine Romans, were known to Islamic writers as the world's "five great kings".