ABSTRACT
Nestorian Christianity spread among the Altaic tribes, such as the Naiman, Merkit, Önggüt, Uyghurs, and Kereit, and made significant inroads among the Mongols during the eleventh century. The term ‘Nestorian’ describes Syriac-speaking minorities based initially in the region of Mesopotamia, what is now Iraq and Iran. The ‘conversion’ of the nomads to Christianity occurred as a result of missionary activity carried out among the Turkic tribes of Maru. In the eleventh century, the Merkit allied with the Kereit against the Liao dynasty. Aspects of Nestorian preaching by Sogdian teachers have survived in stone inscriptions, grave panels, and oblation idols throughout Mongolia and Inner Asia. The seventh level of the Pagoda contains three rhymed inscriptions that might well have been part of a poem.
