From around the 10th century, Turkic nomads in Central Asia began converting to Islam one after another. The fusion of “Turkification and Islamization” greatly changed the cultural landscape of Central Asia.
The Encounter between Islam and the Turks
- Late 7th century: Arab armies advanced into Central Asia. In the Battle of Talas in 751, the Arab Abbasid army defeated the Tang army, accelerating the spread of Islam into Central Asia.
- Many Turkic slave soldiers (ghulams and mamluks) were employed by Islamic dynasties such as the Abbasids and assimilated into Islamic society.
- 9th–10th centuries: Many Turks converted to Islam under the Samanid dynasty, which was of Iranian origin.
The Karakhanid Khanate (9th–13th centuries)
- The first Turkic Islamic dynasty to rule Central Asia from the eastern Tianshan region.
- In the middle of the 10th century, a Turkic leader converted to Islam and established the Karakhanid Khanate.
- It ruled Samarkand and Bukhara and fused Persian and Arab culture with Turkic culture.
- The Dawn of Turkic Literature: Kashgari’s Compendium of the Turkic Languages (1077) and Yusuf Khass Hajib’s Wisdom of Royal Glory were among the earliest literary and scholarly works written in a Turkic language.
Key Point
The Battle of Talas in 751: A battle between the Tang army led by Gao Xianzhi, a Tang general, and an alliance of Abbasid and Karluk forces. The Tang defeat caused Tang influence in Central Asia to retreat and expanded the Islamic sphere. It is also said that papermaking spread to the Islamic world, and later to Western Europe, because papermaking technicians in the Tang army were captured, making this a major event in cultural history.
The Battle of Talas in 751: A battle between the Tang army led by Gao Xianzhi, a Tang general, and an alliance of Abbasid and Karluk forces. The Tang defeat caused Tang influence in Central Asia to retreat and expanded the Islamic sphere. It is also said that papermaking spread to the Islamic world, and later to Western Europe, because papermaking technicians in the Tang army were captured, making this a major event in cultural history.
The Formation of a “Turkic–Islamic” Cultural Sphere
After the Karakhanid Khanate, Turkic Islamic governments were established one after another in Central Asia and Anatolia. Turkic languages became major languages of the Islamic world alongside Arabic and Persian, forming the cultural foundation of all the modern Turkic languages, including Turkish, Uzbek, Kazakh, and Uyghur.
Practice
- State why the Karakhanid Khanate is considered the first Turkic Islamic dynasty.
- State the two reasons why the Battle of Talas in 751 is considered important in cultural history.
- State why Kashgari’s Compendium of the Turkic Languages is historically important.