| Khitan |
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Ancestors of the Khitan were the Yuwen clan of the Xianbei , an ethnic group situated in the area covered by the modern Liaoning and Jilin provinces. After their regime was conquered by the Murong clan, the remnants scattered in the modern-day Inner Mongolia and mixed there with the original Mongolic population. They had been identified as a distinct ethnic group since paying tribute to the Northern Wei Dynasty in mid 6th Century . The Khitan were known as خطا in Arabic (''Khata'') and are mentioned by Muslim chroniclers as they initially fought with Muslims and later converted to Islam . It is interesting to notice that this name was the origin for ''Kitai'', the Russian word for China, the English word Cathay , as well as an archaic word in Portuguese, ''Catai''. SEE ALSO |