10 little-known Asian battles that changed history

New Delhi: Every age of human history has experienced battles that have been instrumental in molding the future. Battles influence the spread of culture, civilization, and religious dogma. They introduce weapons, tactics, and leaders who dominate future conflicts. Some battles have even been influential not for their direct results, but for the impact of their propaganda on public opinion. The following list is not a ranking of decisive engagements, but rather a ranking of battles according to their influence on history. You probably haven't heard of most of them, but these little-known Asian battles had a major impact on world history. 1. Battle of Gaugamela, 331 BCE The Battle of Gaugamela took place in 331 BC between Alexander the Great and Darius III of Persia. The battle, which is also called the Battle of Arbela, resulted in a decisive victory for the Macedonians and led to the fall of the Persian Empire. Some 40,000 Macedonians under Alexander the Great were on the move eastward, embarking on an expedition of conquest that would end in India. In their way, however, stood perhaps 50-100,000 Persians led by Darius III. The Battle of Gaugamela was a crushing defeat for the Persians, who lost about half their army. Alexander lost only 1/10th of his troops. The Persian defeat at Gaugamela opened Asia to the invading army of Alexander the Great. 2. Battle of Badr, 624 CE The Battle of Badr, fought Saturday, 13 March 624 CE in the Hejaz region of western Arabia (present-day Saudi Arabia), was a key battle in the early days of Islam and a turning point in Muhammad's struggle with his opponents among the Quraish in Mecca. The battle has been passed down in Islamic history as a decisive victory attributable to divine intervention or by secular sources to the strategic genius of Muhammad. It is one of the few battles specifically mentioned in the Quran. The Prophet Muhammad faced opposition to his newly-founded religion from within his own tribe, the Quraishi of Mecca. Several Quraishi leaders, including Amir ibn Hisham, challenged Muhammad's claims to divine prophecy, and opposed his attempts to convert local Arabs to Islam. Muhammad and his followers defeated a Meccan Army three times as large as their own at the Battle of Badr, killing Amir ibn Hisham and other skeptics, and beginning the process of Islamification in Arabia. 3. Battle of Qadisiyah, 636 CE The Battle of al-Qādisiyyah, fought in 636, was the decisive engagement between the Arab Muslim army and the Sassanid Persian army during the first period of Muslim expansion. It resulted in the Islamic conquest of Persia and was key to the conquest of Iraq. The battle also saw the alleged alliance of Emperor Yazdegerd III with Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, who married his granddaughter Manyanh to Yazdegerd as a symbol of alliance. The Sassanids fought on to regain control of their lands until 653. With the death in that year of the last Sassanian emperor, Yazdgerd III, the Sassanid Empire collapsed. Persia, now known as Iran, became an Islamic land. 4. Battle of Talas River, 751 CE Incredibly, a mere 120 years after Muhammad's followers triumphed over unbelievers within his own tribe at the Battle of Badr, the armies of Arabia were far to the east, clashing with the forces of Imperial Tang China. The two met at the Talas River, in modern-day Kyrgyzstan, and the larger Tang Army was decimated. Faced with long supply lines, the Abbassid Arabs did not pursue their defeated foe into China proper. Nonetheless, this resounding defeat undermined Chinese influence across Central Asia, and resulted in the gradual conversion of most Central Asians to Islam. It also resulted in the introduction of new technology to the western world, the art of papermaking. 5. Battle of Hattin, 1187 CE The Battle of Hattin took place on Saturday, July 4, 1187, between the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and the forces of the Ayyubid dynasty. The Muslim armies under Saladin captured or killed the vast majority of the Crusader forces, removing their capability to wage war. As a direct result of the battle, Islamic forces once again became the eminent military power in the Holy Land, re-conquering Jerusalem and several other Crusader-held cities. These Christian defeats prompted the Third Crusade, which began two years after the Battle of Hattin. The Second Crusade soon ended with the surrender of Jerusalem.When news of the Christian defeat reached Pope Urban III, according to legend, he died of shock. Just two years later, the Third Crusade was launched (1189-1192), but the Europeans under Richard the Lionhearted could not dislodge Saladin from Jerusalem. 6. Battles of Tarain, 1191 and 1192 CE The Battles of Tarain, also known as the Battles of Taraori, were fought in 1191 and 1192 near the town of Tarain (Taraori), near Thanesar in present-day Haryana, approximately 150 kilometres north of Delhi, India, between a Turkic Ghurid raiding force led by Sultan Shahabuddin Muhammad Ghauri and a Rajput army led by Prithviraj Chauhan. Ghori launched an invasion against India in 1191, but was defeated by Prithviraj III, at the First Battle of Tarain. The Muslim army collapsed, and Ghori was captured. Prithviraj released his captive, perhaps unwisely, because Ghori returned the following year with 120,000 troops. Despite earth-shaking elephant phalanx charges, the Rajputs were defeated. As a result, northern India was under Muslim rule until the start of the British Raj in 1858. Today, Ghori is a Pakistani national hero. 7. Battle of Ayn Jalut, 1260 CE The unstoppable Mongol juggernaut unleashed by Genghis Khan finally met its match in 1260 at the Battle of Ayn Jalut, in Palestine. Genghis's grandson Hulagu Khan hoped to defeat the last remaining Muslim power, Egypt's Mamluk Dynasty. The Mongols had already smashed the Persian Assassins, captured Baghdad, destroyed the Abbasid Caliphate, and ended the Ayyubid Dynasty in Syria. At Ayn Jalut, however, the Mongols' luck changed. The Great Khan Mongke died in China, forcing Hulagu to draw back to Azerbaijan with most of his army to contest the succession. What should have been a Mongol walk-over in Palestine turned into an even contest, 20,000 per side. 8. First Battle of Panipat, 1526 CE Between 1206 and 1526, much of India was ruled by the Delhi Sultanate, which was established by the heirs of Muhammad Shahab ud-Din Ghori, victor in the Second Battle of Tarain. In 1526, the ruler of Kabul, a descendent of both Genghis Khan and Timur (Tamerlane) named Zahir al-Din Muhammad Babur, attacked the much larger Sultanate army. Babur's force of some 15,000 was able to overcome Sultan Ibrahim Lodhi's 40,000 troops and 100 war elephants because the Timurids had field artillery. Gun-fire spooked the elephants, who trampled their own men in their panic.Lodhi died in battle, and Babur established the Mughul ("Mongol") Empire, which ruled India until 1858, when the British colonial government took over. 9. Battle of Hansan-do, 1592 CE When the Warring States Period ended in Japan, the country unified under the samurai lord Hideyoshi. He decided to cement his place in history by conquering Ming China. To that end, he invaded Korea in 1592. The Japanese Army pushed as far north as Pyongyang. However, the army depended on the navy for supplies. The Korean navy under Admiral Yi Sun-shin created a handful of "turtle-boats," the first known iron-clad warships. They used the turtleboats, and an innovative tactic called the "cranes' wing formation" to lure out the much larger Japanese Navy near Hansan Island, and crush it. Japan lost 59 of its 73 ships, while Korea's 56 ships all survived. Hideyoshi was forced to give up the conquest of China, and eventually to withdraw. 10. Battle of Geoktepe, 1881 CE Nineteenth-century Tsarist Russia sought to head off the expanding British Empire and gain access to warm water ports on the Black Sea. The Russians expanded south through Central Asia, but they ran up against one very tough foe - the nomadic Teke tribe of Turcomen. In 1879, the Teke Turkmen soundly defeated the Russians at Geoktepe, shaming the Empire. The Russians launched a retaliatory strike in 1881, leveling the Teke fortress at Geoktepe, slaughtering the defenders, and scattering the Teke across the desert. This was the beginning of Russian dominance of Central Asia, which lasted through the Soviet Era. Even today, many of the Central Asian republics are reluctantly bound to the economy and culture of their northern neighbor.