Battle of Talas - Aftermath

Aftermath

Shortly after the battle of Talas, the domestic rebellion of An Lushan (755–63) and subsequent warlordism of the jiedushi (763 onwards) caused the decline of Tang influence in Central Asia by the end of the 700s. The local Tang tributaries then switched to the authority of the Abbasids, Tibetans, or Uighurs and the introduction of Islam was thus facilitated among the Turkic peoples. Well supported by the Abbasids, the Karluks established a state that would be absorbed in the late 9th century by the Kara-Khanid Khanate.

Abu al-'Abbas al-Saffah, whose forces were known to the Chinese as the Black Robed Ta-Shih, spent his wealth on warfare. He died in the year 752 AD. His brother who succeeded him as the second Abbasid Caliph Abu Jafar al-Mansur (r.754-775 AD) (A-p’uch’a-fo) helped the Chinese Emperor Suzong of Tang after he appealed for help during the An-Shi Rebellion in regaining control of his capital Chang'an from the treacherous commander, An Lushan, or his successors in the abortive Yan Dynasty. Abu Jafar al-Mansur responded by sending 4,000 men who recaptured the city and were well rewarded by the Chinese Emperor.

With the successful cooperation of Arabs and Turkic peoples, Islam began to exert its influence on the Turkic culture. The most important result of the battle was that the culture of Central Asia, which seemed to have been slowly turning Chinese, in fact became Islamized, though the process took some centuries. Chinese regimes would not rule again in Central Asia for a thousand years.