Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

part iv | migrations of cultures
Central Asian Buddhism on the formation of this religion in Korea, in the states of
Goguryeo and Silla.
Another person of Korean descent connected directly with the history of Central
Asia, and indeed at one of its most pivotal moments, is Gao Xianzhi. He was an
assistant to the governor of the Western Regions, the name given to Xinjiang and
Central Asia by the Chinese. In AD 747 Gao Xianzhi undertook a campaign to Bolu
(Tibet), and the following year he intervened in a conflict between the rulers of
Chach (Tashkent) and Ferghana on behalf of the latter and invaded Chach with the
Chinese army. In AD 749, he arrested the ruler of Chach and sent him to China,
where he was executed.
After this, the son of the executed ruler turned to the Arabs for help. By the middle
of the 8th century, the Arabs controlled almost the entire territory of Central Asia.
By this time, all the actions of the Arabs in Central Asia were under the command of
Abu Muslim, who headed the anti-Umayyad movement and was in fact instrumental
in bringing to power a new dynasty in the Caliphate, the Abbasids.
Arab troops led by Ziyad ibn Salih were sent to fight the Chinese army led by Gao
Xianzhi. A decisive battle between them took place on the Talas River near the city of
Dzhambul (South Kazakhstan). The Chinese were defeated and the remnants of the
army fled to China. The Battle of Talas was an event of great historical importance.
On the one hand, it effectively put an end to Chinese encroachments into the eastern
and central parts of Central Asia, which the Chinese had been striving to control
for almost a millennium. On the other hand, it signalled the ultimate political and
administrative control of the Arab Caliphs in the region and the triumph of Islam.
As fate would have it, it was a Korean military leader, Gao Xianzhi, who had a part to
play in it.
The above information, although fragmentary, is nonetheless connected, and
testifies to the longstanding and ancient cultural ties between Uzbekistan and Korea,
to the direct presence of Koreans in Central Asia in the early medieval period, and
possibly to the presence of Sogdians in Korea.
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