All history as reconstruction of the past is of course myth

By Henry C K Liu

In 637, Arabs under caliph Omar (r. 634-644) had conquered Ctesiphon,
residence of Sassanid kings on the river Tigris.

The Arabic envoy from caliph Othman to the Tang court easily
accomplished the objective of his mission of Chinese non-interference,
because Li Zhi, High Heritage Emperor (Gaozong) of 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 (r. 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, on
the bank of the Tigris to restore Pirus as king.

The Old Book on Tang (Jiu Tang Shu), compiled almost three centuries
later in 945, would record that the army of Persia employs elephants in
battle, each elephant being supported by a platoon of one hundred
foot-soldiers.

Toppled again by unstoppable Arabic 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 then
forty-seven-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 3 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 Talas river a century from now, in 751, 133 years
after the founding of 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 to secure China’s
neutrality in Arab-Persian conflict .

During the first year of the reign of Dragon Premier (Longshuo), in 661,
the son of the late Yezdegeri III, Sassanid prince Pirus, again urgently
appeals to the Tang court for help against threat of expanding Arabs.
Li Zhi, High Heritage Emperor (Gaozong), now thirty-three years old,
secured and confident after eleven years on the dragon throne, decided
to help Sassanid prince Pirus oppose Caliph Othman, expansionist leader
of Arabs. Othman, slayer of Sassanid king Yezdegeri III in battle, was
an Omayyad aristocrat from Mecca, son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad and
recent convert to Islam. He was third Caliph of a fast expanding
Islamic empire.

The High Heritage Emperor now reversed a long-standing Tang policy of
non-interference extracted ten years ago by an envoy of Caliph Othman,
Arab leader, when then young High Heritage Emperor was newly-enthroned
and beset with domestic political problems.

A Tang expedition force was hastily assembled to be sent a year later,
in 662, second year of the reign of Dragon Premier, as far west as
Ctesiphon, on the banks of the Tigris. It would successfully restore
Prince Pirus as king of the neo-Persian Sassanid state, projecting with
military force a Tang foreign policy of intercontinental geo-politics.
The Old Book on Tang (Jiu Tang Shu), compiled in 945, two hundred
eight-three 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 Sassanid kingdom has long been widespread. As a result, oppressed
minorities view ed 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-Isreali hostility has not always been cast in stone in history.
Despite military support of the Tang court, Sassanid kingdom would
collapse twelve years later when King Pirus would again flee to Changan,
imperial capital of Tang empire.

The above is an excerpt from my book in progress on the Tang dynasty.

Henry C.K. Liu