The Kara-Khanid Khanate, or the Karakhans (Black Khans) Dynasty, is a state formed by the a confederation of Karluks, Chigils, Yaghma and other tribes in Semirechye, Western Tian Shan, and Kashgaria, and who had later conquered Transoxiana.

During the reign of Ahmad b. Ali, the Karakhanids had engaged in wars against the non-Muslims to the east and northeast.

In 1006, Yusuf Kadr Khan of Kashgar had conquered the Kingdom of Khotan.In 1017–1018, the Karakhanids repelled an attack by a large mass of nomadic Turkish tribes in what is described in Muslim sources as a great victory.

The brothers Ahmad and Nasr had conducted different policies towards the Ghaznavids in the south—while Ahmad had tried to form alliance with Mahmud of Ghazna, Nasr had attempted to expand, unsuccessfully, into the territories held by Ghaznavids.

The unity of the Karakhanid dynasty had been fractured early in the eleventh century by frequent internal warfare that eventually resulted in the formation of two independent Karakhanid states.

A son of Hasan Bughra Khan, Ali Tegin, had seized control of Bukhara and other towns.

He had expanded his territory further after the death of Mansur.

The son of Nasr, Ibrahim Tamghach Bughra Khan, had later waged war against the sons of Ali Tegin, and won control of large part of Transoxania, and made Samarkand the capital.

In 1041, another son of Nasr b. Ali, Muhammad 'Ayn ad-Dawlah (reigned 1041–52) took over the administration of the western branch of the family that eventually led to a formal separation of the Kharakhanid Khanate.

Ibrahim Tamghach Khan is considered by Muslim historians as a great ruler, and he had brought some stability to Western Karakhanid Khanate by limiting the appanage system which had caused much of the internal strife in the unified Kara-Khanid Khanate.

The Hasan family remains in control of the Eastern Khanate.

The Eastern Khanate has its capital at Balasagun and later Kashgar.

The Ferghana-Semirechye areas have become the border between the two states and are frequently contested.

When the two states were formed, Ferghana had fallen into realm of the Eastern Khanate, but had later been captured by Ibrahim and become part of Western Khanate.

The Seljuk Turks had defeated the Ghaznavids at the Battle of Dandanaqan in 1040 and entered Iran.

The Karakhanids had been able to withstand the Seljuks initially, and had briefly taken control of Seljuk towns in Khurasan.

The Karakhanids, however, had developed serious conflicts with the religious classes (the ulama).

In 1089, during the reign of Ibrahim's grandson Ahmad b. Khidr, at the request of the ulama of Transoxiana, the Seljuks had entered and taken control of Samarkand, together with the domains belonging to the Western Khanate.

The Western Karakhanids Khanate has thus been a vassal of the Seljuks for half a century, and the rulers of the Western Khanate are largely whomever the Seljuks choose to place on the throne.