In July of that year, the Tang and Abbasid armies clashed at the Talas River over control of the regions surrounding the Syr Darya.

[3] 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.

[1] The oasis towns on the Silk Road in central Asia had once been controlled by the Türgesh, but the Turkic tribal confederation plunged into chaos in the latter half of the 7th century.

In 705, Qutayba ibn Muslim started to lead the Umayyad army on campaigns to conquer towns across along the Silk Road, exploiting Türgesh infighting.

[7] At the same time, Türgesh tribes established metal industries in Tang-controlled Fergana Valley, an area that was also home to important centres of iron production.

The Karluks, a federation of three Türgesh tribes with settlements around Tian Shan, were producers and exporters of iron weapons to the Tibetan Empire and the Tang dynasty.

[8] In 747, the Tang general Gao Xianzhi, who had successfully fought the Tibetan empire in the Pamir Mountains, established control over the Gilgit region.

The Abbasid general Ziyad ibn Salih [ar][1] escaped from Tashkent to Samarkand, where he gathered troops and marched eastwards to confront the Tang army.

During the reign of Lalitaditya Muktapida, the Karkota dynasty of Kashmir that acknowledged the Tang as suzerain or their vassal lord, supported the Chinese against the Tibetans.

[10] According to art historians Denise Patry Leidy and Donna K. Strahan, Kashmir "helped defeat the Arabas at the Battle of Talas in 751".

[13] Gao Xianzhi's official position was that of the Anxi Jiedu envoy,[14] The total number of Tang troops in the jurisdiction was 24,000 and was stationed in the four countries of Qiuzi, Yanqi, Khotan, and Shule.

Gao Xianzhi had assembled his army in a similar manner, with his professionally-trained heavy infantry of crossbowmen and spearmen in the front and in the second line respectively, and the lighter columns of Ferghana mercenaries behind, with the Karluk Turks on the extreme far right and left flanks.

[19] The Tang army was subjected to a devastating defeat, owing to the defection of the Karluk mercenaries and the retreat of Ferghana allies who originally supported the Chinese.

Despite losing the battle, Li did inflict heavy losses on the pursuing Arab army after being reproached by Duan Xiushi.

[20] 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.

[22][23][24][25][26] The An Lushan rebellion ended the Tang presence in central Asia and forced them to withdraw from the northwestern frontier; because the Abbasids did not advance any further after the battle, Talas was of no strategic importance.

[35] The An Lushan rebellion broke out in 755 and lasted until 763, forcing the Tang army to retreat from the northwestern frontier after enjoying around a century of sovereignty.

[38] The Tang dynasty recovered its power decades after the An Lushan rebellion and was still able to launch offensive conquests and campaigns like its destruction of the Uyghur Khaganate in Mongolia during 840–847.

From Dunhuang in China, along the edge of the Takla Makan desert, passing through oasis towns such as Kucha, roads went through a region Arabs called Transoxiana.

Muslim influence along these central Asian trade routes had started in the 8th century, one key event being the battle of Talas.

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.

Neither Tabari nor early Arabic historical works make any mention of this; however, Athir's statement is confirmed by the Chinese History of the Tang Dynasty.

[page needed] The Tang commander Feng Changqing, who took over the position from Gao Xianzhi through Wang Zhengjian, virtually swept across the Kashmir region and captured Gilgit shortly two years later.

Ferghana, which participated in the battle earlier, in fact joined among the central Asian auxiliaries with the Chinese army under a summons and entered Gansu during the An Lushan Rebellion in 756.

[60] Bai also noted that neither did the relations between the Chinese and Arabs worsen, as the Abbasids continued to send embassies to China after the battle without interruption.

[61] Xue Zongzheng came to the conclusion that other than the transfer of paper, there is no evidence to support a geopolitical or demographic change resulting from this battle.

In 753, the Karluk Yabghu submitted under the column of Cheng Qianli and captured A-Busi, a Chinese mercenary who had defected to the Tongluo chief earlier in 743, receiving his title in court on 22 October.