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The Battle of Talas in 751 was a conflict between the Arab Abbasid Caliphate and the Chinese Tang Dynasty for control of Syr Darya. The Chinese army was defeated following the routing of their troops by the Abbasid on the bank of the Talas River.

The Battle of Talas is seen as the key event in the technological transmission of the paper-making process, from China to the Islamic world and the West. The Chinese court eunuch Cai Lun had invented the process in 105 CE. Soon after the Battle of Talas, by the year 794 CE, a paper mill could be found in Baghdad, modern-day Iraq.

Background

Prior to the battle, there were two other indirect encounters before. The first (715) occurred when Alutar, the new king of Ferghana was installed by both alleged Arabs and Tibetans. The deposed king Ikhshid fled and sought for Chinese intervention in Kucha (seat of Anxi). The Chinese sent 10,000 troops under Zhang Xiaosong to Ferghana. He defeated the puppet Alutar at Namangan and installed back Ikhshid, three Sogdian cities were massacred as the result of the battle. The second (717) occurred when both alleged Arabs and Tibetans then were guided by the Turgesh and sieged two cities, roughly 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. The result of the battle was illegibility as it was not indicated.

Battle

The defeat was partly a result of the defection of Qarluq mercenaries and the retreat of Ferghana allies who originally supported the Chinese. The Ferghana successfully (though indeliberated) cut the Chinese troops off from the rest of their army and their retreating route. The commander of the Tang forces, Gao Xianzhi, realized his 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 Arab pursuiting army after 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 Chui River. The exact location of the battle has not been confirmed but is believed to be near Taraz (once named Zhambyl) in present day Kazakhstan.

Size of armies

Tang army

There may have been 30,000 Tang troops (20,000 troops of Chinese protectorates, and Qarluq mercenaries who later defected). All military units, either infantry or cavalry, was not indicated. Chinese regular exploited to the area of western protectorate from the Chinese heartland never exceed 30,000 between 692－726. However, the Tongdian (801 CE), the earliest narrative for battle itself by either side suggests 70,000 deaths, whereas the Tangshu (945 CE) accounted 20,000 (probably included mercenaries already) in this battle (Bai 2003, p. 224-225). The earliest Arabic account for the battle itself from Al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh (1231 CE) suggests 100,000 troops (50,000 deaths and 20,000 prisoners), however Bartold considered them to be exaggerated.

Abbasid army

The number of troops from Arab protectorates was not recorded by either side. However, the armies to the east of Khorasan controlled by the Arabs later was recorded by the Chinese in 718 with 900,000 troops available to respond.

Aftermath

The technology of paper making was transmitted to Central Asia and the Middle East as a result of the battle, as knowledgeable Chinese prisoners of war were ordered to produce paper in Samarkand. With the successful cooperation of Arabs and Turkic peoples, Islam began to exert its influence on the Turkic culture.

Shortly after, the domestic rebellion of An Lushan (755－763) and subsequent warlordism (763 onwards), the Tang ceased to be influential in Central Asia by the end of 8th century. 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.

Historical significance

Among the earliest historians to proclaim the importance of this battle was the great Russian historian of Muslim Central Asia, Barthold, according to whom "The earlier Arab historians, occupied with the narrative of events then taking place in western Asia, do not mention this battle; but it is 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)."

However, claims that the battle itself was significant are not well-supported by historical evidence. The dry and simplistic recount of the battle itself from Chinese accounts shows that it may have been no more than a border skirmish. Most of the sources for this battle had barely mentioned the Chinese defeat followed the sentence of dispatching, leaving the rest of the duration in five days remained undescribed, with exception for the dialogues after the defeat. According to Barthold, for the history of first three centuries of Islam, al-Tabari was the chief source (survived under Ibn al Athir's compilation), which was brought down to 915. Unfortunately, this work had only been published under a group of Orientalists and compiled in 1901, however it repesents a great step forward in Oriental knowledge. It is only in Athir that we find an accurate account of the conflict between the Arabs and the Chinese (in 751), which decided the fate of the western part of central Asia. Neither Tabari nor the early historical works of the Arabs which have come down to us in general make any mention of this, while Athir's statement is completely confirmed by the Chinese "History of the Tang Dynasty". While it must be noted that, of all Arabs sources their events which occurred in the eastern part of the empire are often dealt with briefly.

Other than the technological transfer of paper, there is no evidence to support a geopolitical or demographic change resulting from this battle. A several of the factors after the battle had to be take notes prior to 755. Firstly, the Qarluq had never in any sense remained opposed against the Chinese after the battle. In 753, the Qarluq Yabgu Dunpijia submitted under the column of Cheng Qianli and captured A-Busi, a bretrayed Chinese mercenary of Tongluo (Tiele) chief (who defected earlier in 743), and received his title in the court on October 22. Nor did the Chinese expansion had halted after the battle, the Chinese commander Feng Changqing, who had took over the position from Gao Xianzhi through Wang Zhengjian, virtually sweep acrossed the Kashmir region and captured Gilgit shortly in the same year. The Chinese influence to the west of the Pamir Mountains certainly did not ceased as the result of the battle, the Ferghana, who participate in the battle earlier, in fact joined among the central Asian auxiliaries with the Chinese army under a call and entered Gansu during An Lushan's revolt in 756. Either did the relations between the Chinese and Arabs had worsen, the Abbasids, like their predecessors (since 652), continued to send embassies to China uninterruptedly after the battle, such vists had overall received 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.

See also

• Du Huan
• Islam during the Tang Dynasty

Notes

1. Bai, p. 227
2. Bai, p. 210-219
3. ^ Bai, p. 224-225
4. ^ Bartold, p. 180-196
5. Bai, p. 235-236
6. Bai, p. 226-228
7. Bai, p. 211
8. Xue 1998, p. 256-257
9. Bartold 1992, p. 195-196
10. Bai, p. 242-243
11. Bai, p. 219-223
12. Barthold, p. 2-3
13. Barthold, p. 5
14. Xue, p. 260-261
15. Bai, p. 233-234
16. Bai, p. 239-242
17. Embassy of Uzbekistan to the United Kingdom Of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Retrieved 25 April 2007.

Bibliography

Modern sources

• Bartold, W (1992). (Western) Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers. ISBN 81-215-0544-3.
• Hoberman, Barry (September-October 1982). The Battle of Talas, Saudi Aramco World, p. 26-31. University of Indiana.
• Shouyi, Bai et al (2003). A History of Chinese Muslim (Vol.2). Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company. ISBN 7-101-02890-X.
• Zongzheng, Xue (1998). Anxi and Beiting Protectorates: A Research on Frontier Policy in Tang Dynasty's Western Border. Harbin: Heilongjiang Education Press. ISBN 7-5316-2857-0.

Medieval sources

• Du You, Tongdian (801)
• Tangshu (Book of Tang) (945)
• Ali ibn al-Athir, Al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh (The Complete History) (1231)
• Al-Dhahabi (1274-1348), Tarikh al-Islam al-kabir (Major History of Islam)

• 751
• Battles involving China
• Battles involving the Abbasid Caliphate