Battle of Talas

  • Battle of Talas
  • 怛羅斯戰役
  • معركة نهر طلاس‎
Part of the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana

Movement into Central Asia:
  Chinese (Tang army)
  Turks (Tang army, later Abbasid army)
  Arabs (Abbasid army)
  Tibetans (Tibetan army)
DateMay – September 751
Location
Taraz or Talas
Result Abbasid victory
Belligerents
Karkota dynasty[1]
Commanders and leaders
Strength
30,000 Abbasid troops 10,000 Tang troops
20,000 Turkic mercenaries[a][3][4]
Casualties and losses
Unknown Unknown

The Battle of Talas (Chinese: 怛羅斯戰役; pinyin: Dáluósī Zhànyì; Arabic: معركة نهر طلاس Maʿrakat nahr Ṭalās) was an armed confrontation between the Abbasid Caliphate and the Tibetan Empire against the Tang dynasty in 751. In July of that year, the Tang and Abbasid armies clashed at the Talas River over control of the regions surrounding the Syr Darya. According to Chinese sources, the engagement began with several days of military stalemate, before a mercenary column of 20,000 Karluk Turks—representing two-thirds of the initial Tang army strength—defected to the Abbasids, and played a vital role in routing the Chinese.

After the battle, the caliph quickly dispatched an envoy to Chang'an, who arrived on 7 December 752 to ask for the restoration of diplomatic relations.[5] In response, the Tang emperor forgave the Abbasids' provocation, but continued to expand into Central Asia. With the An Lushan rebellion in 755, Arab influence and control west of the Pamir Mountains was able to spread without opposition from Tang China, which redeployed all available military forces back into China's interior in order to suppress the rebellion.[6] By 821, though the Arab Muslims had lost direct control over their Central Asian territories, and the Turkic Ghaznavids rose to power in the region in 977. The gains brought about by the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana were entirely lost in 1124, when the non-Muslim Qara Khitai conquered the region. The Abbasids placed great value on controlling this area as it was a strategic point on the Silk Road.

Chinese prisoners captured at Talas in 751 are said to have introduced papermaking to the peoples of West Asia, although this account is disputed by several findings.

  1. ^ N.Y.), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York; Leidy, Denise Patry; Strahan, Donna K. (2010). Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 96. ISBN 978-1-58839-399-9.
  2. ^ a b Bai 2003, pp. 224–225.
  3. ^ Barthold, William (2003), Turkestan down to the Mongol invasion, London: Oxford University Press, p. 196
  4. ^ Kennedy, Hugh (2013). The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. pp. 96–99. ISBN 978-1-134-53113-4.
  5. ^ Bai 2003, pp. 241–242.
  6. ^ Pangelinan, James G. (2015). From Red Cliffs to Chosin: the Chinese Way Of War. Hauraki. pp. 80–81. ISBN 978-1-78289-988-4.


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