Umayyad invasion of Gaul
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Umayyad invasion of Gaul | |||||||||
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Part of early Muslim conquests and the Reconquista | |||||||||
1837 painting by Charles de Steuben of the Battle of Tours (732), depicting a triumphant Charles Martel (mounted) facing Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi (right). | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
Francia Aquitaine Gascony Lombard Kingdom | |||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Al-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani † Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi † Yusuf ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri |
The Umayyad invasion of Gaul occurred in two phases in 719 and 732 AD. Although the
The invasion of Gaul was a continuation of the
A major Umayyad raid directed at Tours was defeated in the Battle of Tours in 732. After 732, the Franks asserted their authority in Aquitaine and Burgundy, but only in 759 did they manage to take the Mediterranean region of Septimania, due to Muslim neglect and local Gothic disaffection.[1]
A later Muslim incursion into France, in the ninth century, resulted in the establishment of Fraxinetum, a fortress in Provence that lasted for nearly a century.
Umayyad conquest of Septimania
By 716, under the pressure of the
The next Umayyad governor, al-Samh, crossed the Pyrenees in 719 and conquered Narbonne (Arbuna to the Arabs) in that year or the following (720).[2] According to the Chronicle of Moissac, the inhabitants of the city were slaughtered.[4] The fall of the city ended the seven-year reign of Ardo and with it the Visigothic kingdom, but Visigothic nobles continued to hold the Septimanian cities of Carcassonne and Nîmes.[2][3] Nevertheless, al-Samh established garrisons in Septimania (721), intending to incorporate it permanently into al-Andalus.[3]
However, the Umayyad tide was temporarily halted in the large-scale
In 725, his successor, Anbasa ibn Suhaym al-Kalbi, besieged the city of Carcassonne, which had to agree to cede half of its territory, pay tribute, and make an offensive and defensive alliance with Muslim forces. Nîmes and all the other main Septimanian cities fell too under the sway of the Umayyads. In the 720s the savage fighting, the massacres and destruction particularly affecting the Ebro valley and Septimania unleashed a flow of refugees who mainly found shelter in southern Aquitaine across the Pyrenees, and Provence.[5]
Sometime during this period, the Berber commander Uthman ibn Naissa ("Munuza") became governor of the Cerdanya (also including a large swathe of present-day Catalonia). By that time, resentment against Arab rulers was growing within the Berber troops.
Raid into Aquitaine and Poitou
Uthman ibn Naissa's revolt
By 725, all of
The new Umayyad governor in Cordova, Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi, mustered an expedition to punish the Berber commander's insubordination, surrounding and putting him to death in Cerdanya, according to the Mozarabic Chronicler, a just retribution for killing the Gothic bishop.
Umayyad expedition over Aquitaine
Emboldened by his success, he attacked Uthman ibn Naissa's Aquitanian ally Duke Odo, who had just encountered Charles Martel's devastating offensive on Bourges and northern Aquitaine (731). Still managing to recruit the necessary number of soldiers, the independent Odo confronted al-Ghafiqi's forces that had broken north by the western Pyrenees, but could not hold back the Arab commander's thrust against Bordeaux. The Aquitanian leader was beaten at the Battle of the River Garonne in 732. The Umayyad force then moved north to invade Poitou in order to plunder the Basilica of Saint-Martin-de-Tours.
Battle of Poitiers (732)
Odo still found the opportunity to save his grip on Aquitaine by warning the rising Frankish commander Charles of the impending danger against the Frankish sacred city of Tours.
Expansion to Provence and Charles Martel
Still, in 734, Umayyad forces (called "
Charles faced the opposition of various regional actors. To begin with the Gothic and Gallo-Roman nobility of the region, who feared his aggressive and overbearing policy.[7] Charles decided to ally with the Lombard King Liutprand in order to repel the Umayyads and the regional nobility of Gothic and Gallo-Roman stock. He also underwent the hostility of the dukes of Aquitaine, who jeopardized Charles' and his successor Pepin's rearguard (737, 752) during their military operations in Septimania and Provence. The dukes of Aquitaine in turn largely relied on the strength of the Basque troops, acting on a strategic alliance with the Aquitanians since mid-7th century.
In 737, Charles captured and reduced Avignon to rubble, in addition to destroying the Umayyad fleet. Charles' brother,
Loss of Septimania
Muslims maintained their authority over Septimania for another 15 years. However, in 752, the newly proclaimed King
It was ultimately the Frankish king who managed to take Narbonne in 759, after vowing to respect the Gothic law and earning the allegiance of the Gothic nobility and population, thus marking the end of the Muslim presence in southern Gaul. Furthermore, Pepin directed all his war effort against the Duchy of Aquitaine immediately after subduing Roussillon.
Pepin's son, Charlemagne, fulfilled the Frankish goal of extending the defensive boundaries of the empire beyond Septimania and the Pyrenees, creating a strong barrier state between the Umayyad Emirate and Francia. This buffer zone known as the "Spanish March" would become a focus for the Reconquista.
Legacy
Arabic words were borrowed, such as tordjman (translator) which became drogoman in Provençal, and is still in use in the expression "par le truchement de"; charaha (to discuss), which became "charabia". Some place names were also derived from Arabic or in memory of past Muslim inhabitance, such as Ramatuelle and Saint-Pierre de l'Almanarre (from al-manar i.e. 'the lighthouse').[8]
Notes
- ^ a b c Watson 2003, p. 1.
- ^ a b c d Watson 2003, p. 11.
- ^ a b c Collins 1989, p. 45.
- ^ Collins 1989, p. 96.
- ^ Collins 1989, p. 213.
- ^ Collins 1989, p. 89.
- ^ Collins 1989, p. 92.
- ^ Planhol & Claval 1994, p. 84.
Sources
- Bachrach, Bernard(2001). Early Carolingian Warfare: Prelude to Empire. University of Pennsylvania Press.
- ISBN 0-631-19405-3.
- Fouracre, Paul (2013). The Age of Charles Martel. Routledge.
- Lewis, Archibald R.(1965). The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718–1050. University of Texas Press.
- Planhol, Xavier de; Claval, Paul (1994). An Historical Geography of France. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521322089.
- Watson, William E. (1990). The Hammer and the Crescent: Contacts between Andalusi Muslims, Franks, and their Successors in Three Waves of Muslim Expansion into Francia (PhD thesis). University of Pennsylvania.
- Watson, William E. (2003). Tricolor and Crescent: France and the Islamic World. Praeger.