Battle of Talas

The Battle of Talas (Chinese: 怛羅斯戰役; pinyin: Dáluósī Zhànyì; Arabic: معركة نهر طلاس, romanized: Maʿrakat nahr Ṭalās) was an armed confrontation between the Abbasid Caliphate along with 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 Karluks—representing two-thirds of the initial Tang army strength—defected to the Abbasids, and played a vital role in routing the Tangs.

After the battle, the caliph dispatched an envoy to the emperor, who arrived in December 752 to negotiate the restoration of diplomatic relations. In response, the Tangs reconciled with the Abbasids, but continued to expand into Central Asia. With the An Lushan rebellion in 755, Abbasid influence and control west of the Pamir Mountains was able to spread without opposition from the Tang government, which redeployed all available military forces back into China's interior in order to suppress the rebellion. By 821, though the Abbasids had lost direct control over their Central Asian territories, and the Mamluk 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.