The Old Book on Tang (Jiu Tang Shu)

By Henry C K Liu

Persia was conquered by the Arabs in the 7th century [AD]. In 651, the son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed , named Othman (circa 574-656), an Omayyad aristocrat from Mecca [and] recent convert to Islam who had become the third caliph of the Islamic Empire, sent an envoy to the Tang court in China. It would be recorded in the classic Old Book on Tang (Jiu Tang Shu), written in 945, 294 years after the event, that the Arabic envoy announced that his king was named Caliph Othman, whom the Chinese refer to as Danmi Momoni. Caliph Othman (reigned 644-656) was the third sovereign of a young kingdom, with a history of only 34 years, founded by the prophet Mohammed . The flight of Mohammed from Mecca to Yathrib (later known as Medina, City of the Prophet) is called the Hegira of the Prophet . It took place in 622, marking the founding date of Islam. Muslim mosques had sprung up around Changan, capital of Tang China, after 651. Othman ... was the first of 14 Omayyad caliphs, a dynasty that would last more than a century, until 750, during which would develop the great schism between Sunnites and Shi'ites in Arabic culture and society. The Shi'ites represent a Persian variation of Islam who are partisans of Ali, Mohammed's cousin and son-in-law, husband of Fatima. The Arab envoy's mission was to persuade the new Tang emperor to refrain from responding to requests for military assistance from Yezdegeri III, Sassanid king of Persia, whose kingdom had been under attack from expansionist Arabs. As early as 637, Arabs under caliph Omar (reigned 634-644) had conquered Ctesiphon, residence of Sassanid kings on the river Tigris, near present-day Baghdad. Now, the Arab envoy from Caliph Othman to the Tang court easily accomplished the objective of his mission, because the High Heritage Emperor (Gaozong) of the Tang dynasty, newly enthroned and preoccupied with his own domestic problems, was not anxious to risk domestic political unrest in order to engage in an expeditionary campaign in a distant land even if to help a traditional ally. A year later, in 652, Caliph Othman (reigned 644-656) would conquer Persia and slay in battle the last Sassanid king, Yezdegeri III. Nine years after the death of his father, the son of Yezdegeri III, Sassanid prince Pirus, in 661, would again desperately demand help from the Tang court, which would send an expedition force the following year to Ctesiphon ... to restore Pirus as king. The High Heritage Emperor (Gaozong), now 33 years old, secure and confident after 11 years on the Dragon Throne, decided to help the Sassanid prince Pirus oppose Caliph Othman, expansionist leader of Arabs. The High Heritage Emperor now reversed a long-standing Tang policy of non-interference extracted 10 years ago by an envoy of Caliph Othman ... A Tang expedition force was hastily assembled to be sent a year later, in 662, second year of the reign of the Dragon Premier, as far west as Ctesiphon ... It would successfully restore Prince Pirus as king of the neo-Persian Sassanid state, projecting with military force a Tang foreign policy of intercontinental geopolitics. The Old Book on Tang (Jiu Tang Shu), compiled almost three centuries later in 945, would record that the army of Persia employed elephants in battle, each elephant being supported by a platoon of 100 foot-soldiers. Toppled again by unstoppable Arab expansion more than a decade after his restoration, King Pirus would escape to Changan as a refugee in 674. He would be welcomed with much pomp and circumstance by the then 47-year-old High Heritage Emperor (Gaozong) and honored with rank of captain in the Imperial Guards. King Pirus would return west later in the same year to attempt in vain a last campaign against Arabs. He would be destined to return to Changan again some three decades later, in 706, dying there shortly after. The fall of Persia would pitch western expansion of the Chinese against eastern expansion of Arabs, who would defeat the Tang army decisively at the famous battle at the Talas River a century [later], in 751, 133 years after the founding of the Tang Dynasty, midway through its three-century-long history and 156 years before its ultimate fall. The Battle of Talas would take place on the centennial of the arrival of Caliph Othman's first envoy to the Tang court. The Old Book on Tang (Jiu Tang Shu), compiled ... 283 years after the event, would describe in detail elephants being used in battle by armies of Persia. Persecution of minorities, including Jews, by the priest-minister caste of the Sassanid kingdom had long been widespread. As a result, oppressed minorities viewed expansionist Arabs, who came armed with righteous teachings of Islam, as liberators against their tyrannical Sassanid rulers, thus weakening the defensive strength of Sassanid Persians. Arab-Israeli hostility has not always been cast in stone in history. What the modern Arabs need is a new awareness of their glorious history and the emergence of a great leader to reunite them toward a new destiny worthy of their illustrious past.