Tours (Poitiers), Battle of

The Battle of Tours (October 10, 732), also called the Battle of Poitiers, and in Arabic the Battle of Court of the Martyrs, is fought in an area between the cities of Poitiers and Tours, near the village of Moussais-la-Bataille (modern Vouneuil-sur-Vienne) about 20km north of Poitiers.

The location of the battle is close to the border between the Frankish realm and then-independent Aquitaine.

The battle pits Frankish and Burgundian forces under Austrasian Mayor of the Palace Charles Martel against an army of the Umayyad Caliphate led by ‘Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, Governor-general of al-Andalus.

The Franks are victorious, ‘Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi is killed, and Charles subsequently extends his authority in the south.

Ninth-century chroniclers, who interpret the outcome of the battle as divine judgment in Charles’ favor, will give him the nickname Martellus ("The Hammer"), possibly recalling Judas Maccabeus ("The Hammerer") of the Maccabean revolt.

Details of the battle, including its exact location and the exact number of combatants, cannot be determined from accounts that have survived; although the Frankish troops win the battle without cavalry.

As later chroniclers praise Charles Martel as the champion of Christianity, pre-20th century historians began to characterize this battle as being the decisive turning point in the struggle against Islam, a struggle which preserved Christianity as the religion of Europe.

While modern historians are divided and there is considerable disagreement as to whether or not the victory was responsible — as Gibbon and his generation of historians claimed, and which is echoed by many modern historians — for saving Christianity and halting the conquest of Europe by Islam, there is little dispute that the battle helped lay the foundations of the Carolingian Empire and Frankish domination of Europe for the next century.

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