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

November 24th, 2022

Awake Goy

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

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.