2013 Catholic Textbook Project

Invasion from Al-Andalus

arl, surnamed Martellus (hammer), the mayor of the palace for the king of the Frankish domains of Gaul, now had his borders secure and could turn his attention south to the growing danger from across the Pyrenees: Islamic Iberia, known as Al-Andalus. This term, Al-Andalus, was cultural, not political. Over the

centuries the Islamic part of southwestern Europe was either one strong state or a variety of very small states known as taifa kingdoms. Likewise, Al-Andalus enjoyed independence but also passed through long periods when it was a province of various Islamic empires, whose capitals were Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, and Marrakesh. The Muslim advance beyond Spain had been slowed by violent bickering among the Andalusian lieutenants and generals. Far from the eye of the caliph in Baghdad or Damascus, the emirs, or governors, were left practically independent to govern their territories; but they could not rely on their own military leaders. The Muslim lieutenants and generals were far more interested in deposing and murdering each other than in furthering the cause of Islam. In the rst 40 years of Arab rule in Iberia, there were 20 emirs, seven of whom met violent ends. Not until 732 did the Emir 'Abd-arRahmn, the viceroy of Al-Andalus, gather a force large enough to move again against the dukes of Aquitaine. 'Abd-ar-Rahmn was the strongest and most popular viceroy that Muslim Spain had yet seen, and he assembled the largest army that Spain had witnessed since Hannibal led his elephants toward Italy. Some 80,000 men and their horses were mustered on the coasts near
The Battle of Tours, by Charles de Steuben (1788-1856)

Barcelona. 'Abd-ar-Rahmn had collected reinforcements from North Africa, Egypt,

and the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad. He had foot soldiers armed with spear and sword, and Arab horsemen wielding their deadly scimitars for quick cut-and-slash attacks on the unprotected Frankish anks. He had siege engines to batter the walls of Toulouse and Bordeaux. He had oxcarts loaded with food, wine, and tents for an army camp that extended for miles along the Mediterranean shore. The huge army had rst to be provisioned and then moved at a snails pace over the mountain passes, where they were harassed by pagan Basque mountaineers and Christian guerrilla ghters. Then the army had to be reassembled along the coastal lands of Gaul, where the local Moorish governor was 'Abd-ar-Rahmn's enemy. Almost six months were occupied with assembling, moving, and readying the huge army for a move against the north. Eudo (or Eudes), the Duke of Aquitaine, had declared himself independent of the Frankish kingdom. But at the news of the force assembling against him, he hurriedly applied to Karl for help and made submission to him. Eudo tried to hold the Muslims at the Garonne River, but his personal guards and provincial troops broke and ran, whereupon the Andalusians cut them down almost to a man. Eudo escaped to ride north to join with Karl. Meanwhile, 'Abd-ar-Rahmn broke through the walls of Bordeaux and allowed his men to loot and terrorize the city.

This looting slowed the emir down for another month. In the six-month breathing space he had been allowed, Karl had wasted no time. He had called together the rst united army the Franks had known since the time of Chlodowech (Clovis). He did not rush hastily into battle but called in the oaths of every lord and person sworn to him to march with all their men to the Loire River. Relying mostly on his own troops from Austrasia, Karl crossed the Loire and advanced to meet his enemy near Tours, the last fortress of Aquitaine, to hold the roads north.

The Battle of Tours

Karl was aware that this was no common contest. Both Karl and 'Abd-ar-Rahmn told their generals that the fate of Aquitaine, possibly all Gaul, would be decided by their battle. Only in hindsight can we see that the fate of the world would be decided there. For seven days the two armies faced each other across the open elds, neither side daring to advance, both sides taunting the other and trembling with fear at the appearance of their enemy. The Muslims had numbers on their sidethree times the force of the Franks. Even with all the ghting men of both Neustria and Austrasia, and the allies from Burgundy and the survivors of Aquitaine, Karl had at his command no more than 30,000 men. Armed peasants and freemen were on foot, and Frankish nobles and their house cavalry were mounted but ready to dismount and form a shield wall with their foot soldiers when needed. The Franks looked on the forest of Andalusian spears and ags across the eld; but the Andalusians looked on the grim lines of Frankish spear men, forming the iron-mailed shield walls that had been the Germanic battle formation from the time of the migrations. Were the Franks so far from their Germanic roots that they no longer remembered the Theory of Courage, the necessity of holding the line even in the face of expected defeat? The Andalusian emir hoped so. Hardly any details of the great struggle are recorded. But we know that the Andalusian horsemen surged in vain around the impenetrable lines of the Frankish infantry. It is recorded that the shield wall was frozen to the earth like a rampart of ice. The Austrasians, Martels countrymen from the Rhine Valley, were at the forefront of the battle; with their Mayor Karl, they fought long and ercely. It was they who slew the Muslim chief, Emir 'Abd-arRahmn. The ghting went on until night fell and it was no longer possible to tell friend from foe. The Moors withdrew, the survivors straggling off toward the south and the passes of the Pyrenees. 'Abd-ar-Rahmn himself lay slain on the eld; many more thousands of bodies lay piled up in front of the exhausted Frankish line. In the darkness, 'Abd-arRahmns lieutenants counted their losses. The total was so appalling that they ordered the whole army to leave their camp in the night and retreat for the coast. Their tents, their baggage, their military storesthousands of riderless horses, enormous piles of weapons and siege equipmentfell into the hands of the Franks.
A map of Gaul of the Frankish domains at the death in 1714 of Pippin of Herstal, Karl Martellus' father. The regions are: Austrasia (green), Neustria (red), and Aquitaine (yellow)

The vast city of tents, stretched over the hills below Poitiers, stood silent in the dawn light. The Franks could not believe the Moors had left all that behind. They suspected a trap or ambush, but riders skirting the edges of the tent city found no signs of life. Scouts came back to report that survivors of the vast army were on the road heading south as fast as they could. Only the dead, piled before the weary ranks of spear men, remained from the host that had faced them two nights before. 'Abd-ar-Rahmns body was found under his horse, and Karl gave the emir an honorable burial. The other dead were dragged to the river or buried in great mass graves so as not to bring vermin and disease to the town. The Franks were victorious.