Battle of Tours
October 732 · in Battle View, played out step by step on the ground where it was fought
Frankish forces under Charles Martel defeated an Umayyad army between Tours and Poitiers, halting Arab expansion into Gaul.
The sides
- Franks, led by Charles Martel: about 18,000 men
- Umayyads, led by Abd al-Rahman: about 22,000 men
States that fought: Umayyad Caliphate, Kingdom of the Franks, Aquitaine.
How it went
Battle of Tours
A century after the Prophet's death, the Umayyad caliphate rules from the Indus to Spain. Its governor of al-Andalus, Abd al-Rahman, crosses the Pyrenees, beats Duke Odo of Aquitaine and burns his way north towards the rich abbey of Saint-Martin at Tours. Odo turns to the Frankish mayor of the palace, Charles.
Seven days
Charles takes post on rising ground between the rivers, across the road to Tours, his men massed close behind their shields. For a week the two armies watch each other, skirmishing.
The charges
Then the Umayyad horsemen charge, and charge again. The Franks, on foot, stand "like a wall", a chronicler writes, "like a glacier of ice", and cut them down.
Again
Wave follows wave all day, and the square never breaks.
The camp
Odo's Aquitanians have ridden round to the Umayyad camp, full of plunder from Bordeaux, and fall on it. As word spreads, horsemen turn back to save their loot.
Abd al-Rahman falls
Abd al-Rahman, trying to rally his men, is surrounded by Franks and killed.
Tours
In the night the Umayyads slip away, leaving their tents standing; in the morning the Franks find the camp empty. Charles is remembered as Martel, "the Hammer". Later ages made this the day Europe was saved for Christianity; historians now see the end of a great raid, and the rise of Charles's family, the Carolingians.
Also called the Battle of Poitiers. Its place, on the old road between Poitiers and Tours, is not known for sure; numbers are guesses from very thin sources.
People and wars
- Umayyad conquest of Hispania (711–718 CE): Umayyad forces under Tariq ibn Ziyad crossed from North Africa and conquered most of the Visigothic kingdom within a few years.