ABSTRACT
We cannot easily trace the Mongol people back beyond the period o f the rule in Mongolia and north China o f the Khitan Liao Dynasty (10th-12th centuries). There appears to have been a relationship o f some sort between the two peoples, and the only partly understood Khitan language seems to be a form o f what would later be called
Mongolian. The Khitans had garrisoned the oases o f the Orkhon River in central Mongolia, and an identifiable Mongol people emerged in eastern Mongolia, behind the Khitan defensive screen. With the col lapse o f Khitan power before the attacks o f the Chin from Manchuria in the early twelfth century, direct Chinese control o f Mongolia lapsed. Aniong those who sought to fill the vacuum were the Mongols, and their leaders included the ancestors o f Chingiz Khan.
