Who won the Battle of Talas?
The Abbasid Caliphate and its Karluk allies won the Battle of Talas in 751, defeating a Tang Chinese army in Central Asia in the only battle ever fought between the Tang and Abbasid empires. The defeat marked the western limit of Tang power, although it was the An Lushan rebellion of 755, more than Talas itself, that ended Chinese influence west of the Tarim Basin. By a disputed tradition, prisoners taken in the battle also brought papermaking from China to the Islamic world.1
In the summer of 751, on the Talas river in the heart of Central Asia, the Tang and Abbasid empires met in battle for the only time. A Tang Chinese army that had pushed far to the west collided with an Abbasid Arab army advancing from the opposite direction.2
Two empires reach the same frontier
In the eighth century the Tang dynasty was at its height, its power reaching deep into Central Asia through client states and garrisons. From the west, the young Abbasid Caliphate, heir to the Arab conquests that began with victories such as Yarmouk and went on through Persia into Transoxiana, pressed toward the same region. Between them lay a patchwork of Turkic and Central Asian peoples whose quarrels drew both great powers in, until their forces finally met on the Talas river.
Where was the Battle of Talas?
The battle was fought in the valley of the Talas River, near the medieval town of Talas, in the borderland of present-day Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The exact battlefield is not known. Even the site of medieval Talas is uncertain: Barry Hoberman judged that it probably lay nearer the Kazakh city of Taraz than the modern Kyrgyz town of Talas.3
Taraz itself, known as Dzhambul in the Soviet era, stands on the Talas River, which is why many modern accounts place the battle in southern Kazakhstan, while others simply speak of the Talas valley on the Kazakh-Kyrgyz border.4
The armies at Talas
The Tang general Gao Xianzhi led an army that included Chinese troops and Central Asian allies, notably a contingent of Karluk Turks. Facing him was an Abbasid-led force under Ziyad ibn Salih with its own regional allies. The exact numbers are poorly recorded and disputed, but both sides fielded substantial armies far from their heartlands.5
How many soldiers fought at Talas?
Nobody knows for certain. Chinese accounts put Gao Xianzhi's army of Chinese and Ferghana troops at about 30,000 men, while Arabic accounts speak of 100,000. According to Adam Ali, the Chinese side in turn credited the Abbasids with 200,000; he regards all these figures as inflated and estimates 30,000 to 50,000 men on each side.6
The written record is thin and late, as it is for many ancient Chinese battles such as Red Cliffs. One of the detailed Chinese accounts comes from Du Huan, one of the men captured at Talas, who also supplied material for the encyclopedia compiled by his relative Du You. On the Arabic side the key sources are Ibn al-Athir (1160 to 1233) and al-Dhahabi (1274 to 1348), both writing centuries after the battle, and al-Tabari does not mention Talas at all.7
The Karluk betrayal
According to Chinese accounts the fighting lasted five days and stayed evenly balanced for most of that time. The turning point came when, according to Chinese sources, the Karluk allies in the Tang army switched sides and attacked the Chinese from the rear. Caught between the Abbasid front and the Karluks behind, the Tang army broke. It was destroyed, and Adam Ali notes that in both versions of the battle its losses reach up to 30,000 men.8
Not every historian accepts the Chinese story of a sudden betrayal. Barry Hoberman and Adam Ali both suggest that the Karluks may already have been allied with the Abbasids, so that their blow against the Tang rear was planned in advance.9
The edge of two worlds
Talas marked the high-water mark of Tang expansion westward; soon afterward the great An Lushan rebellion forced China to pull back from Central Asia for good. The region gradually came into the orbit of Islam. Tradition also holds that Chinese prisoners taught papermaking to their captors, helping the craft spread through the Islamic world and eventually to Europe, though historians such as Jonathan Bloom doubt the story.10
Did the Battle of Talas spread papermaking to the Islamic world?
Possibly, but the link rests on tradition. The medieval writer al-Tha'alibi reported that Chinese prisoners taken by Ziyad ibn Salih introduced papermaking to Samarkand, and Encyclopaedia Iranica presents this only as what was supposed to have happened. Jonathan Bloom points out that paper was already in use in Central Asia before Islam arrived.11
The traditional chronology, as Britannica gives it, has papermaking reach Samarkand in 751 and Baghdad by 793. Bloom cites older evidence: Sogdian letters written on paper, which he dates to the fourth to sixth centuries, and paper documents from Mount Mugh from the time of the Arab invasion of 722 to 723. He also notes that Ibn Khaldun credited the vizier al-Fadl ibn Yahya, under Harun al-Rashid, with bringing paper manufacture to Baghdad. Whatever the role of the Talas captives, Samarkand paper became a prized product of the city.12
Why was the Battle of Talas important?
Talas is the only battle fought between the Tang and the Abbasid Caliphate, and it marked the western limit of Tang power. It did not end Tang ambitions in Central Asia on its own: the armies defeated there were already overextended, and the An Lushan rebellion of 755 drew Tang troops home from the west.13
Hoberman calls it an exaggeration to treat Talas as the sole cause of the Chinese withdrawal, pointing to defeats on other Tang frontiers in the same years; Britannica likewise notes a failed campaign against Nanzhao in the southwest. The rebellion, which was not put down until 763, left the dynasty lastingly weakened, and Encyclopaedia Iranica observes that Chinese influence in the Tarim Basin began to wane after Talas. For the caliphate, King's College London describes the battle as the point where Islamic expansion eastward came to a halt. For the Arab advance in the west, see Tours in 732.14
Talas is one of the battles in the medieval battles quiz. Can you place it on the map? Try Where Was It Fought?, or play today's Battle of the Day.
