From a Quora

China Focus ·
Jamie Wright

Feb 20
Huang Kun
History buff and tech practitioner living in the tropicsUpdated 1y

What is one major Chinese historical event that had a huge impact on the
world, but is hardly covered or known about today?
The Battle of Talas between the armies of Arabs and Chinese in 751 AD
could be considered an event that eventually had a huge impact on the
rest of the world. The battle itself was barely noticed or remembered
today but it did help change the course of history.

The Battle of Talas (picture)

In 751 AD, the Arabs were in the ascendancy. At the time, the Arab
caliphate was ruled by the powerful Abbasid dynasty. In the East, the
Chinese empire was ruled by the great Tang dynasty. At their point of
contact in today's Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia, an event would spark a
conflict between these two great empires. Historian and Georgetown
University professor, James Millward, wrote in his book, "Eurasian
Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang", calling the conflict the "first and
last meeting of Arab and Chinese armies".

By the mid-740s, the Tang controlled trade routes both north and south
of the Tianshan mountains in modern Kyrgyzstan. Tang's general, Gao
Xianzhi, had been engaged in a series of campaigns to drive the Tibetans
out of the Pamir mountains at the time. A quarrel between the rulers of
the principality of Chach and the Kingdom of Ferghana in Central Asia
would eventually spark the conflict between the Arabs and the Chinese.
In those days, the Kingdom of Ferghana, ruled by the Ikhshids, was a
vassal of Tang.

In 750 AD, the king of Ferghana had a border dispute with the ruler of
neighboring Chach. He appealed to the Chinese, who sent General Gao to
assist Ferghana's troops. Gao besieged Chach, and offered the Chachan
king safe passage out of his capital. But Gao reneged and beheaded the
king. The son of the Chachan king escaped and sought help from Abbasid
Arab governor at Khorasan. The Arabs decided to teach Gao a lesson. They
gathered their troops and marched East. The Arabs were, of course, also
keen to take the opportunity to assert Abbasid power in the region.

The Battle

In 751 AD, the two armies finally met along the Talas river in today's
Kyrgyzstan. The Tang army was reinforced by the Karluks, a Turkic
Central Asian tribal confederacy. The Karluks would later prove
unexpectedly decisive in the forthcoming battle.

Both sides fielded tens of thousands of troops. For five days, the two
mighty armies clashed. Then the Karluks came in on the Arab side on the
fifth day and attacked the Chinese troops. The Tang army's doom was
sealed. Chinese sources imply that the Karluks had been fighting for
them, but treacherously switched sides midway through the battle,
causing their defeat. Gao managed to escape but with only a fraction of
his army.

The defeat marked the end of Tang westward expansion and resulted in
Muslim control of the Central Asia area for the next 400 years. Control
of this region was economically beneficial for the Abbasids because it
was where the Silk Road passed through.

Consequences

At the time of the battle, its significance was not clear. The
historical records of the battle are few but it was recorded in both
Chinese and Arabian accounts. Not long after the Battle of Talas, China
would be swept up by an even bigger event.

The Tang at first wanted revenge and planned to chase the Arabs out of
the Central Asia region. However, a catastrophic civil war, the An Shi
Rebellion, later consumed the whole of China from 755 to 763. The
rebellion resulted in a huge number of deaths and that the Tang empire's
population was greatly reduced. The devastation of the population was
not only a direct result of the heavy combat casualties and collateral
civilian deaths, but, due to the widespread dislocations of the
peasants, especially in the north and middle areas of China, mass
starvation and disease also resulted in the deaths of millions. The
rebellion spanned the reign of three Tang emperors and the death toll is
estimated to be up to 36 million according to some sources.

The An Shi Rebellion and its aftermath greatly weakened the centralized
bureaucracy of the Tang dynasty, especially in regards to its
perimeters. Virtually, autonomous provinces and ad hoc financial
organizations arose, giving rise to warlordism and reducing the
influence of the central government. Furthermore, the Tang government
also lost most of its control over the Western regions, due to troop
withdrawal to central China to help crush the rebellion and deal with
subsequent disturbances. Hence, continued military and economic weakness
resulted in further subsequent erosion of the Tang territorial control
during the ensuing years, particularly in the Western region. By 790 the
Chinese had completely lost control over the Tarim Basin area. The Arabs
took opportunity to further expand into Central Asia as the Tang’s
influence in the region retreated.

Nevertheless, the Battle of Talas had important consequences. The
weakened Chinese Empire was no longer in any position to interfere in
Central Asia, so the influence of the Abbassid Arabs continued to grow.
Many of the communities and tribes in Central Asia were converted to
Islam. Within the next 250 years, most of the formerly Buddhist, Hindu,
Zoroastrian, and Nestorian Christian tribes of Central Asia became
Muslim. With the decline of Central Asian Buddhism due to Islam
influence, Chinese Buddhism was cut off from Indian Buddhism and
developed into an independent religion with distinct spiritual elements.

Paper technology goes West

Most significant of all, the art of making paper is said to have spread
to the Arabs, then to the West as a result of the Battle of Talas.

According to the 11th century historian, Thaalibi, Chinese prisoners
captured at the battle helped introduce paper manufacturing to
Samarkand, a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and one of the oldest
continuously inhabited cities in Central Asia.

Some of the Chinese soldiers were said to have worked at paper mills in
China before. They were the ones who later helped build paper mills
outside of China. One of the captives was a Tang Dynasty craftsman
Tou-Houan. It was reported that he and others were brought to Baghdad
where they stayed and worked for their Islamic captors for some years.
When he returned to China, Tou wrote to the emperor that he and his
colleagues taught the Abbasid craftsmen important techniques of
paper-making, textile manufacture, and gold-working.

Soon, paper mills sprang up in Samarkand, Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo,
Delhi and in 1120 the first European paper mill was established in
Xativa, Spain (now called Valencia). Note that at the height of the Arab
domination, they controlled Spain and Portugal, as well as North Africa,
the Middle East, and large swaths of Central Asia. This facilitated the
transfer of paper-making technology to the West. From Xativa, this
Chinese invention later passed to Italy, Germany, and across Europe.

Paper, being less expensive than parchment, helped spread knowledge,
much of which was gleaned from the great Asian culture centers along the
Silk Road, that benefitted Europe during the Middle Ages. It
revolutionized the Islamic world, and later the European West. The
advent of paper technology, along with woodcut printing and later
movable-type printing, certainly fueled the advances in science,
theology, and history in the West.

Ref:

Battle of Talas - Wikipedia

The Battle That Kept the Chinese Out of Central Asia

Arabs Fought the Chinese Back in 751 at the Battle of Talas River

An Lushan Rebellion - Wikipedia

An Shi Rebellion

https://getd.libs.uga.edu/pdfs/ayers_bryan_s_200408_ma.pdf

The Invention of Paper

Edit:

Someone commented that the Karluk Turks did not treacherously switch
sides midway through the battle but were allied to the Abbasid Caliphate
right from the beginning. It was suggested that the Chinese had lied
about the supposed betrayal by the Turks in order to make excuses for
their loss at the Battle of Talas so as to cover their shame.

The truth of the matter is, nobody really knows for sure. There were not
many historical accounts of the battle and primarily, they came from
either the Chinese or the Arab sources. That means, there would be
certain biasness involved in recording the accounts of the battle. So,
principally, there are 2 versions of the battle.

According to the Chinese accounts, the battle lasted for five days. The
fighting was hard and bloody. During the first few days, the battle was
a contest between the archers and infantrymen of both Tang and Abbasid
armies in the center and the cavalry units vying for control of the
flanks. The Chinese army had a larger number of infantrymen and archers,
while the Abbasid forces were comprised of half infantry and half
cavalry. In the Chinese accounts, their forces were attacked by their
Karluk allies in the rear on the last day of the battle while the
Abbasids launched an all-out frontal attack. The Chinese army collapsed
and was routed with heavy losses. Many of the Chinese soldiers were
captured.

The second version came from Arab sources. In this version, the two
armies faced off against one another for four days. Neither side was
willing to fully commit to battle. Then on the fifth day, a third army,
the Karluk Turks, attacked the Chinese in the rear, and at the same time
the Abbasid forces launched a direct assault against the Tang army from
the front, resulting in its utter destruction. In this second account,
the Karluks had been Abbasid’ allies from the start and the Abbasid
commander, Ziyad ibn Salih, had planned the simultaneous assault with
the Karluks on the fifth day. There was never any treachery involved.

In either versions, the battle was a decisive Arab victory in any case.
In both versions, the Chinese army was completely destroyed with the
Chinese commander, General Gao, escaping. Multitudes of Chinese POWs
were taken, which aided in the transfer of paper making technology to
the West, as explained earlier. And the Chinese influence would never
extend beyond the Tarim Basin again. The Arabs would come to dominate
the region for the next few hundred years, resulting in its inhabitants
of Central Asia gradually being Islamicized.

Today, a large majority of the people in the countries of Western
Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan) are Muslims. Even Xinjiang of Eastern Central Asia was
originally dominated by Uyghur Muslims. After the People's Republic of
China was founded by Mao Zedong in 1949, he transferred large number of
Han Chinese into Xinjiang (“支边新疆” policy), resulting in today's mix of
about half Han, half Uyghur populations in Xinjiang. The Eastern Central
Asian region (Dzungarian Basin and Tarim Basin) was reconquered by China
and incorporated into a province during the late Qing dynasty. The name
Xinjiang was actually proposed by General Zuo Zongtang (General Tso) to
Qing Emperor, after he successfully led the reconquest. And today, there
is a constant tension between Uyghur and Han populations in Xinjiang.
Beijing has established many "re-education camps" in Xinjiang to house
the Uygher Muslims.

Which version of the battle to believe?

You will have to decide for yourself which version of the battle to
believe in. Understandably, such decision may be affected by one's
outlook and culture. Even the academics themselves aren’t able to come
to an agreement.

For example, Dr Kallie Szczepanski, a history expert specializing in
Asian history and culture, believes in the Arab accounts more. That is
to say, there was no treachery to begin with and the Karluk Turks were
originally allied with the Arabs at the beginning of the battle. In her
write-up for ThoughtCo on the battle, she said, "The Arab account seems
more likely since the Qarluqs (Karluks) suddenly mounted a surprise
attack on the Tang formation from the rear." She has a Ph.D. in history
from Boston University.

Not surprisingly, Prof Jin Canrong, Professor and Associate Dean at the
School of International Studies in Renmin University (one of the top
universities in China), thought otherwise. In a 2018 article on China-US
trade war and its impact to the surrounding countries, he mentioned the
Battle of Talas in his article:

“跟咱们接壤的西北地区是五个中亚的斯坦，我们古代叫西域，以前是佛家地区，然后深受中华文化影响，但是很不幸，在唐朝的时候有个怛罗斯战役，高仙芝将军领导的那支军队失败了，被阿拉伯联军打败了，军事上其实他打得很好，他就带了4万人和15万阿拉伯联军作战，初期是成功的，打得非常好，可是当地葛逻禄部雇佣兵叛变了，那么就失败了。很可惜，历史就变了，这就变成一个伊斯兰化的地区。”

Translation:

"The northwestern region bordering us are the five “Stans” of Central
Asia. We called the region the Western Territory in ancient times. It
used to be a Buddhist region, and was deeply influenced by Chinese
culture. Unfortunately, during the Tang dynasty there was this Battle of
Talas. The army led by General Gao Xianzhi failed and was defeated by
the Arab allied forces. He was actually a good military leader. He took
40,000 troops to fight with Arab allied forces of 150,000. Initially, he
was successful and fought well. However, the Karluk mercenaries
rebelled, and the Tang army lost. It’s a pity cause history was changed
and the region became Islamicised.”

Prof Jin is also a member of the Policy Planning Office of the National
People's Congress, the highest legislative body in the People's Republic
of China, and an agenda contributor to the World Economic Forum (WEF).

So, which pill would you want to take, the red or the blue? You decide.

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