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A Mongol people (though some historians claim a Turkic origin) living in Central Asia. They lived along the upper reaches of the Orkhon River west of the Tula River and north of the Ongiin River. According to the Syrian Bar Hebraeus, the Kereit were converted to Nestorianism about the year 1008. They lived to the east of the Naimans. It is also probable that the area around Ulaanbaatar, the present capital city of Mongolia, was inhabited by the Keraits.

Their khan Toghrul was granted the title of Wang Khan (King) by the Jin Emperor in 1183. Togrhil is best known as foster-father to Temüjin (later Genghis Khan) until the two had a falling out. The Keraits were part of the united Mongol polity forged by Genghis Khan in the first years of the 13th century CE.

During the 10th and 11th centuries, as a result of Nestorian missionary activities, several Tartar tribes were entirely or to a great extent Christian, notably the Keraits, Uighur, Naiman and Merkit.

The Kerait capital at this time was Karakoram, where Marco Polo later found a church. They were a cluster of hunting tribes east and south of Lake Baikal. The principal tribes evangelized there by the Nestorians were the Naiman, the Merkit and the Kerait. It seems that the Gospel was taken to those tribes by Christian merchants. An account of the conversion of the Keraits is given by the thirteenth century Jacobite historian Gregory Bar Hebraeus. According to Hebraeus, at the beginning of the eleventh century, a king of the Keraits lost his way while hunting in the high mountains. When he had abandoned all hope, a saint appeared in a vision and said, "If you will believe in Christ I will lead you lest you perish." He returned home safely. He remembered the vision when he met some Christian merchants. He inquired of them of their faith. At their suggestion he sent a message to the Metropolitan of Merv for priests and deacons to baptize him and his tribe. As a result of the mission that followed, the Kerait prince and two hundred thousand of his people accepted baptism. (R. Grousset, The Empire of the Steppes, New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press, 1970, p. 191. See also Moffett, A History of Christianity in Asia pp. 400-401.)

The historical basis of the Prester John legend may well have been connected with a Christian ruler of the Keraits. "The history of this race of Christian kings, afterward so celebrated in Europe under the name of Prester John, is properly referable to the two succeeding centuries." (Asahel Grant, op. cit., p. 376.)

The Keraits organized themselves into a confederation and thus influenced the later political organization among the Mongols. The Keraits also had religious influence over the Mongols through royal marriage. Chengis Khan’s eldest daughter-in-law was a Nestorian Kerait princess called Sorghaghtani Beki (or Sorghaghtani). To the south of the Keraits were the Uighurs and there were Christians among them. The Uighur script had been created for them by the Syrian Nestorians. It was this script which was passed on to Mongols who still had no written language.

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