And I have a possible academic
founding, that I really want to discuss with you. I believe that the rise of
the Abbasid dynasty was partly relating to the confrontation between the Tang
dynasty and the Second Turkish Empire. And I will explain
The eastern Turks got back their
independence in the year 683, they set up the second Turkish empire, and it
confronted with china for decades, and China really wanted to destroy the
empire. But Turkish empire had two allies, the first one was the Kitan Tribes,
at the left flank of the Turks, the another one was Solu, the chief of the
Turgesh khanate ( he married his daughter to the Khan of the Second Turkish
empire), which was at the right flank
And according to the Chinese
historical sources, Tang emperor of, Xuánzōng
, attacked the Kitan and the Turgesh, in order to encircle and isolate the
Second Turkish Empire, and Solu was defeated , he was killed by his pro Chinese
general. And China completed her encirclement over the Second Turkish Empire.
But why was
it relating to the rise of the Abbassid Empire?
We
knew that this empire was mainly built up by the Arabian army of the Khorasan province,
and before they rose up against the
Umayyad dynasty, the Khorasan army tried to conquer the Transoxiana, those
rich oasis states at this region got help from Solu and the Turgesh tribe( even
from China, but tang only “helped” them through beautiful political words), and
Solu and his Turgesh warriors defeated the Khorasan army for several times.
But now Solu was dead, the turgesh tribe warriors fought against each other
in a bloody civil war, the oasis lost the protector, the Arabian Khorasan attacked and conquered
those oasis city states, and of course, we could imagine, the Khorasan army got
a large amount of wealth from the city states, this Khorasan province became rich, and the
Khorasan army became powerful, now they were rich, they were in a high morale,
they had a very safe backyard(the Turgesh was no longer a threat), and they
also had a high prestige in the Arabian
Empire( the wars of the other front did not go well, the Arabs were repulsed by
the Franks and the eastern Roman at the same period).
And the Khorasan was a remote frontier province, the Umayyad had expelled a
large amount of the political rivalries to the province, the army had a strong
anti Umayyad fraction, and now they were rich, strong, an d in a high morale,
so it was the time to build up a new dynasty, and they defeated the Umayyad and
built the Abbassid
So could we conclude that, if there were no Chinese-Turkish confrontation, Chinese
might not want to overthrow Solu, and the latter would fight against the
Khorasan army, and protecting the
Transoxiana city states, then it was hard for the Khorasan army to carry out their conquer, and it was also
harder for them to rise up again the Umayyad dynasty, since the army did not
not have the wealth, morale and
prestige to do so, only the dead of
Solu, let the Khorasan army to conquer the Transoxiana city states, and with
conquest, the anti Umayyad Khorasan army
had the mean to overthrow the old dynasty, and built up the Abbassid dynaasty
So I conclude the
confrontation between the Tang dynasty and the Second Turkish empire had a
influence on the rise of the Abbassid dynasty
I just want to
share this with you