Strategic consequences From one perspective, the battle has been interpreted to be of great significance. The Arab-Islamic civilization prevailed over the Chinese civilization in Transoxania, consolidating Abbasid control of the region and the Silk Road, severing the alliance between the Chinese and the Turks, leading the submission and Islamization of the Turkic principalities, and forcing the Tang withdraw from Central Asia west of Xinjiang, Another perspective argues that the battle was of no strategic importance. The Abbasid victory secured the permanent establishment of Islam up to the
Amu Syr region and caused the decline of
Central Asian Buddhism, but no significant loss or gain of territory occurred and the borders remained relatively unchanged. The Muslims continued to solidify their control over western Central Asia and the battle was viewed as a mere border skirmish. Relations between the Abbasids and the Tang went back to normal almost immediately and four visits by Arab envoys to the Tang court are recorded from 752 to 753. In 755, the
An Lushan rebellion forced the Tang to withdraw troops from the
Protectorate General to Pacify the West, ending their presence in Central Asia. Chinese sources mentioned that In 754, all nine kingdoms of Western Turkestan sent petitions to the Tang to attack the Abbasids, which the Tang continued to turn down as it did for decades. According to a text by
Al-Maqdisi, one of the few Arabic sources on the battle that has survived, Abbasid general
Abu Muslim took 5,000 Chinese prisoners and confiscated possessions from the Tang military camp. Abu Muslim prepared his forces to invade further into Tang controlled territory, however he was called back by the caliph
As-Saffah to serve as governor of
Khurasan. The Abbasids took the kingdom of Shash and coerced the Tang army to evacuate the
Gilgit region. In spite of this, the Tang retained considerable influence over eastern Central Asia. In 753, Tang forces under Feng Changqing recovered the kingdoms of
Little and Great Balur in the Gilgit region. They also appointed a Turgesh khan over the tribes in the former territory of the
Western Turkic Khaganate. After the Battle of Talas, Military and political cooperation was severed for a considerable period between the Tang dynasty and the Eastern Turkic princes. With Chinese removed from the battlefield, it became inevitable for the Turkic princes to face the Abbasids alone, which led to their division. A segment of them sided with the Arabs, convinced that there was no benefit in continuing the fight, while the other segment no longer posed a serious threat but was limited to conducting hit-and-run raids. One of the outcomes of the Abbasid consolidation over Transoxania well into the mid-thirteen century, which Islam spread among the turkic people. a small number of Karluks converted to Islam. However, the majority would not convert until the mid-10th century, when
Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan established the
Kara-Khanid Khanate. Despite fighting against the Tang in 751, the Tang continued to exert influence over the Karluks, who never again opposed the Chinese. In 752, the
Karluk Yabghus sent two diplomatic missions to the Tang to cultivate closer relations, probably due to their unsuccessful efforts to overthrow the
Uyghur Khaganate. In 753, the Karluk Yabghus submitted to the army of Cheng Qianli and accepted appointment as Tang bridle officials. In late 753, the Karluks captured Abuz Yabghu, a Tang general of Turkic descent who had defected to the
Tongluo chief earlier in 743. As a reward, the Karluk Yabghu Tun Bilga was given the title of "Khagan of the Turgish" as well as the title of a Tang commandery prince on 22 October. An additional 130 tribal leaders who visited the Tang court were given substantial rewards, including official positions and material rewards. The Karluks' relationship with the Tang started drifting apart once again after the An Lushan Rebellion, and they migrated west. The Karluks expanded their settlements around
Tian Shan, and also settled westwards in Abbasid-controlled
Fergana and
Tukharistan. Iron weapons continued to be exported to Tibet and China on the Silk Roads between
Kuqa and
Aksu near the
Tarim Basin. Arabic sources record that in the 10th century Aksu and Fergana had markets for arms traders. During the reign of the Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur (140–158 AH/757–775 CE), the Abbasid forces re-established control over Transoxiana and ended the Tang military presence in the region. The Chinese were unable to form a successful alliance with the Turkic forces of Transoxiana against the Abbasids. As a result, Muslim forces faced only the armies of the Turkic rulers without Chinese support. The Turkic groups, lacking external support, were unable to mount effective resistance against the Abbasid forces, and their political cohesion weakened. They fragmented into smaller entities with limited regional influence, such as the Karluk principality east of the Syr Darya in 766 CE and the Oghuz in the same region. The Turkic groups were no longer able to form a unified military coalition or challenge Abbasid control of Transoxiana, and their activities were largely confined to occasional raids on its frontiers. Following Tang's decline in the region in the early years of Caliph al-Mansur's reign, Turkic resistance to Abbasid authority weakened significantly. The Abbasids maintained a defensive posture against potential movements by the Eastern Turks and suppressed local unrest in the frontier region. During this period, the most notable conflict on the eastern frontier involved the Ferghana Kingdom. Its ruler, Fanran ibn Afrakfun, either attacked trade caravans, refused to pay tribute to al-Mansur, or resisted Islamic expansion. In response, Caliph al-Mansur dispatched
Layth ibn Tarif, who besieged the ruler in his capital,
Kashgar. After a sustained campaign, the ruler of Ferghana was forced to negotiate peace and agree to pay a substantial sum. He subsequently sent one of his men, known as Batijur, to
Baghdad, likely either to finalize the settlement with the Abbasid court or as a hostage to guarantee compliance. According to Arabic sources, This action served to discourage other regional rulers from challenging Abbasid authority, particularly given concerns that the Tang forces might exploit regional instability to avenge their earlier defeat at Talas. Caliph al-Mansur established friendly relations with the Chinese. Historical sources mention a series of successive Arab embassies after the Battle of Talas. in 756, Abu Ja'far al-Mansur provided the Chinese
Emperor Xuanzong of Tang with a contingent of 3,000 to 4,000 soldiers to suppress the rebellion that erupted against him. After suppressing this rebellion, the Emperor allowed them to settle in China's most important cities as a reward for the assistance they provided to the Emperor. Over time, these Arabs married Chinese women, and a new generation emerged, from whom came the Muslims of China. As a result of these good relations between both sides – the Abbasids and the Chinese – Arab merchants settled in China. They had a judge (
qadi) who issued rulings according to Islamic law, led prayers, and performed Islamic rituals. The Chinese Empire granted Arabs special facilities for selling their goods, and the Emperor himself would order the purchase of some of these goods for his personal account. Thus, Arabs were able to penetrate deep into the country and practice trade with complete freedom. For a long time, Arabs found complete welcome there, to the extent that the shops of major Chinese merchants would supply Arab traders with all the products and fine manufactures they needed from their lands to be shipped in Arab caravans upon their return to the lands of Islam. The Abbasids continued to send embassies to China and 13 diplomatic gifts are recorded between 752 and 798. A massacre of foreign Muslim merchants by Tian Shengong, a former rebel who defected to the Tang, happened during the An Lushan rebellion in the
Yangzhou massacre (760).
Later history The Tibetan Empire began attacking China, during a period where the Tibetan army also conquered territory in the
Hindu Kush and
Pamir Mountains from Indian kingdoms and assisted the establishment of the eastern Indian
Pala Empire in the latter half of the 8th century. Under the fifth Abbasid caliph
Harun al-Rashid, a military alliance was established with the Tang and
Uyghurs, who engaged the Tibetan army on the western Tibetan frontier with the Abbasids. At the same time, the Uyghurs fought the Tibetans along the Silk Road. :
Mahayana Buddhism first entered China during the
Han dynasty through the Silk Road during the
Kushan Empire's existence. Maritime and overland trade routes were interlinked and complementary, forming what scholars have called the "great circle of Buddhism". Following the An Lushan rebellion, the diplomatic exchange between Buddhist Indian kingdoms and the Tang dynasty all but ceased. Prior to the An Lushan rebellion, between 640 and 750 diplomatic envoys from Indian kingdoms, often accompanied by
Buddhist monks, had regularly visited the Tang court. Chinese Buddhism developed into an independent religion with distinct spiritual elements, such as
Pure Land Buddhism and
Zen. China became the center of
East Asian Buddhism, creating a
canon and spreading on to Japan and Korea. The Battle of Talas did not mark the end of Buddhism or Chinese influence in the region. The Buddhist
Kara-Khitan Khanate defeated the
Seljuk and Kara-Khanid Turks at the
Battle of Qatwan in 1141, conquering a large part of central Asia from the Karluk
Kara-Khanid Khanate during the 12th century. The Kara-Khitans also reintroduced the Chinese system of Imperial government, since China was still held in respect and esteem in the region among even the Muslim population, and the Kara-Khitans used Chinese as an official language. The Kara-Khitan rulers were called "the Chinese" by the Muslims.
Papermaking According to the 11th-century historian
Al-Thaʽālibī, Chinese prisoners captured at the Battle of Talas in 751 introduced
paper manufacturing to
Samarkand. They engaged in the craft of papermaking while living on land occupied by the Abbasids following Talas. However, this account is unlikely to be factual.
Paper was already in use throughout
Central Asia by the 8th century; paper fragments dating to the 4th and 5th centuries have been found in the areas of
Turpan and
Gaochang, and letters written in the
Sogdian language between the 4th and 6th centuries have been found in
Dunhuang and
Loulan. One such letter was a communication with Samarkand. According to Jonathan Bloom, paper was used in Samarkand, and probably produced there, several decades before the battle. Several paper documents have also been discovered near
Panjakent at Mount Mugh, a mountain stronghold, that likely predate the
Muslim conquest of Transoxiana. They were either local or came from Buddhist monks active in the region. By the 8th century, Chinese paper was mostly made of
bast fibers while Islamic papers were mostly made of rag fibers. Bloom suggests that papermakers were already active in Central Asia for quite some time and had learned to use rag fibers rather than bast fibers as their primary papermaking material. No historic Chinese source records this transfer of technology through prisoners of war and no contemporary Arabic accounts of the transfer of paper exist.
Du Huan, who was captured by the Abbasid army at the battle of Talas and upon his return to China published his travel writings, documented that Chinese crafts such as
silk weaving were practiced by Chinese prisoners of war while living on territory controlled by the Abbasids. It may have been a convention to reference Chinese craftsmen, who had long been esteemed in Islamic lands, and Chinese paper remained a prized product for centuries. According to Al-Nadim, a writer in
Baghdad during the 10th century, Chinese craftsmen made paper in
Khorasan. It was only after the first
paper mill was built in
Baghdad in 794–795 that paper was manufactured throughout the Islamic world and paper started to replace
papyrus. == Modern evaluation ==