"There seems to be no doubt that Kerman in South Persia is the city to
which the Kara-Cathayan refugee fled from China in 1124; for Major Sykes,
in his recent excellent work on Persia, actually mentions [p. 194] the
Kuba Sabz, or 'Green Dome,' as having been (until destroyed in 1886 by an
earthquake) the most conspicuous building, and as having also been the
tomb of the Kara-Khitai Dynasty. The late Dr. Bretschneider (N. China B.
R. As. Soc. Journal, Vol. X., p. 101) had imagined the Kara-Cathayan
capital to be Kermine, lying between Samarcand and Bokhara (see Asiatic
Quart. Rev. for Dec., 1900, 'The Cathayans'). Colonel Yule does not
appear to be quite correct when he states (p. 232) that 'the Gurkhan
himself is not described to have extended his conquests into Persia,' for
the Chinese history of the Cathayan or Liao Dynasties distinctly states
that at Samarcand, where the Cathayan remained for ninety days, the 'King
of the Mohammedans' brought tribute to the emigrant, who then went West
as far as K'i-r-man, where he was proclaimed Emperor by his officers.
This was on the fifth day of the second moon in 1124, in the thirty-eighth
year of his age, and he then assumed the title of Koh-r-han" (E.H.
Parker, Asiatic Quart. Rev., Jan., 1904, pp. 134-5.)
XLVI., p. 236.
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