Al-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani

The Moors attempt to push north of the Pyrenees, raiding Aquitaine and southern France in 718.

Odo appears in this year as the ally of Chilperic II of Neustria and the Mayor of the Palace Ragenfrid, who may have offered recognition of his kingship over Aquitaine.

The Muslims, having defeated the Visigoths in a seven-year campaign, are by 718 masters of almost the entire Iberian peninsula, having pushed the Spanish Christians and Visigoths into the mountains of the north and west and advanced as far north as the Pyrenees.

Muslims of different nationalities—Arabs, Syrians, Berbers—begin to settle in Spain, particularly in the rich southern lands, which they call al-Andalus (Vandalusia), after the region's former Vandal rulers.

During the wars between Christians and Muslims, Jewish courtiers will be valued as diplomats, translators, and advisors to both sides.

Moorish attacks in 718 on Aquitaine, heretofore independent of Frankish rule, had prompted Odo, recognizing in Frankish king Charles an able protector, to submit to the suzerainty of Austrasia in 719.

In exchange for recognizing his dukeship, he surrenders the king and his treasures to Charles, who recognizes Chilperic’s kingship over all the Franks in return for legitimate royal affirmation of his mayoralty, likewise over all the kingdoms).

The Moors, continuing their drive to the northeast under Al-Samh ibn Malik, governor-general of al-Andalus, invade Septimania, take the region of present Roussillon on the southwestern Mediterranean coast of Gaul, and …

...capture and occupy the city of Narbonne.

The Moors having overrun Septimania, al-Samh establishes his capital from 720 at Narbonne, which the Moors call Arbuna, offering the still largely Arian inhabitants generous terms and quickly pacifying the other cities.

With Narbonne secure, and equally important, its port, for the Arab mariners are masters now of the Western Mediterranean, ...

…al-Samh swiftly subdues the largely unresisting cities, still controlled by their Visigoth counts: taking Alet-les-Bains and Béziers, …

…Agde, …

…Lodève, …

…Maguelonne and …

…Nîmes.