Khitan scripts

Source: TW

Thought I posted this before but not finding it: YT

Several points of note regarding the 2 mysterious Khitan scripts & the efforts to decipher them.

  1. The Khitan word for tiger Khaghanas might mean something like king of animals – a taboo word. It is interestingly attested in an Arabic record of calendrical terms used by various peoples. Some of the other animal year terms show clear Mongolic relationships in their form suggesting that Khitan was indeed para-Mongolic.
  2. The Daur Mongolian peoples of NE Asia, who were exterminated in large numbers by the Rus are likely surviving descendants of the Khitans though they today speak a Mongolic language. Their language does show hints of a substrate that was likely the Khitan language that was gradually replaced by Mongolian.
  3. Another group of Khitan survivors again having lost the language live in South in the Yunnan region near modern Burma as a non-Han ethnic group. They are remnant of the Khitans who served as part of the Mongol conquest of China. They remained there after the end of the Yunnan Mongol kingdom that formed an alliance with Japan under the Khan vajra-varmin.
  4. Many Khitans in the NE practice their ancient shamanistic religion and tomb of similar Khitan female shaman was recovered in Yunnan.
  5. The Daur Khitan descendants show enrichment of a Y chromosome haplogroup that is a brother group to the expanded C-M217 clade attributed to the clan of Chingiz Khan. This again supports their para-Monogolic affinities & is consistent with the special sympathies Chingiz Khan showed to the Khitans.
    • First, he saw himself as avenging the overthrow of the Khitan empire by the Tungusid Jurchen.
    • Second, he appointed several notable Khitans to his administration like the gigantic Yelü Chucai.
    • Third, the Khitans played a key role in the conquest & admin of the Mohammedan lands in the ex-Iranosphere by Ilkhan Hülegü, the grandson of Chingiz.
    • Finally, by thrashing Sultan Sanjar, they kept the East safe from Mohammedanization.

The chIna-s note an interesting parallel to other (para)Mongolic peoples among the Khitan-s: The male population was armed & if they were given a call to mobilize at dawn, within 2 hours they are said to have assembled into an army ready for battle.