A Tang Dynasty Soldier’s Unlikely Odyssey

On May 25, 757 CE, a Chinese man named Du Huan found himself in the bustling city of Merv, known in Chinese records as Molu. This thriving metropolis served as the capital of Khorasan province in the Abbasid Caliphate and stood as a vital hub along the ancient Silk Road. Du’s presence in this distant land marked the beginning of an extraordinary journey that would make him one of the most significant cross-cultural mediators of the medieval world.

Du Huan had arrived in Merv around 752 CE as an unwilling traveler – a captured Tang military officer. His remarkable account, Jingxingji (Record of Travels), though largely lost to history, survives in fragments that offer priceless insights into the interconnected world of the 8th century. These surviving passages reveal how Du noted with fascination that the local calendar began in May, coinciding precisely with the Islamic New Year of 757 CE.

The Battle That Changed Everything: Talas and Its Aftermath

Du Huan’s journey west began with one of history’s pivotal yet often overlooked conflicts – the Battle of Talas in 751 CE. As an officer stationed in the Suyab region under the command of the famed Tang general Gao Xianzhi, Du found himself caught in a geopolitical storm. Gao’s ill-advised execution of a local Turkic ruler had sparked rebellion, with the ruler’s son seeking support from the expanding Abbasid Caliphate.

The ensuing confrontation near modern-day Taraz, Kazakhstan proved disastrous for the Tang forces when their Turkic allies switched sides mid-battle. Thousands of Chinese soldiers, including Du Huan, were taken captive. While military historians often focus on Talas as the battle that halted Chinese westward expansion, its greater significance lies in the cultural exchanges it enabled through prisoners like Du.

Following the Silk Road: From Captivity to Cultural Ambassador

Du’s forced migration followed a path that many Silk Road merchants traveled voluntarily. From Suyab, his captors took him to Shash (modern Tashkent), then likely to Ferghana Valley before reaching Sogdiana’s heart at Samarkand. By 752 CE, he arrived in Merv, where he would spend five formative years.

His descriptions of Merv reveal a sophisticated oasis civilization: “Villages connected by fences, trees casting interlaced shadows” within a desert setting, with impressive architecture and well-organized markets. The city’s advanced irrigation systems supported abundant orchards and vegetable gardens, while its craftsmen produced goods that circulated across Eurasia.

Building Baghdad: Chinese Hands in the Abbasid Capital

History took another unexpected turn when the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur decided to build a new imperial capital at Baghdad in 762 CE. The massive construction project required relocating Khorasan’s garrison to Mesopotamia, taking Du and other Chinese captives along. Du’s records uniquely document Chinese artisans contributing to Baghdad’s construction, including those who brought papermaking technology – a development that would revolutionize the Islamic world’s intellectual life.

Beyond the Islamic World: Documenting Byzantium and Africa

Du’s travels extended far beyond Abbasid territories. He visited Syria (referred to as Shan), providing accurate geographical details about Byzantine lands beyond the Taurus Mountains. His descriptions of Byzantine people as fair-skinned wine drinkers with advanced medical skills, particularly in eye surgery and trepanation, show keen observation.

Most remarkably, Du became the first Chinese known to visit Africa, which he called Molin. Scholars debate whether he reached North Africa’s Maghreb region or the Aksumite kingdom in Ethiopia, but his vivid account of dark-skinned people subsisting on dates in an arid landscape represents China’s earliest firsthand description of Africa.

Recording Religious Diversity Along the Silk Road

Du’s writings provide invaluable comparative religious observations. He documented Islamic practices with unprecedented accuracy for a Chinese source, noting:
– Five daily prayers
– Friday sermons
– Prohibition of alcohol and pork
– Women’s veiling customs
– Islamic burial practices

He also described Christianity (which he called Daqin fa) and Zoroastrianism (Xunxun fa), creating the first Chinese taxonomy of Abrahamic and Persian religions.

The Lost Legacy of Jingxingji

Tragically, Du’s complete Jingxingji has not survived. The approximately 1,700 characters preserved in his uncle Du You’s Tongdian represent just fragments of what was certainly a much more extensive account. Yet these remnants revolutionized Chinese understanding of the western world, introducing accurate information about Islamic civilization and Africa nearly four centuries before comparable Arab accounts and eight centuries before European descriptions.

Du Huan’s Enduring Significance

Du Huan’s involuntary odyssey represents a remarkable moment of cultural exchange. As historian Bai Shouyi noted, his records constitute the earliest accurate Chinese descriptions of Islam. Beyond religious understanding, Du documented technological transfers like papermaking and medical knowledge flowing between civilizations.

His journey reminds us that even in an era of imperial conflicts, individuals could become bridges between cultures. The Silk Road wasn’t just about goods – it carried ideas, technologies, and worldviews that shaped civilizations from China to the Mediterranean. Du Huan, though beginning his travels as a prisoner of war, ultimately became one of history’s great intercultural interpreters, expanding horizons in an age when few ventured beyond their homelands.