Everything about The Battle Of Talas totally explained
The
Battle of Talas in 751 was a conflict between the
Arab Abbasid Caliphate and the
Chinese Tang Dynasty for control of the
Syr Darya. The Chinese army was defeated following the routing of their troops by the Abbasids on the bank of the
Talas River.
The defeat was partly a result of the defection of
Karluk mercenaries and the retreat of
Ferghana allies who originally supported the Chinese. Ferghana forces inadvertently cut the Chinese troops off from the rest of their army and their route of retreat. The commander of the Tang forces,
Gao Xianzhi, recognized that defeat was imminent and managed to escape with some of his Tang regulars with the help of
Li Siye. Despite losing the battle, Li did inflict heavy losses on the pursuing Arab army after being reproached by
Duan Xiushi. Though Gao was able to rebuild his forces within months, he never again gained the confidence of the local tribes residing in the area.
The Chinese name Daluosi (怛罗斯, Talas) was first seen in the account of
Xuanzang. Du Huan located the city near the western drain of the
Chui River. The exact location of the battle hasn't been confirmed but is believed to be near
Talas in present day
Kyrgyzstan.
Background
Prior to the battle, other indirect encounters between the combatants. The first occurred in
715 when Alutar, the new king of
Ferghana, was installed with the help of the
Arabs and
Tibetans. The deposed king Ikhshid fled to
Kucha (seat of
Anxi Protectorate), and sought for Chinese intervention. The Chinese sent 10,000 troops under
Zhang Xiaosong to Ferghana. He defeated the Arab-puppet Alutar at
Namangan and reinstalled Ikhshid. The inhabitants of three
Sogdian cities were massacred as a result of the battle. The second encounter occurred in
717, when Arabs and Tibetans were guided by the
Turgesh and besieged two cities in the area of
Aksu. The Chinese
Tang Jiahui responded by sending an army composed of Qarluq mercenaries and
Ashina Xin (client qaghan of Onoq) to attack them.
Aftermath
Shortly after the battle of Talas, the domestic
rebellion of An Lushan (755－763) and subsequent
warlordism of the
jiedushi (763 onwards), caused the decline of Tang influence in Central Asia by the end of the 700's. The local Tang
tributaries then switched to the authority of the Abbasids, Tibetans, or Uighurs and the introduction of
Islam was thus facilitated among the
Turkic peoples. Well supported by the Ummayads, the
Qarluqs established a
state that would be absorbed in the late
9th century by the
Kara-Khanid Khanate.
With the successful cooperation of Arabs and
Turkic peoples, Islam began to exert its influence on the Turkic culture.
Historical significance
Among the earliest historians to proclaim the importance of this battle was the great Russian historian of Muslim Central Asia,
Vasily Bartold, according to whom, "The earlier Arab historians, occupied with the narrative of events then taking place in western Asia, don't mention this battle; but it's undoubtedly of great importance in the history of (Western) Turkestan as it determined the question which of the two civilizations, the Chinese or the Muslim, should predominate in the land (of Turkestan)." According to Bartold, for the history of the first three centuries of Islam,
al-Tabari was the chief source (survived in
Ibn al Athir's compilation), which was brought down to 915. (Unfortunately, this important work was only compiled and published by a group of
Orientalists in 1901.) It is only in Athir that we find an accurate account of the conflict between the Arabs and the Chinese in 751. Neither Tabari nor the early historical works of the Arabs which have come down to us in general make any mention of this; however, Athir's statement is completely confirmed by the Chinese
History of the Tang Dynasty. It must be noted that in all Arab sources, the events which occurred in the eastern part of the empire are often dealt with briefly. Another notable informant of the battle on the Muslim side was
Al-Dhahabi (1274-1348).
It is of interest to note that the Battle of Talas is seen as the key event in the technological transmission of the
paper-making process. After the battle of Talas, knowledgeable Chinese
prisoners of war were ordered to produce paper in
Samarkand, and by the year
794 CE, a
paper mill could be found in
Baghdad, modern-day
Iraq.
The technology of
paper making was thus transmitted to the Islamic world and later to the West.
Other than the transfer of paper, there's no evidence to support a geopolitical or demographic change resulting from this battle. Several of the factors after the battle had been taken note of prior to 751. Firstly, the Qarluq never in any sense remained opposed to the Chinese after the battle. In 753, the Qarluq Yabgu Dunpijia submitted under the column of Cheng Qianli and captured A-Busi, a betrayed Chinese mercenary of Tongluo (
Tiele) chief (who had defected earlier in 743), and received his title in the court on
October 22. Nor did the Chinese expansion halt after the battle; the Chinese commander
Feng Changqing, who took over the position from Gao Xianzhi through Wang Zhengjian, virtually swept across the
Kashmir region and captured
Gilgit shortly in the same year. The Chinese influence to the west of the
Pamir Mountains certainly didn't cease as the result of the battle; the Ferghana, who participated in the battle earlier, in fact joined among the central Asian auxiliaries with the Chinese army under a summons and entered Gansu during
An Lushan's revolt in 756. Neither did the relations between the Chinese and Arabs worsen, as the Abbasids, like their predecessors (since 652), continued to send embassies to China uninterruptedly after the battle. Such vists had overall resulted in 13 diplomatic gifts between 752－798. Not all Turkic tribes of the region converted to Islam after the battle either - the date of their mass-conversion to Islam was much later, in the
10th century under Musa.
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