The 751 AD Battle Of Talas Deciding The Fate Of Medieval Central Asia

In the eighth century, as Charlemagne forged his European empire, and the Vikings emerged from the bowels of Scandinavia as the most fearsome raiders of their time, fierce battles raged simultaneously in a landscape, replete with rugged deserts, titanic mountains and endless plains, in a faraway land to the East. The battleground was in Central Asia, an enormous region tucked in between the Middle East and the Far East where the Arabs, Turks, Tibetans, and Chinese fought relentlessly to impose their political authority on each other, and on the diverse and ancient realms they aspired to make their subjects. Amidst the uneasy alliances, violent betrayals, and brutal conflicts, two major players, the Chinese and the Arabs, would meet in pitched battle for the first and last time in 751, in what would be a clash of cultures and arms that would determine the fate of medieval Central Asia. 

Arabs besieging the city of Samarkand, captured in 722 AD. Palace of Devastich (706-722), Penjikent mural (Public Domain)

The Tibetan-Türgish Alliance

In the year 729, the army of the Tibetan kingdom was called upon by its ally, the Türgish, a Turkic confederation, to intervene in the province of Sogdia located in Western Central Asia, at the request of the native Khurasanians. Open conflict had erupted here after an Arab invasion by the Umayyad governor, Asras al-Sulami, and the introduction of a series of repressive policies. The combined regiments of the Türgish, the Khurasanians and the Tibetans proved too much for the Arabs, who lost all their gains in Sogdia with the exception of the ancient city of Samarkand and the fortresses of al-Dabusiyya and Kamarga, which remained in their possession.

Possible Sogdian King Devashtish, executed in the autumn of 722. National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikista (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The Türgish, and their enigmatic leader Su-lu (or Suluk) commenced their reclamation of Sogdian land by besieging the smaller stronghold of Kamarga, but they were met with stiff Arab resistance. With the Arabs holding up very well, Su-lu made the unusual step of bringing in Khusraw, a descendant of the last Sassanid emperor of the Persian empire, Yazdigird III and captive of the Türgish, in an effort to persuade the Arabs to lay down their arms. However, despite his demand for the restoration of the Sassanid throne, the Arabs remained unconvinced, compelling Su-lu to launch a frontal assault. With Su-lu leading the charge within the reach of Arab archers, the Türgish commander was extremely lucky not to have picked up a mortal wound. Beckwith, in his 1987-book The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia describes the battle: “…the Nagi shot him, and did not miss his nostril; but he had Tibetan armor on, and the shot did not harm him. And the Saybani shot him; but none of him was exposed except for his two eyes. Then Ghalib al-Muhagir shot him, and the arrow penetrated his breast, and he bent over. And that was the worst thing that pierced the qaghan.”

Su-lu’s Tibetan armor, which was made of chainmail woven so fine that only his eyes would have been uncovered, had saved him, and although they had failed to seize Kamarga, the Türgish, with the support of their Tibetan allies, managed to reestablish their dominance in the region shortly thereafter. The next year, in 730, the Tibetans and the Türgish signed an alliance, which was formally confirmed with the marriage of the Tibetan princess Dron Ma Lod to Su-lu in 734. Yet the Tibetans’ efforts to establish closer ties with the Turks had not gone unnoticed by their powerful neighbor T’ang China. Chinese suspicions were confirmed the next year in 735, when with the capture of a Türgish envoy Kül Inancu, in the Pamir Mountains, documents revealed that formal ties had indeed been established. Over the next few years, the T’ang would look to irreparably break them.

Turkic warrior in a mural from Tumxuk (Public Domain)

The Collapse of the Türgish Confederacy

In 735, with their borders being frequently raided by the Türgish, the Chinese made an alliance of their own with another Arab, Wang Hu-ssu, the Amir of Khurasan, who ruled over much of the Arab east. They were swiftly called into action over the Winter of 735 and 736 after a major Türgish offensive on their strongholds at Pei-t’ing and Aksu. Sensing a perfect opportunity to extinguish the troublesome Türgish, the Chinese T’ang Dynasty Emperor Hsüan-tsung (or Xuanzong) hatched a plan which involved drawing the Türgish armies to Pei-t’ing and away from their homeland of Sûyâb, which would be left defenseless and open to an attack by the forces of Niu Hsien-k'o, the military governor of Ho-hsi. Emperor Hsüan-tsung was so convinced about his plan he is reported to have uttered: “They have led their dogs and sheep to violate our fortresses. This is the day they are going to die!” (Beckwith, 1987)

Chinese officer of the Guard of Honor. Tomb of Princess Chang-le (?????), Zhao Mausoleum, Shaanxi province (Public Domain)

The emperor’s confidence was not unfounded as the Chinese beat back the Türgish at Pei-t’ing, killing one of Su-lu’s most valued generals. With Su-lu’s forces depleted, he had no option but to sue for peace, and although Emperor Hsüan-tsung thought seriously about unleashing his battalions into Sûyâb to take the Turkish motherland, he eventually accepted their surrender on September 16, 736, realizing it was a little too overambitious to start a counter-invasion.

In addition, the Chinese emperor had other pressing issues to address, as the Tibetans had invaded Balür (or Balhae) in Central Asia at roughly the same time in an attempt to help out the Türgish. In reaction, the Chinese broke the terms of their seven-year peace agreement and invaded north-eastern Tibet in early 737, in a raid that was so unexpected that the Tibetans quickly submitted. However later that year, and in clear defiance to the message the Chinese had forcefully communicated, the Tibetans defeated the T’ang vassal king of Little Balür, securing Tibetan trade routes at the same time as removing Chinese influence in the region.

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But the Chinese were making their presence known elsewhere, and the collapse of the Türgish confederacy was presenting them with an opportunity that was too good to miss. The Türgish had been annihilated in December 737 by the Arabs, who had surprised Su-lu by launching an assault in the middle of Winter after the latter’s invasion of Arab Khurasan.

Having been completely and utterly defeated, Su-lu returned to Sûyâb with hardly any men and was murdered by one of his rivals Kül Cur with the support of the T’ang Chinese, who attempted to bring the states of the Türgish confederation back into their orbit. After removing all the other claimants, Kül Cur signed a treaty on November 4, 739 with Emperor Hsüan-tsung, in an agreement that was to be the first step of a Chinese plot to destabilize the Türgish realm.

Map of the Tibetan Empire at its greatest extent between the 780s and the 790s AD (Javierfv1212 /CC BY-SA 3.0)

The Chinese Campaigns against Tibet

Meanwhile, with their former allies changing allegiances and the Chinese still occupying their north-western frontier, the Tibetans desperately tried to broker peace by the end of 737 by sending an envoy to the T’ang court, but to no avail.  Forced into a corner with seemingly no escape, the Tibetans lashed out at their occupiers by assaulting Ho-hsi in Spring 738 where they were quickly deterred by Chinese forces, who retaliated by seizing the major Tibetan outpost the Chinese referred to as the New City.

Tang and Tibet Stele (Inhorw/CC BY-SA 3.0)

It was to be the opening move of a wider offensive against the Tibetans, whose frontiers were invaded from three different directions that Summer by the Chinese. Mercilessly ravaging through Tibet, the Ch’ih-ling stele, which had formalized the peace treaty between China and Tibet in 730, was first destroyed by T’ang marauders. Next they seized the Yellow River Bridge and started the construction of a Chinese outpost called Yen-ch’uan, where they stationed the Chen-hsi army, or Garrison of the West.

The Tibetans only achieved limited success in the east of their realm, where they were able to fend off a Chinese army trying to reestablish a foothold in the city of An-jung, the area’s most important stronghold. In 740 however it fell back into enemy hands and its garrison was massacred with the help of a Tibetan traitor, in a major blow that helped the Chinese further prevent support from reaching Tibetan liberation efforts to the west. With the Tibetans at their lowest ebb, hopes were revived after the marriage of the Tibetan princess Lady Khri Ma Lod to the king of Little Balür in Autumn 740 bolstered the embattled empire with new vassal states around the Pamirs.

Statuette of an armored Turkic soldier (eighth century) (Public Domain)

In the meantime, and in an appointment designed to fracture a Türgish regime that was just beginning to unify under Kül Cur, the Chinese installed Ar?ïla Hsin as the new king, decreeing that Hsin’s wife was to be the Princess of Chiao-ho, a title that had previously been bestowed on the wife of Su-lu, the deposed former monarch. The ferocity of Kül Cur’s subsequent rebellion surprised the Chinese, who temporarily backtracked on their plan and reinstated him back to the throne. Although he had regained his position Kül Cur’s power was considerably reduced, after he was forced to submit to the T’ang by the end of 740. But Chinese recognition of Kül Cur was only ever a temporary tactical pause, as Emperor Hsüan-tsung waited for a better opportunity to install his own puppet Ar?ïla Hsin as the Türgish chieftain.

T’ang cavalry mounted warrior. Shaanxi Provincial Museum, Xi'an, T’ang and Following Dynasties Gallery (Gary Todd/ CC BY-SA 4.0)

T’ang China Dominates Central Asia

In 741, as the T’ang exercised newfound suzerainty over Central Asia, they were met with the disconcerting news that the governor of Arabic Khurasan had launched a devastating sortie into the central Asian kingdom of Ferghana, a Chinese vassal state. As a result, an envoy from Ferghana was sent to the Chinese emperor to request assistance: “Now that the Turks are subject to the Heavenly Qaghan [the Chinese emperor], it is only the Arabs that are the cause of suffering among the nations. I request that you punish them.” (Beckwith, 1987.)

Emperor Hsüan-tsung or Xuanzong of the T’ang Dynasty (reign 8 September 712– 12 August 756)  (Public Domain)

Emperor Hsüan-tsung refused, not least because for the time being he wanted to maintain his alliance with the Arabs, who had sent several diplomatic missions over the years to the Chinese court. He was also preoccupied with scheming the downfall of the Türgish in 742, once again attempting to replace Kül Cur with Ar?ïla Hsin. When Hsin arrived at the city of Kulan he was murdered immediately, giving Emperor Hsüan-tsung the excuse he needed to order a punitive expedition in 744. Kül Cur was promptly executed for his misdeeds and Tu-mo-tu, a popular Türgish chieftain who was sympathetic to the Chinese, was crowned king in his stead.

In addition to this, the T’ang Dynasty were busy finishing off their conquest of Tibet, who in 740 sent news to Emperor Hsüan-tsung that one of his female relatives, who had married into the Tibetan aristocracy, had died. As well as refusing another round of peace talks, he illustrated his hatred for the Tibetans by delaying the traditional period of mourning for the princess until Spring of 741. In response, the Tibetans destroyed the Chinese city of Ta-hua hsien, and like the Chinese had done the previous year at An-jung, they slaughtered every man, woman, and child they could find. The Chinese hit back during the Winter of 742 and 743, mounting another brutal attack on the north-western region of Tibet, ravaging the 30,000 strong Tibetan defense and butchering and imprisoning 5,000 of them. This was followed up in the Spring of 743, when Chinese commander Huang-fu chased the Tibetans down before overrunning the fortress of Hung-chi City.

Emperor Hsüan-tsung (Xuanzong) depicted giving an audience to Gar Tongtsen Yulsung, the ambassador of the Tibetan Empire, in a later copy of a painting by court artist Yan Liben (600–673 AD) (Public Domain)

Shi-pao City was next on the Chinese hit list, but in 745 a courageous Tibetan garrison repulsed the attempt by Huang-fu, whose assistant-general and a number of other esteemed noblemen were killed. It marked the start of a Tibetan reprisal, and as Winter approached, they took full control of the countryside surrounding Shi-pao City, where demobilized Chinese forces waited to continue their campaign in Spring. Chinese patrols found themselves increasingly powerless against Tibetan raids, who in true guerrilla fashion would steal Chinese grain when it was ready to be harvested in a yearly exercise that became so commonplace that the Chinese jokingly nicknamed the area, ‘Tibetan Grain Estates’. Wang Chung-ssu, the commander who had replaced the disgraced Huang-fu, gave a realistic assessment of the situation to the displeasure of the Chinese emperor, who reportedly nearly had him killed as a result: “Shih-pao is strongly defended. The whole Tibetan nation is guarding it. Now if we array our troops below it, we cannot capture it without several tens of thousands of men being killed. I am afraid that what would be gained is not comparable to what would be lost”. (Beckwith, 1987)

Tomb soldier figurine, T’ang Dynasty (Public Domain)

With Shi-pao seemingly impregnable, the Chinese refocused efforts on the other warfront in the Pamir-Karakorum area, where the Tibetan vassal state of Little Balür had vigorously resisted three attempts by the Chinese to annex the territory. In the Spring of 747 Kao-Hsien-chih, a Chinese general of Korean heritage, led an invasion force of 10,000 Chinese and non-Chinese soldiers accompanied by cavalry, to retake the Tibetan fort of Lien-yün. Splitting his men into three groups, Kao and his lieutenants launched a successful trifold attack on Lien-yün, leading to the deaths of 5,000 Tibetans and the imprisonment of a further 1,000. Lien-yün provided the vital stepping-stone the Chinese needed for their full-scale assault of neighboring Little Balür. In Autumn 747 they accepted the surrender of the king of Balür and his Tibetan princess, executed any Tibetan officials they could get their hands on, and demolished a suspension bridge to block the path of Tibetan relief forces. 

Emboldened by their victory, in the Summer of 749 an enormous T’ang army of 63,000 men tried once again to breach the walls of Shi-pao. For the first few days it looked as if they were going to fail yet again, with progress so slow that the Chinese commander Qosu Khan threatened to execute his generals if they did not seize the fort in three days. Battling for their lives, the generals ramped up the intensity, and at the cost of tens of thousands of men, exactly as Wang Chung-ssu had warned, they managed to take it. Qosu Khan was showered with gifts and the highest honors by Emperor Hsüan-tsung, further distinguishing himself in another campaign later in 749 by eradicating Tibetans located in the nearby Kingdom of Chieh-shih, who in the face of Chinese aggression had become partners with Tibet. Afterwards Qosu Khan’s reputation spread far and wide even to the West, where he was known as ‘the lord of mountains’ of China thereafter.

Balami - Tarikhnama - Abu'l-'Abbas al-Saffah is proclaimed the first Abbasid Caliph (Public Domain)

Thanks to their ceaseless efforts, in 750 the Chinese empire of the T’ang was at the apex of its power. It had established total political control over the states that had formally been part of the Türgish confederacy, brought Tibet to its knees, and secured its position in the rest of Central Asia through a network of alliances with vassal states such as Ferghana and Tashkent. However, at the same time as China had impressively imposed its authority, the Arabs were experiencing a similar renaissance. From 747 the Abbasid Caliphate had ousted the Umayyads, and in a short space of time had brought Samarkand, Bukhara, Merv, and other major settlements back under its wing. It was a development that immediately threatened Chinese ascendancy in Central Asia, a land the Arabs now hoped to colonize.

Turkic officers during an audience with king Varkhuman of Samarkand (648-651) Afrasiyab murals, Samarkand (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The Arabs versus the Chinese:  the Battle of Talas

In 750, the kingdoms of Ferghana and Tashkent declared war on each other, with the T’ang Dynasty deciding to support Ferghana in the conflict. The Chinese sent 100,000 men under the command of Kao-Hsien-chih, who had successfully captured the fort of Lien-yün in Tibet, and laid waste to Tashkent, killing the old and weak and enslaving the city’s youth. Returning to China in early 751, the triumphant general brought with him two captives to please his sovereign including the King of Tashkent, Cabï?, and his family. Cabï? was beheaded, but his son Yüan-en managed to escape custody and ride all the way to Samarkand, which was under the control of the Arab governor Ziyâd b ?ali?. On hearing the news, and in partnership with several lesser Central Asian kingdoms tired of being T’ang slaves, Ziyâd mobilized a massive army to meet the Chinese in battle, who were again to be led by Kao-Hsien-chih, in a showdown that was to be the only military engagement ever recorded between the Arabs and the Chinese.

In July 751, both warring parties met at the southern bank of the River Talas, which nowadays straddles the border of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The Chinese army comprised of 10,000 Chinese soldiers and a further 20,000 made up of Karluk Turk mercenaries as well as a detachment from Ferghana. The Arabs were equally matched, with an estimated 30,000 combatants looking to banish the Chinese from Central Asia once and for all. 

The Battle of Talas July 751  (SY -/CC BY-SA 4.0)

The fight for Central Asia commenced in the last week of July 751 when the advanced guard of the Abbasid army, spotting the Chinese on open ground, started to dig trenches on a hillside and form phalanxes, so that they could defend themselves until the main branch of the army under Ziyâd arrived. With Kao just about to unleash his men on the numerically inferior Arab regiment, Ziyâd appeared just in time, forcing Kao to call off his offense and fall back to Taraz.

From here Kao engaged the Arabs in a pitched battle that lasted five days, with each side hoping to exhaust the other. Both armies hoped to achieve this by using the same tactics, such as forming shield walls and allowing their archers to unleash volleys of arrows, with the cavalry occasionally mounting quick attacks. On the fifth day of the battle, the tide turned in the Arabs’ favor after the Karluk Turk mercenaries of the Chinese, which made up two-thirds of their entire force, betrayed their masters by switching sides to the Arabs and harried their former employers at their rear. It is likely that as T’ang subjects, and realizing that the Chinese were losing, the Turks decided to hedge their bets with the Arabs, who were relative newcomers to the Central Asia scene.

T'ang Dynasty mounted archer in the act of shooting (VK Cheong/ CC BY-SA 3.0)

Although Kao and his troops courageously held out until nightfall, they eventually had to escape back to their camp to avoid certain death. With the Arabs closing in, a council was convened where Kao, his pride shaken, let it be known that he wanted to continue fighting the next day. However, his lieutenant, Li-Su-yeh, objected to the general’s risky plan, and managed to successfully convince him that the best course of action was to flee if they wanted to avoid total annihilation. The next morning, the Chinese army hastily retreated through a narrow mountain pass called the White Stone Mountains, but having nearly escaped the Chinese were betrayed again, this time by the soldiers of Ferghana who hoped to block their exit route. Li-Su-yeh brutally put down the Ferghana remnants and was able to reopen the mountain pass, which enabled many T’ang officers, including Kao himself, to avoid capture by the Arabs. The Chinese infantry were not so lucky, and many of them were imprisoned and forcibly moved to Samarkand, where it is commonly believed they introduced the art of papermaking to the Arabs.

Rebalancing the Scales

With the Arabs triumphant and the Chinese dragon beaten, the Battle of Talas marked a significant turning point in the geo-political power balance of Central Asia. The Abbasids now became ascendant in the region and transformed it into an important province, which remained stable until the Mongol invasions of the 13th century plunged it back into chaos.

A late T’ang mural commemorating the victory of General Zhang Yichao over the Tibetans in 848 AD, from Mogao cave (Public Domain)

As for the T’ang, they began destroying themselves in an internecine struggle from 755, resulting in the greatest reestablishment of Tibetan power of the age, which saw them not only take back their stolen territories, but make significant inroads into China itself in an unstoppable forward thrust that was only halted by the signing of the Sino-Tibetan Treaty in 821. As a result, China was isolated from the West and were never again able to establish a presence in Central Asia.

Jake Leigh-Howarth holds a masters degree in Modern History from the University of Leeds, where he specialized in the travelogues of Western visitors to Soviet Central Asia. His favorite historical periods include the Tamerlane Empire, the Mongolian Empire, and the Eleusinian Mysteries of Ancient Greece.

Top Image: Mural of Turkic cavalry, Beshbalik (10th Century)(CC0)

By: Jake Leigh-Howarth

References

Beckwith, C. 1987. The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia. Princeton University Press. 

Britannica. Abbasid caliphate. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Abbasid-caliphate

Carter, J. 2020. When China collided with the Middle East: The Battle of Talas River and the height of Tang supremacy. The China Project. Available at: https://thechinaproject.com/2020/07/22/the-battle-of-talas-river-and-the-height-of-tang-supremacy/ .

Donvito, F. 2015. Treacherous auxiliaries. Medieval Warfare, 5:1.