Battle of Talas 751: Karluk Defection and the Paper-Making Myth

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In July 751, near the modern border of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the armies of Tang China and the newly founded Abbasid Caliphate met at the Talas River in a contest for the oasis cities of the Silk Road. The war began with Tang general Gao Xianzhi, who accepted the surrender of the king of Shash, near modern Tashkent, then plundered the city anyway and had the king executed in Chang'an. The king's son fled to Samarkand and begged the Abbasid general Ziyad ibn Salih to intervene. Modern estimates put each side at around 30,000 men, far below the 200,000 and 100,000 claimed in Chinese and Arab records.

For five days, Tang crossbows with bronze trigger mechanisms struck at an Abbasid shield wall of interlocked, angled shields. Then 20,000 Karluk mercenaries, two thirds of the Tang army, switched sides and attacked from the rear. Only about 2,000 Chinese soldiers escaped. The episode then examines two big claims: that Talas ended Chinese power in Central Asia, when the An Lushan rebellion of 755 is what pulled the Tang garrisons home, and that captured artisans brought papermaking to the Islamic world.

• Retreating through a gorge in the Tian Shan blocked by their own Ferghana allies, Li Siye's cavalry cut a path through those allies so Gao could escape.
• Abu Muslim considered pushing further east but was recalled by the caliph to deal with threats at home.
• A few years later the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur sent Arab troops to help the Tang emperor fight the An Lushan rebels, and many stayed and settled in China.
• Sogdian letters on paper found around Turpan predate the battle, so the technology was already moving west along the trade routes.
• Captured artisans in Samarkand likely helped shift papermaking from mulberry bark to rag fibers from old linen and cotton.