Battle of Talas

The Battle of Talas (Chinese: 怛羅斯戰役 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 AD. 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, it was initially marked by several days of military stalemate before the balance of power was decisively tipped in the Abbasids' favour due to the defection of a Tang-allied mercenary column, consisting of some 20,000 Karluk Turks, who subsequently played a vital role in routing the Tang army.

This defeat was seen by the Western world as the end of the Tang dynasty's westward expansion. However, the caliph quickly dispatched an envoy to Chang'an, who arrived on 7 December 752 to ask for the restoration of diplomatic relations. In response, the Tang emperor forgave the Abbasids' provocation, but continued to expand into Central Asia; the Tang army, under the leadership of Feng Changqing, launched an offensive against the Great Blue Kingdom in present-day Kashmir in 753. By 821, the Arab Muslims had lost direct control over their Central Asian territories, and the Turkic-origin 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.