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Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan overlap to the east of
Tashkent. In the late 740s, this was the zone of operations of an
enterprising Chinese general named Gao Hsien-Chih, the Tang
commander at the Battle of the Talas River.The Abbasids
x Meanwhile, a new power was making its presence known in
the area: the Abbasid caliphate. Much like the Tang dynasty,
the Abbasid caliphate was an aggressive, expansionist empire
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x Under the Abbasids, the city of Baghdad became a great center of
culture, much like Chang’an. In 750, the establishment of Baghdad
as the Abbasid capital was yet in the future, but the Abbasid armies
were pushing ever eastward toward central Asia and India.x The Arabic armies still possessed strong momentum from their
initial wave of conquests of the eastern and southern Mediterranean.
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inevitable: they were both new, vigorous empires, looking to
H[SDQGWKHLULQÀXHQFHDQGSRZHUBattle of the Talas River
x The incident that led directly to the Battle of the Talas River
concerned some petty central Asian kingdoms. The rulers of
Ferghana and Tashkent were feuding, and the king of Ferghana
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Tashkent, in turn, sought aid from the Abbasids, and both the
Chinese and the Abbasids responded by dispatching armies.
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standard formation, with a line of archers in front, the spear men
drawn up behind them, and the heavy cavalry to the rear. In addition,
there were lightly armed skirmishers and a cavalry reserve.