Editing Sogdia (section)

====Abbasid Caliphate (750–819)====
[[File:Decorated niche, 750-825 CE, Afrasiab, Samarkand.jpg|thumb|Decorated niche from the Abbasid mosque of [[Afrasiyab (Samarkand)|Afrasiab]], Samarkand, 750–825 CE.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Allegranzi |first1=Viola |last2=Aube |first2=Sandra|title=Splendeurs des oasis d'Ouzbékistan |date=2022 |publisher=Louvre Editions |location=Paris |isbn=978-8412527858 |page=181}}</ref>]]
The Umayyads [[Abbasid Revolution|fell]] in 750 to the [[Abbasid Caliphate]], which quickly asserted itself in Central Asia after winning the [[Battle of Talas]] (along the [[Talas River]] in modern [[Talas Oblast]], Kyrgyzstan) in 751, against the Chinese Tang dynasty. This conflict incidentally introduced Chinese [[papermaking]] to the [[Islamic world]].<ref name="hanks 2010 p4">Hanks, Reuel R. (2010), ''Global Security Watch: Central Asia'', Santa Barbara, Denver, Oxford: Praeger, p. 4.</ref> The cultural consequences and political ramifications of this battle meant the [[Protectorate General to Pacify the West|retreat of the Chinese empire from Central Asia]]. It also allowed for the rise of the [[Samanid Empire]] (819–999), a Persian state centered at Bukhara (in what is now modern [[Uzbekistan]]) that nominally observed the Abbasids as their [[overlord]]s, yet retained a great deal of autonomy and upheld the mercantile legacy of the Sogdians.<ref name="hanks 2010 p4" /> Yet the [[Sogdian language]] gradually declined in favor of the [[Persian language]] of the Samanids (the ancestor to the modern [[Tajik language]]), the spoken language of renowned poets and intellectuals of the age such as [[Ferdowsi]] (940–1020).<ref name="hanks 2010 p4" /> So too did the original religions of the Sogdians decline; Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, [[Manichaeism]], and [[Nestorian Christianity]] disappeared in the region by the end of the Samanid period.<ref name="hanks 2010 p4" /> The Samanids were also responsible for converting the surrounding [[Turkic peoples]] to [[Islam]].