KARA HİTAY DEVLETİ’NDE KADIN HÜKÜMDARLAR
WOMEN RULERS IN THE STATE OF QARA KHITAI

Summary/Abstract: The Khitans, as a society of Asian origin that spread from the cultural geography of China to Khorasan throughout the historical process, are an important contributor to the process of change in post-Uyghur and pre-Mongol Asia of the Middle Ages. The Western Liao/The State of Qara Khitai, which constituted the western branch of the Khitans, played an important role in the political and social history of Transoxiana and Khorasan for a certain period. The Qara Khitays not only dealt a majör blow to the Seljuk sovereignty, but also carried the administrative and cultural structure from the east into the Western Islamic world and lived in these regions with their own identity. The female administrative system inherited from China since the beginning of this community has also been seen effectively in Transoxiana politics. Here, women are seen as fully authorized state administrators as well as regency institution. In addition, the monarchical centralized structure, which tried to protect the monarchical marriage systems and the related monarchical central structure, was constructed as a kind of insurance for the state. As a matter of fact, with the marriages made from the Hsiao family, which is of Uyghur origin, the female branch of the dynasty became a strong balancing element of the state. These female rulers played an active role in the State of Qara Khitai and caused important breaking points, especially on the remnants of the Turkish Khanate, as well as in the Seljuk and later Khawarazmian states. While the female rulers of Qara Khitai were struggling against the Jurchen oppression in the east and the struggle for survival in the west, they also endeavored to ensure that the state system was administered in accordance with Khitan traditions. In this study, the political processes of women rulers in the State of Qara Khitai and the position of women in relation to this were tried to be analysed as a Khitan tradition.

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