When China & the Caliphate Came to Blows: the Battle of Talas
The Umayyad succession crisis of 744 brought all the accumulated political tensions in the Islamic Ummah to the fore. That year, Caliph Al-Walid II, fond of earthly pleasures and focused on the construction. . .
The Umayyad succession crisis of 744 brought all the accumulated political tensions in the Islamic Ummah to the fore. That year, Caliph Al-Walid II, fond of earthly pleasures and focused on the construction and decoration of desert palaces around Damascus[1], was overthrown by his better-regarded cousin Yazid III and took refuge in Palmyra. A brief civil war ended with Al-Walid II’s head being sent to Damascus, and yet what looked like a promising new start for the Umayyad was cut short by Yazid III’s death within six months of accession. A series of revolts followed that put Marwan II, grandson of Marwan I, as Caliph. His six-year reign was marred by criticism of a court that was seen as having evolved towards ceremonial Byzantine patterns and away from traditional Arab simplicity, as well as tax protests focused on Syria, Yemen and Palestine. In Egypt, the situation was compounded by conflicts between Arabs and non-Arab converts who, as in Al-Andalus, the Maghreb and elsewhere, sought legal and political equality; Kharijites revolted in Iraq in support of their radically egalitarian ideals, and some went as far as seizing control of Mecca and Medina. In 747, just as Marwan II regained control of Arabia and the imperial core in Syria and Iraq, distant Khorasan, where armies campaigning into Transoxiana were based, proclaimed Ibrahim al-Imam, a descendant of Muhammad’s uncle and early follower Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653), as caliph. This represented a problem of a higher degree, since the region had important military contingents and many of its most prominent officials, being the result of the Arab intermarriage with Iranian women, could call on the support of Iranian Muslims and other “mawali. ”The convergence of Tang China’s and the Caliphate’s borders where the Battle of Talas was fought.