Karakhanid, also known as Khaqani Turkic (lit. meaning 'imperial' or 'royal', self referring to as 'Türki' or 'Türkçe'), was a Turkic language developed in the 11th century during the Middle Turkic period under the Kara-Khanid Khanate. It has been described as the first literary Islamic Turkic language. It is sometimes classified under the Old Turkic category, rather than Middle Turkic, as it is contemporary to the East Old Turkic languages of Orkhon Turkic and Old Uyghur. Eastern Middle Turkic languages, namely Khorezmian Turkic and later Chagatai are descendants of the Karakhanid language.
Karakhanid vocabulary was influenced by Arabic and Persian loanwords, but the language itself was still noted to be similar to the Old Uyghur language. The language was written using the Arabic script. Mahmud al-Kashgari's Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk and Yūsuf Balasaguni's Kutadgu Bilig are considered to be important literary works written in Karakhanid language.
