July 751 · Central Asia (Talas River) Theater
July 751
Far to the east, the expanding Abbasid Caliphate collided with the other great empire of the age — Tang China — at the Talas River in Central Asia. When the Turkic Karluk allies of the Chinese defected to the Arabs during the battle, the Tang army was destroyed, checking Gao Xianzhi's immediate campaign; it did not by itself determine the long-term frontier.
Commanders