The Battle Of Tours: Warlords Of The West — Transcript

Explores the Battle of Tours in 732, its historical significance, and debates on its impact on Christianity and Islam in Europe.

Key Takeaways

The Battle of Tours is often seen as a turning point in preventing Islamic expansion into Western Europe.
Charles Martel was a key Frankish leader whose victory shaped European history.
Modern scholarship questions the battle’s scale and religious framing, viewing it more as a regional conflict.
The battle’s legacy has been interpreted differently over time, influenced by political and ideological contexts.
The event remains significant in understanding early medieval European and Islamic relations.

Summary

The video examines the Battle of Tours fought in 732 or 733 between Charles Martel's Frankish forces and an invading army from Islamic Spain.
It discusses Edward Gibbon's famous interpretation framing the battle as a decisive clash between Christianity and Islam.
The video highlights Charles Martel's role as a Frankish warlord and his legacy as 'The Hammer.'
It explains the Saracens as the army of the Umayyad Caliphate, the first great Arab Islamic empire.
The battle is debated as either a pivotal moment preventing Islamic expansion into Europe or an overblown propaganda victory.
Modern historians largely view the battle as a raid rather than a full-scale invasion and not a clear religious clash.
The video covers the political and military context of the Franks and the Umayyad Caliphate during the early 8th century.
It references Adolf Hitler’s view of the battle and its ideological implications in 20th-century discourse.
The discussion includes the long-term consequences for Christendom and the potential alternate history had the Saracens won.
The video also touches on the cultural and religious significance of the battle in contemporary Europe.

Chapters

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

Speaker A

Hello. Was the Battle of Tours in 732 the single most important battle in world history? On one side, Charles Martel, the leader of the Franks, defending Christendom. On the other, an invading army from Islamic Spain. It's one of the most dramatic stories we've ever done on the Rest is History. Don't miss it.

Speaker A

most dramatic stories we've ever done on the rest his history don't miss it a Victorious line of March had been prolonged above a thousand miles from the rock of jalta to the banks of the lair the repetition of an equal space

Speaker A

A victorious line of march had been prolonged above a thousand miles from the Rock of Gibraltar to the banks of the Loire. The repetition of an equal space would have carried the Saracens to the confines of Poland and the highlands of Scotland. The Rhine is not more impassible than the Tigris or Euphrates, and the Arabian fleet might have sailed without naval combat into the mouth of the Thames.

Speaker A

perhaps the interpretation of the Quran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Muhammed from such calamities was Christendom delivered by the genius and Fortune of

Speaker A

Perhaps the interpretation of the Quran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Muhammad. From such calamities was Christendom delivered by the genius and fortune of one man.

Speaker A

decline and fall of the Roman Empire one of the most famous passages of historical Pros ever written he is describing the Legacy of the battle of Tor which was fought on the 10th of October 732 or perhaps 733 nobody is

Speaker A

Charles, the illegitimate son of the elder Pepin, was content with the titles of mayor or duke of the Franks, but he deserved to become the father of a line of kings. That was Edward Gibbon in the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, one of the most famous passages of historical prose ever written.

Speaker A

on okay so we are still in our series on the Franks and Charles who Gibbon in that passage is very careful to specify is not a king but a mayor or a Duke of the Franks he is perhaps the greatest of

Speaker A

He is describing the legacy of the Battle of Tours, which was fought on the 10th of October 732, or perhaps 733. Nobody is entirely sure, between the Franks and what he called an invading force of Saracens. So, a great passage, great book, great subject. Just bring some of it alive for us.

Speaker A

as Charles Martel the hammer yeah so a tremendous name for a guy who has a a very mailed fist the sarens are an Army in the service of the Ed caliphate so that is the first great Arab Empire the first

Speaker A

So, who is Charles? Who are the Saracens? Where are we, and what's going on?

Speaker A

sarens to the Muslims to the Arabs then perhaps we might have seen the interpretation of the Quran taught in Oxford and Gibbon here it's there's a bit of a joke here because Gibbon had been a student at Oxford and had

Speaker A

Okay, so we are still in our series on the Franks and Charles, who Gibbon in that passage is very careful to specify is not a king but a mayor or a duke of the Franks. He is perhaps the greatest of all the Frankish warlords since the time of Clovis, the king who founded the great kingdom of the Franks as the Roman Empire was falling.

Speaker A

followers of Muhammad exactly um but it's obviously it's not just a joke because Gibbon has a genius for well Byron referred to to his solemn snare when he makes a joke there's often a kind of very serious purpose and he's

Speaker A

But we're now in the early 8th century, and Charles will be known from the following century onwards as Charles Martel, the Hammer. Yeah, so a tremendous name for a guy who has a very mailed fist.

Speaker A

fought in 732 was one of the genuinely pivotal moments when history might have gone differently that had the Franks lost to the sarens then Islam the advance of the Arab armies would have continued up into France and that the

Speaker A

The Saracens are an army in the service of the Umayyad Caliphate, so that is the first great Arab empire, the first great empire of Islam. And this is why Gibbon is casting it as a peculiarly decisive clash. He's framing it as a battle between Christianity and Islam, and he's suggesting that had it gone the other way, had the Franks lost to the Saracens, to the Muslims, to the Arabs, then perhaps we might have seen the interpretation of the Quran taught in Oxford.

Speaker A

of most of the historians in the 19th and 20th Century who are who are pushing this case they see the possibility that Christian Europe might have become Muslim as as a disaster so um Gibbon refers to it in that Mage you read as a

Speaker A

And Gibbon here, there's a bit of a joke here because Gibbon had been a student at Oxford and had absolutely hated it. He despised all the Dons who at the time were Anglican priests, and so I think he's slightly tweaking the noses of his old teachers and suggesting that they might have been circumcised followers of Muhammad.

Speaker A

read it had Charles Martel not been Victorious at pitier he said already you see the world had fallen into the hands of the Jews so gutless a thing is Christianity then we should in all probability have been converted to

Speaker A

Exactly. But it's obviously not just a joke because Gibbon has a genius for, well, Byron referred to his solemn snare. When he makes a joke, there's often a kind of very serious purpose, and he's making a serious point here. He's saying this is one of the great decisive battles of world history.

Speaker A

wet religion that encourages peace but this is not what the vast majority of historical Scholars now think is it most agree now that the Battle of T um was massively overblown it was um a kind of uh a propaganda Victory Above All Else

Speaker A

This is an argument that people made particularly in the 19th and early 20th century, isn't it? That the Battle of Tours, if it was fought in 732, was one of the genuinely pivotal moments when history might have gone differently. That had the Franks lost to the Saracens, then Islam, the advance of the Arab armies, would have continued up into France, and that the entire course of European and world history might have been different.

Speaker A

argument that is is I would say is pretty much the consensus now among academics on the the status of the battle of t uh that that it's not an invasion that it's a raid also that it's not a clash between Christianity and

Speaker A

In fact, all Europe might have fallen within the kind of Islamic world, and people genuinely made that argument very vigorously, and among them Adolf Hitler.

Speaker A

you know there there are other plenty of other Scholars who who do hold to the kind of gibboni view and it's a debate that's been rumbling away now for decades and it is a debate that has kind of

Speaker A

Right. So most of the historians in the 19th and 20th century who are pushing this case see the possibility that Christian Europe might have become Muslim as a disaster. So Gibbon refers to it in that passage as a calamity. But one person you said who thought it was a great shame that the Franks had won was Adolf Hitler, and the reasons for this he spelled out in his Table Talk, and I'll read it.

Speaker A

period that people know a great deal amount but the Battle of Tor does have cut through and there's an obvious reason for that which is basically the kind of political context in Europe today and specifically the fact that

Speaker A

Had Charles Martel not been victorious at Poitiers, he said, already you see the world had fallen into the hands of the Jews. So gutless a thing is Christianity. Then we should in all probability have been converted to Muhammadanism, that cult which glorifies the heroism and which opens up the seventh heaven to the bold warrior alone. Then the Germanic races would have conquered the world. Christianity alone prevented them from doing so.

Speaker A

Britain for instance there are now Muslim Scholars preaching the Quran in Oxford and there are people in here in Britain as in France as in other countries in Europe who regard this with extreme hostility and in fact I think the

Speaker A

Because to Hitler, Christianity is a kind of weedy, wet religion that encourages peace. But this is not what the vast majority of historical scholars now think, is it? Most agree now that the Battle of Tours was massively overblown. It was a kind of propaganda victory above all else, and partly because the Arabs are not trying to launch a massive invasion of what was once Gaul. It's a raid, one among many that they launched, and the consequences are perhaps not as great as is often thought.

Speaker A

Algerian War the go settlement of of that and the growth of Algerian immigration into France um in the 70s there was an anti- Algerian terrorist group so farri terrorist group and it called itself the group shalm Matel so

Speaker A

Yes, so that's one argument that is, I would say, pretty much the consensus now among academics on the status of the Battle of Tours, that it's not an invasion, that it's a raid, also that it's not a clash between Christianity and Islam because no contemporary really seems to frame it as such, and also that it, in a way, owes more to faction fighting among various Frankish warlords, of whom Charles Martel is one, than it does to Muslim dreams of world conquest.

Speaker A

islamist gunman um Jean Marie Leen who was leader of the the national front at the time father of marine Leen um there was this slogan justu shali so people saying you know identifying themselves with the victims of the the attack on Charlie

Speaker A

But, you know, there are plenty of other scholars who do hold to the kind of Gibbonian view, and it's a debate that's been rumbling away now for decades, and it is a debate that has kind of echoed beyond universities in a way that is unusual for debates about Frankish history.

Speaker A

terrorist attack in New Zealand of all places so the opposite end of the world from France um is done by an Australian terrorist called Brenton tarant and he attacked a mosque and an Islamic Center in Christ Church killed 51 people and

Speaker A

Because this, I would say in general, you know, the period that we've been discussing, these centuries of Frankish history, are among the most obscure in European history. It's not a period that people know a great deal about, but the Battle of Tours does have cut through, and there's an obvious reason for that, which is basically the kind of political context in Europe today, and specifically the fact that over recent decades the growth of the Muslim population in Europe has been considerable.

Speaker A

course of course I I do think when you read an academic on the Battle of tour academics who uh say oh it's a terribly important moment it's pivotal moment in World Civilization a battle that changed everything they always do tend to be of

Speaker A

And this particularly in France, so the ancient Frankish heartland, it has generated quite a far-right reaction, not only in France. So in Britain, for instance, there are now Muslim scholars preaching the Quran in Oxford, and there are people here in Britain, as in France, as in other countries in Europe, who regard this with extreme hostility.

Speaker A

say that it is difficult I think to remove discussions of this battle from current political contexts so just as there are people on the right who say uh you know this was the saving of Europe so on the

Speaker A

And in fact, I think the implications of this for discussion of the Battle of Tours in far-right circles is unbelievably toxic. So you can see this in the way that it's been used by far-right groups. So as early as the 1970s in France, in the wake of the Algerian War, the end of that, and the growth of Algerian immigration into France, in the '70s there was an anti-Algerian terrorist group, a far-right terrorist group, and it called itself the Group Charles Martel.

Speaker A

so far on the on the the rest is history this is politically the most most sensitive of the lot and so that's why I think before we get into the details of the battle itself it's really important to explain the context for what is going

Speaker A

So drawing its direct inspiration from the Frankish duke who had won the Battle of Tours. Then in 2015, after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, you know, so the publishers of the satirical magazine in France were kind of shot by an Islamist gunman. Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was leader of the National Front at the time, father of Marine Le Pen, there was this slogan "Je suis Charlie," so people saying, you know, identifying themselves with the victims of the attack on Charlie Hebdo.

Speaker A

certainly berbers from North Africa from what we'd once have called morania or probably lot of them from Spain um so they're not Arabs yeah and actually are they even Muslims because of course at this point Islam is still in the process

Speaker A

But Jean-Marie Le Pen said, no, "Je suis Martel." And perhaps the most brutal manifestation of the way in which the far-right have identified with Charles Martel is that in 2019 people may remember the...

Speaker A

probably the majority I mean loads of them would have had only the haziest sense of of of what Islam was and as you say Islam itself is still in the process of evolution at this point so I think

Speaker A

it's Islam at this point is best thought of as a kind of franchising system so groups of people uh beyond the the kind of the heartlands of of the emad Empire back in in um in Syria and and and Iraq

Speaker A

and Arabia a li Ed by the caleff in in Baghdad to form their own kind of posies their own groups and essentially the fr the the the license that the caleff is giving these groups of people is to go

Speaker A

out and proclaim the revelations of Muhammad to the limits of the world but the reason that lots of people kind of buy into this isn't necessarily because they are kind of passionately committed to spreading the message of the Quran um

Speaker A

it's because they want to go out and and and grab stuff and strip and loot mon towns or whatever it's a raiding party not not I guess totally unlike a Scandinavian raiding party in a you know not massively dissimilar period I think

Speaker A

you're right and and again that kind of parallels with this and the Viking period is something we might come to kind of later on in the episode so essentially this system works very well and so what you have going over the

Speaker A

course of the late seventh going into the eth centuries is war bands who are kind of nominally Muslim spreading westwards from from Egypt along the northern coast of Africa all the way to morania and then in 7eleven there's a

Speaker A

kind of exploratory raid Across The Straits of jalta so a war band of of of berbers of Arabs of Muslims whatever you want to call them they land in Spain and they have spectacular success so they meet the

Speaker A

king of the Visigoths you know this this is the the kingdom that had given the Franks Brun hild and wipes the king and his army out out they go on they capture too which is the kind of in the center

Speaker A

of Spain the main visigothic um city and it's a spectacular Victory it's a kind of hernand Cortez type Victory the overthrow of a great and Wealthy Empire and the loot that gets sent back to Syria is so overwhelming that Spain

Speaker A

comes to seem in the to to to the eyes of the um of of of the emats back in Syria a kind of land of Wonders it's a place of talking statues where cities are fashioned entirely out of brass just

Speaker A

full of treasure and also full of slaves so a massive kind of cofl of 30,000 visigothic slaves are sent back to Damascus and again you this is seen as being something extraordinary and so it's not surprising in the wake of this success that the

Speaker A

Invaders press onwards and by 719 so that's just eight years after they' landed in jalta the Invaders have crossed the p panes and in 720 they captured the great city of nabon which there's still a kind of tiny strip of

Speaker A

visigothic territory on the coast of Southern Gaul nabon falls to the Invaders and then they fan out to conquer the remaining visigothic strongholds in southern Gul say beier a neim they all fall and essentially pretty much the whole of the visigothic

Speaker A

Kingdom with the exception of kind of the northern reaches of Spain have fallen in the space of a basically a decade to these Invaders I mean it's an spectacular feat of Conquest so now beyond that is the land of the Franks

Speaker A

and that's the kingdom we talked about last week it's ruled by the meravan dynasty we left it with cloar II he's he's won his victory over Brun hild and he's basically got a monarchy over the whole of what was once the Roman

Speaker A

territory of GA so all the different kingdoms are now acknowledging him as their all the different bits rather are now acknowledging him as their King but I read that the seeds of the of the maravan downfall had already been sown

Speaker A

It's contained in this very success so yes as you say clar II had patched together all the various parts of what had been Roman Gul so nyria which is the kingdom kind of ab butting the channel austrasia which is the kind of the

Speaker A

Eastern reaches of the Kingdom stretching beyond the rine deep into Germany burgundy which is the kind of the the the southeast and aquatan which is the southwest and cloth II has managed to rule them all but the reason

Speaker A

why this ultimately is is not good for um uh the maravan Dynasty is that basically it's too large it turns out for for clar II and his son and air daggert to rule so so what clar ends up

Speaker A

having to do is to essentially send his sons out to rule as kind of sub Kings so one goes off to aquate and he's absolutely useless a chronicler dismisses him as simple-minded mhm daggert his cloth's son um he's sent off

Speaker A

to rule austrasia he's slightly more efficient but when he arrives he's young he's inexperienced and this means that he is very malleable in the hands of the two greatest men in Australia who we have already met we met them at the end

Speaker A

of the previous episode because these are um a a lord called Pepin and a bishop called arnolf and these are the guys who had got together to overthrow Brun hild they'd betrayed herum and so she ended up being captured by clar and

Speaker A

very horribly executed so Arnold serves uh the young daggert as his kind of preeminent counselor uh and Pepin serves him kind of off and on you know he he sometimes he retires sometimes he comes back but he is basically not just the kind of the

Speaker A

leading man magnate in Australia but he is also the the leading official in that Kingdom and his status is in Latin mayor domas which you know could anglicize that to be um major Domo his mayor he's the leading official um

Speaker A

and these officials are very very ambitious so powerful ambitious and Resolute were the May ores who stood at the most important Junctions of marav vindu and polity so that's how um yzak hen scholar of of of the marinan Kingdom

Speaker A

describes them and I guess traditionally so going back to the time of Clovis the role of these mayores these Mays let's call them that was to kind of mediate between the king and the local magnates the the the the local

Speaker A

Lords but Pepin is so able so powerful dager BT is is so kind of inexperienced and young the Pepin is able to make himself into something more than that effectively the power behind the throne and they pepin's achievement is to set

Speaker A

up what effectively is a kind of Shadow Dynasty to the maravan dynasty so pepin's daughter goes on to marry the the son of arnol the the the bishop who's the kind of the chief advisor yeah and this couple they in they have a son

Speaker A

who is absolutely a kind of in every sense a chip off the old block so he like his grandfather is also called Pepin so he's called Pepin of hairstyle by the chroniclers to distinguish him from his grandfather he becomes the

Speaker A

mayor of Australia in 680 and he is I mean he's not just the power behind the throne he puts the throne in his shadow he is an absolutely domineering figure and he's able to do that because for kind of for the mer of inin very

Speaker A

unfortunate series of circumstances there are a succession of kind of children who succeed to the throne die succeeded by another child you know if they grow to adulthood they're absolutely useless and so in the shadow of Pepin of of hairstyle this great

Speaker A

overweening mare the May of inan King is reduced effectively to a kind of Cipher and by the time that Pepin of Hurst dies in 714 he's made himself the master not just of aasia where he'd been you know

Speaker A

he he he he's the mayor but also of nyria that northern kingdom of burgundy and he's also been pushing eastwards so under his under his leadership the Franks have begun conquering SES of what today are the Netherlands and um Central

Speaker A

Germany and pepen of herstal is is no longer content just with the title of of may he wants something more and so he has given himself an absolutely brilliant title ducks at prep's francorum the Duke and the prince of the

Speaker A

Franks and he has established this title as though it was a kind of kingship as hereditary and his son Pepin of H's son is sha Martel right so sha Martel although there was a maravan king we don't need to really worry too much

Speaker A

about him he's called theud IV but sha Martel is the ruler of huge SES of this of what was want goool austrasia oistria burgundy and so on but that leaves one other place in the southeast of France which is aquatan and

Speaker A

aquatan stands against charl Martel is that right and this is going to be very important for our story of the battle of Tor so aquatan is got a dukee called o Odo or Odo let's call him Odo so tell me

Speaker A

about him he he's he's a very grizzled experienced bloke he he is Battle hardened cunning and absolutely does not want to submit to the rule of sha Martel you know he wants to effectively maintain his kind of Independence he's Frankish but he also

Speaker A

you know he he's able to draw on the kind of the ancient traditions of the Roman province that had been there so it's a kind of it's a kind of Independence that he wants to uphold and this has been fine while he's only had

Speaker A

to deal with with shaman Martel and the kind of the Franks to the north north of the lair the nightmare for Odo is the arrival of the sarens as as he calls them because now he is sandwiched between these two terrifying enemies so

Speaker A

he's got the Frankish Kingdom to the north and he's got the the sarens who are kind of riding up from the south and so unsurprisingly Odo tries to kind of play the two of the the these two kind

Speaker A

of menacing enemies off against one another so in 721 the emad forces they've completed their conquest of the the visigothic stretches of of goul and so then they turn their attentions to aquatan and the spring of 721 they lay

Speaker A

Siege to the the greater City in aquatan which is toose and Odo turns to sha marel and he says look you know we're all Franks together can you come and help me this is this is a nightmare and sha Martel

Speaker A

far from rallying to the cause of Christendom he says no I'm interested you're on your own so poor Odo has to kind of basically deal with this crisis um under his own agency and he does it very very effectively because he gathers

Speaker A

his forces together and he he approaches um the besieging uh Arabs around to lose by stealth and he takes them completely by surprise and he wipes them out and this is the first great defeat suffered by the Amad forces in Europe and Odo is

Speaker A

absolutely triumphant and he he writes a letter to the pope saying I'm absolutely brilliant I've killed 375,000 sarens which is possibly an exaggeration but clearly it is a crucial Victory I mean it's very you know he for the moment he has saved aquatain from

Speaker A

Invasion and he's won a breathing space not just for for him himself but also for sh marel up in the the northern lands basically to prepare for the storm that they know is going to come they know the storm clouds of War are

Speaker A

gathering and so both men prepare for the invasion that is coming and they know this because even though the the EMS have been defeated before the walls of too they have not been expelled from goul so they still have those cities

Speaker A

that they' occupied in and they are launching raids all the time northwards as far as burgundy right right so so OT in burgundy which Brun hild in the final years of her her Regency had made her Capital um a kind of very beautiful

Speaker A

ancient Roman city that gets put to the torch lots of other towns do particularly monasteries so for you you you compared the the um the Arab uh invade Invaders to the Vikings yeah um for the same reason they target

Speaker A

monasteries because they're they're full of kind of riches that can be carted off and so this is looking really bad so Odo his strategy is to try and kind of pick Arab Warlords off and enter into into an

Speaker A

alliance with them and he succeeds in doing this with a a Berber warlord called uan who has been given the command of what today is Catalonia so so for for the for the emad it's a kind of Border region a marcher

Speaker A

region um and Odo wants to stabilize his Southern frontier and oan wants to carve um Catalonia out as a kind of independent fom um so you know he he wants to rule it under his own steam rather than in subordination to the the

Speaker A

Ed governor in too and the alliance is is signed in 7:30 and to seal it Odo gives uan his daughter in marriage can I just stop you right there so a lot of listeners may find that um really interesting because

Speaker A

that obviously undermines the idea that this sort of Titanic Clash of civilizations and that people are consciously engage in a class of civilizations because here you have an alliance between Christian and and in a vert com as Muslim and a marriage

Speaker A

Alliance along with that so there's no sense that they've crossed some kind of tremendous ideological divide in doing that no because what matters to to both men Odo and uan is the you know is power politics that's much much more important

Speaker A

than any sense of a kind of Titanic Clash of civilizations uh and to begin with it seems it seems to work um there is stability along the line of of of the aquitanian border uan is able to establish himself self as independent

Speaker A

but trouble is brewing the storm clouds of War continue to gather uh because back in Toledo the news of this Alliance goes down like a cup of cold sick and unfortunately for bothman and Odo the governor in too he's he's a new governor

Speaker A

is exceedingly able and also exceedingly devout um and this is a man called ABD al- Raman Al gaiki and he he is from from Arabia he's from the Red Sea so he is properly in Arab and he is you know

Speaker A

he he he comes from the heartlands of Islam he probably far more than most people in Spain is completely on top of of what is becoming Islam and he is not prepared to put up with this so his

Speaker A

response is completely Dev devastating 731 he invades Catalonia he defeats uan has him killed uh captures usman's wife who is the daughter of Odo and packs her off to Damascus to uh you know to live in the cifal harim there so you know

Speaker A

that's bad news for Odo and indeed probably for odo's daughter and you were saying that there's no real sense of a kind of clash of civilizations going on while um while Abdul Raman is doing this in Catalonia sha Martel is signally not

Speaker A

helping the Christian cause because he has crossed the laa and is taking advantage of um odo's state of despair at the collapse of his Alliance by launching an attack on acatan and carting off loads of loot northwards to

Speaker A

the so that's not helpful at all then the following year in Spring abdar Raman invades aquatine he sweeps northwards through gasty he descends on Bordeaux he captures it he sacks it Odo has been frantically marshalling men to try and resist this attack

Speaker A

he meets the um the the army of Abdul Raman on the banks of the gon Beyond Bordeaux and the result is a completely devastating defeat for Odo and we have a a Chronicle that was written by an anonymous Christian priest back in Spain

Speaker A

it's called the the chronicle of 754 by Scholars and it's essentially our main source our most contemporary source for what's going on and he records of this battle that odo's Army was scattered Ed into flight and only God could know the

Speaker A

number of those who died or were slain so this is a mo you know I mean this is terrible for Odo he survives the battle but essentially he must fear that acatan is lost so he musters what troops have

Speaker A

survived the disaster uh recruits what more he can from the kind of the outer reaches of of his duy and then he rides with them northwards to the lair and Crosses into the land of that are ruled by Sha Martel and he comes to the Duke

Speaker A

of the Franks and you know his great rival humiliating for him but he has no choice you know and he begs him for assistance and charl is still driving a hard bargain you know it's not as though he feels well we're all Christians

Speaker A

together you know in the in the face of this terrible threat you know he drives a really hard bargain he demands that Odo submit to him that he um acknowledge Him sh as as as o is superior and Odo

Speaker A

has no choice so reluctantly he he you know he gives his submission meanwhile back in aquatan um Abdul rahman's men are you know that they've won this great Victory and they are Keen to profit from it all that they can so they are

Speaker A

spilling out across aquatan they're falling on towns they're falling on monasteries they're stripping them bare they're loading wagons high with loot and they Rumble northwards you know the Army spilling up the the Roman roads that lead towards the lir the the wagons

Speaker A

full of of of gold and treasure accompanying them and as the further north they go the closer they come to the lands ruled by the Duke and Prince of the Franks sha Martel and I think for the Ed forces there's a definite sense

Speaker A

that they're venturing into unknown territory here you know it's a long long way from to poo let alone from um from from from Africa they don't know much about sha marel they don't know much about the the people that he rules they don't really

Speaker A

have a sense of what might lay ahead but there is one thing of course that they are alert to and that is the prospect of plunder and again in in this they they are like the Vikings and of course the

Speaker A

nearer they head to the lair the more they are picking up the rumors of I mean not just a wealthy Shrine but a fabulously wealthy Shrine the wealthiest Shrine in the whole of Gaul rich in every kind of

Speaker A

treasure and this Shrine of course is the shrine of St Martin of T the great patron saint of the of the marav Indian monarchy but also more generally of the Franks themselves and there is no way that the Duke of the Franks can possibly

Speaker A

allow the Invaders if he can in any way help it to strip the shrine of St Martin bear in this year two comets appeared around the Sun striking great Terror into those that saw them one went before the sun rising in the morning the other

Speaker A

followed it sinking in the evening as if forboding dire Calamity for East as well as West certainly one anticipated the day's beginning and the other the knights so that they might act as a sign that evils threatened Mortals at both

Speaker A

times they bore a fiery torch to the north as if to start a fire they appeared in the month of January and remained for nearly two weeks at that time a very serious plague of sarens plundered the GS with miserable

Speaker A

Slaughter so that was the venerable bead writing in the ecclesiastical history of the English people now bead not brilliant at dates to be fair to him he said this happened in 72 good I mean he he's the guy who comes up with our

Speaker A

dating system he's at least three years out here so he dated the Comets to 729 but there wasn't any Saron invasion of going in 729 so this is most Scholars think he's got in a muddle and he's actually talking about

Speaker A

732 um which is a a bit odd because he actually claimed that he finished his book a year earlier so maybe he put this in afterwards yeah I think that's probably the the generally held Theory and if he did that then it's witnessed

Speaker A

to the fact that you know he his sense that this is an amazing episode it's something that's worth recording and also it Bears witness to the fact that the news of this great battle that's been fought this great saris Invasion

Speaker A

has kind of you know it's crossed the channel it's spread up it all the way through England up to North Umbria yeah so this is something that really resonates and if beid is writing about um this invasion of of 73 to then this

Speaker A

is the earliest witness that we have to it um you know and it is indeed very dramatic it's not surprising that that that bead who's kind of obviously very attuned to the the flow of great events would have would have heard of it and

Speaker A

been interested in it um because we have two great and formidable generals coming up against one another so Raman the omad general the governor of Spain I mean he's already proved himself very very formidable in battle he's overthrown Norman he's defeated Odo he's

Speaker A

now heading northwards towards the line of the lair we don't know how large his invasion force is but it's evidently you know I mean it's large enough to have defeated uan to have swatted aside Odo and it is also much much better equipped

Speaker A

than the Frankish Army I mean I always remember I had a a children's book of History had an illustration of the battle of T and the Franks in that were kind of they were like Knights on Armor and the Arabs all had you know they were

Speaker A

kind of loosely you know wearing their kind of flowing robes Saladin in the ladybirds yes exactly but actually it it it's the other way round it's theed forces that are very very much heavier in Cavalry than the Franks and they're

Speaker A

also much much better equipped so I quote um Bernard s backrack who um book on early carolan Warfare is brilliant on this whole campaign and he writes that the Arabs had acquired by Conquest the arms manufacturing infrastructure of what had been a large

Speaker A

part of the eastern half of the Roman Empire these production resources were far better developed than those found during the early 8th Century throughout the Empire's Romano German successor states in the west so basically you know their kit is loads loads better and also

Speaker A

the amads they're just much richer you know they've had a century and more of of plunder behind them they can afford uh better armor better helmets better swords than the than the Franks have and on top of that they're also much more

Speaker A

technologically advanced so there's one key technological development that the Franks can't rival and again to quote backrack finally the Muslims had the technology to construct the composite recurve bow which was made from various layers of bone horn and wood these

Speaker A

weapons were far superior to the wood and self bows available to the Northerners in addition the shorter and more powerful recurve bow could be used effectively by mounted troops and I read that because I don't really know what a

Speaker A

recurve bow is well I was about to say it's one where the limbs of the bow kind of curve away from the so it's a sort of more elaborate curve yeah and because of that you can have a sort of shorter so

Speaker A

they kind of curl back on themselves and kind you get in the Arabian Knights is yeah Arabian Knight kind of bone because of that because of the extra sub tensional whatever you can have a shorter bow so in other words it's

Speaker A

easier to fire when you're on Horseback and also apparently it can you know it can go further than than the Frankish bows can Bally it's it's a great bat it's a top bow um so basically you know this is not

Speaker A

a kind of rag tag desert army um this is a very very formidable force and one that that effectively is a kind of worthy successor to to the Roman armies um because it's drawing on those Traditions now people who've listened to

Speaker A

the first two episodes will remember that the Franks too are drawing on a Roman inheritance so they were they were they were trained to fight in a Roman way and that's a tradition that's endured you know for the two centuries

Speaker A

since the fall of the Roman Empire in the west and on top of that they have Roman military manuals which we know that they read um so like the Romans they have an emphasis on Infantry at this point you know the Franks do not

Speaker A

have the kind of the heavily armored laurar they're called the kind of the armored Horsemen that are the precursors of of the western Knight they are very very much focused on um fighting on foot I think in part although I gather that

Speaker A

this is hugely debated by military historians because they haven't yet adopted the stup the stup is just kind of being introduced to the land of the Franks at this point so Charles would have had you know he would have had

Speaker A

Horsemen with him um and these were called palatini so people who are you know his Elites who surround him in the palace and this is where the word paladins comes from which is kind of very King Arthur Lancelot and G of the

Speaker A

paladins of of of King Arthur um so he does have some of them but the main focus is on uh as I say on Infantry and specifically um the Franks fight in a phalance so like the Romans had done

Speaker A

very close Shields locked together if they are faced by archers as the Romans had done they're able to kind of form a testudo a torus so you put the the shields up and over your heads and the arrows just kind

Speaker A

of bounce off your Shields um and they fight so closely together that there's a a a Frankish um report of a battle that was fought a century before the Battle of T that describes how the slain had nowhere to fall but stood in their

Speaker A

battle lines corpse supporting corpse as though they were still alive so very very close formation so it's a bit like the um images of fighting that you get in burner corell's books which are again not massively dissimilar period people

Speaker A

packed in a kind of Shield wall stabbing with their swords relentlessly through the gaps in the enemy line yeah and again that stab the use of the kind of the stabbing sword rather than the slashing sword um and I guess you people

Speaker A

would associate kind of Frankish Knights as using a massive great heavy slashing sword but at this point again they are using the the Gladius as the Romans called it the kind of the stabbing sword so they are they're you know they they

Speaker A

approximate to a Roman legion more than to anything else and of course Roman Legions were dependent on Relentless training and this seems to have been what Charles had given his troops so you know that breathing space that odo's

Speaker A

defeat of the Arabs before the walls of too had brought Charles he doesn't seem to have wasted it he seems to have essentially put his troops through their Paces drilling them and drilling them and drilling them and even if his men

Speaker A

are are not as well equipped as the emad forces they are as well trained and I think that this is what Charles is relying on to defeat them so those are the armies what about the strategy of the two commanders so Abdul

Speaker A

raman's strategy is very plain he wants to to sack the shrine of of St Martin and there are various reasons why he would be particularly Keen to do that the obvious one is loads of his troops are following him in the expectation of

Speaker A

loot most of them I suspect are not motivated by a passionate commitment to the teachings of the Quran they want to get as rich as they possibly can and St Martin's Shrine promises them all kinds of goodies I think Abdul Raman

Speaker A

recognizes the kind of significance to Frankish Prestige of the shrine of St Martin if he can sack it you know it'll be a real body blow to the the the the the prestige of um of sha Martel and his

Speaker A

regime and I think you know we've said Abdul Raman you know he comes from the heartlands of Islam he definitely has a kind of a a doctrinal motivation he wants to strip the shrine of St Martin bear not just because it's full of

Speaker A

treasure but because as he sees it it's full of kind of um idols uh he wants to to Humble the pride of the Cross worshippers into the dust yeah but to do that to reach the shrine of St

Speaker A

Martin he has you know he's going to have to wipe out the army of the Franks Charles's Army and the reason for that is that Charles's strategy essentially is to block his access to T and force him to attempt to decisive battle and

Speaker A

this for Abdu ramman is going to be a real challenge because um even though his his men are superior in in kit and um in military technology the Franks as we've said are at least as well trained and they're

Speaker A

also probably numerically Superior and that's because Charles's forces have been swelled by you know the troops that Odo has brought with him from aquatan and of course they are you know they are absolutely Resolute in their determination to defend St Martin's

Speaker A

Shrine just as Abdul ramman wants to strip it because it's so precious to the Franks obviously for that reason the Franks are determined to defend and protect it um and that Charles is is confident that this is a a potentially

Speaker A

winning strategy because he can rely on his men to hold their ground Not To Break not to flee but also should the Arabs um be defeated not to run after them you know which would potentially then open them up to attack by the Arab

Speaker A

Cavalry so this strategy e effectively means you know in those those kind of the the the late Autumn of 732 that a battle is going to be inevitable um Charles is going to block the road to tour Abdul Raman is going to

Speaker A

have to engage him if he wants to break through and the reason for that he he can't really Retreat because that would you know be very damaging to to his Prestige and also if he Retreats as a risk to his

Speaker A

baggage train with all that kind of golden stuff so effectively there is no choice but to engage so there's essentially a kind of week of Shadow Boxing and then finally the um the moment comes the Arabs are on

Speaker A

the Roman Road they see the Franks lined up ahead of them there is no choice now but to engage in battle and again for our account the the the the best account of what happens is this Chronicle of

Speaker A

754 and the the the Christian priest writing that he had he he describes the Frankish battle line in an incredibly memorable way the Northerners held their position he wrote like a glacia from the Frozen North I mean amazing description

Speaker A

kind of impossible immovable indom but also icy icy cold and and dangerous um and he he describes how the stabbing swords of the Franks the gladi inflict terrible damage on the Invaders um and among the dead is Abdul Raman himself so

Speaker A

again the chronicle of 7554 the Australian so that's the Franks with a terrible strength in their limbs and an iron hand throughout the hard fight killed him when they found him and as evening comes it's clear that the victory is is

Speaker A

the Franks but what is perhaps the most impressive witness to their discipline is that they they hold their line I mean as I said it's it the only way that they could have lost at this point would be

Speaker A

if they kind of go whoa we've won brilliant and piled off they don't they hold their positions and then they they kind of they they they Retreat to their Camp pretty confident that the next day they're going to have to fight again

Speaker A

that the battle will continue right and I'll describe what what then happens and what they find when they wake up the day after this this first engagement um by quoting the the chronicle of 754 so this priest writes rising from their sleeping

Speaker A

bags at dawn the Europeans and it's such an interesting use of that I mean I think it's the first use of that phrase in any medieval uh Chronicle the Europeans beheld the tents and camps of the Arabs canopies located and ordered

Speaker A

as they had been not knowing that they were all empty and supposing that the sarens phanes were prepared for battle within they sent Scouts and found that all the ishmaelites columns had escaped so that's the Arab columns and that all

Speaker A

of them were secretly fleeing home passing the night in tight formation the Europeans were anxious lest they might have concealed themselves on a hidden path as a stratagem stunned in every way they hunted the surrounding area in vain

Speaker A

making no further effort to find the afores said people they returned to their own countries rejoicing with their booty and the evenly divided spoils so that's it the Arabs are beaten and they' they've um well I say the Arabs they're

Speaker A

not really Arabs are they the the Invaders the Raiders have been beaten off and they' they' vanished they've vanished with their stuff because they don't want to lose their what plunder they I think they leave some of it

Speaker A

behind and this is what the Franks pick up yeah but but but the Franks don't pursue them I mean that's what's striking they let them go right um and and it's indisputably for them a a great Victory um and St Martin is safe St

Speaker A

Martin is safe and he his Shrine will never be threatened again but this Le open the question that we began this episode with you know what is the significance of this battle is it you know is it World historical in its

Speaker A

moment um and I guess the first question is you know what what do we make of this this attack that the Ed forces have launched on on the LA um is it a raid um is it a maneuver in a kind of fractional

Speaker A

battle between assorted Christian and Muslim Warlords is it a a Muslim attempt to Humble a Christian Shrine and I reckon the answer to that is that it's all of those I mean they're not mutually exclusive you know the desire for loot

Speaker A

the ambition that that Abdu Raman had to punish the the treachery of Usman and to to kind of humble Odo into the dust um his Zeal for Islam I mean all of these are clearly part of the mix of

Speaker A

motivations I think that are encouraging isn't is a long planned coldblooded coordinated massive Invasion no it isn't it's not that I think that doesn't mean that it's not significant MH because we can the the other question is well what

Speaker A

what let's do a counterfactual abdar Raman wins um Charles Martell is killed Odo is killed they march on the shrine of St Martin they strip it bare and then they cart all the treasure back and what happens next you know we can never be sure in

Speaker A

any of these situations you know there are so many kind of intangibles but I reckon you the balance of probability would be that aquatain would definitely fall to the Ed forces I mean if Odo is dead if his men have been

Speaker A

wiped out there's no real Prospect of the Amed forces not occupying it and kind of making it a forward base beyond the Pyrenees the one thing I would say is if they have that have to keep supplying it with men and whatnot from

Speaker A

Beyond the Pyrenees well which does look like a pretty I mean it's it's a pretty significant natural barrier through most of history between France and Spain well they do but then I mean um The Straits of jalter are also a pretty significant

Speaker A

barrier and they've managed to take Spain and I think part of the reason for that is that success attracts followers and there would undoubtedly have been people in aquit who would have wanted to side with the winners and that would then have

Speaker A

provided a kind of reserve of Manpower that the emad occupiers could have drawn on and if they do that then the consequences of that for southern Gul are are pretty clear I mean Southern Gul will become part of the emad caliphate

Speaker A

um and that in turn I think would have put Italy in Peril and Italy of course is you know it's it's the home of the papacy in Rome and the Byzantine forces there are you know under attack that's a hell of a

Speaker A

you've made a you've made a you've made a massive leap in the course of a sentence from they'd probably got Aquitaine suddenly Italy has fallen as well like your dominoes are falling very quickly if Southern Gul Falls then the

Speaker A

Franks can't come to the come to the rescue of the papacy and as we will see in our next episode essentially in in this Century the papacy is dependent for its its political Survival on Frankish support so I think that that

Speaker A

is I think it's improbable that the papacy that Rome would have held out um against uh Muslim domination had T gone the other way and the implications of that would have been pretty significant I mean what about the implications for

Speaker A

the independent Frankish Kingdom uh I mean it's got huge reserves of Manpower uh it could easily have rallied it could have held out it could have launched a reconquest of the South uh that after all is what you know in the long run the

Speaker A

um the Spanish Christians do um over the course of the Middle Ages but I think that there are two episodes from early medieval history that suggest that it would have been a a challenge it would have been difficult for the Franks to do

Speaker A

that and the first of course is what we've just been talking about the defeat of the Visigoths because if you you say uh you know that the attack on tour was just a raid well essentially the um you

Speaker A

know the invasion Across The Straits of jalter into Spain was just a raid but because um they the Invaders won this massive battle and and killed the VIS Gothic King you know they within a within a decade pretty much the whole of

Speaker A

Spain had fallen into their lap and you know with aquatan as a base I think the potential for a kind of you know campaigns of jihad against the Franks in the north would have been considerable which isn't to say that that that the

Speaker A

same thing would have happened but it it you know it might have done we don't know but the other event that I think you know had the shrine of St Martin been sacked there is then an obvious parallel

Speaker A

later in the century which you alluded to right at the beginning of this episode and that's what the Vikings do when they launch their campaigns against particularly England and that begins with the sack of a famous sh the shrine of St cber on

Speaker A

holy Island the island of Lind disan and what that demonstrates is that to to to loot a shrine that has a kind of a special Holiness is never just to loot it because as well as the financial loss

Speaker A

there is also the the kind of the shock that it delivers to people for whom this Shrine is a kind of central part of their spiritual identity so the sack of of um The Shrine of St cbet on lindes

Speaker A

fan sends shock waves not just across Britain but across the whole of Europe and I think it you know it gives a pretty devastating blow to North umbrian morale and the kingdom of North Umbria Falls to Pieces fairly soon afterwards

Speaker A

and I think that the sack of the shrine of St Martin would have had probably an even greater impact I mean it's you know it's it's say Martin is the great patron of Frankish royalty but by the 8th

Speaker A

Century he's it's become much more than that so St Martin you know he's the first he's the most celebrated of all gul's monks of all gul's holy men uh and he has become the emblem of a kind of

Speaker A

common identity that has joined Franks and Romans they all share a kind of common Devotion to this saint and so you could say that the the sack of St Martin's Shrine would have been a blow not just to Frankish Prestige but to the

Speaker A

very spiritual identity of you know this emergent Frankish nation and of course at the same time it would have offered evidence for those with eyes to see of the truth of the message that is being proclaimed by the Invaders and

Speaker A

it's absolutely true that this this is not kind of at the Forefront of the EM campaign it's not particularly what they are proclaiming and therefore very few people at the point where the Battle of Tor is being fought really have a sense

Speaker A

of of of anything approximating to Islam so this is why it's not couched by contemporary chroniclers as you know a great Clash of civilizations or anything like that yeah so bead who we've referenced this you know the the great

Speaker A

scholar and historian uh writing in his Monastery up in North Umbria he has only the vager sense of who the sarens as he calls them you know vager sense of who they are thinks that they're pagans that they're worshippers

Speaker A

of the Morning Star um there are others who are are closer to them who who think of them essentially as Christian Heretics which is so common that's what Christians think of them in the early years of Islam isn't it right and I

Speaker A

think right the way through to the Middle Ages I mean Dante is still kind of you know that's still how he's framing them I mean they don't really have a sense of Islam as as a a religion I mean that's a much later kind of

Speaker A

conceptualization and maybe because of that maybe because Islam in some ways is very close to Christianity you know Jesus is in the Quran Virgin Mary's in Quran um they both Christianity in Islam have a respect for the the Hebrew

Speaker A

prophets that is a big difference I think between the Muslim Invaders of of Spain and Ghul and the Vikings because there are doubtless people in England who who kind of do end up abandoning their Christianity and turning to the worship of the Viking

Speaker A

gods but it's not a Soph phisticated framework of belief and the kind of the structures of imperialism that the Vikings bring are you know it's basically kind of grab it and settle and that's the limit of it but the evidence

Speaker A

of Muslim Spain shows that Islam is very very different that it has a very sophisticated relationship to Christianity it it is it has a framework for subordinating Christians and Jews and um kind of you know putting them within an Empire the Quran mandates how

Speaker A

they should taxed how they should be subordinated all these kind of things it's a program for Imperial Rule and that is an obvious point of differentiation between the Vikings and the Arabs right um and that's why Spain you know it it it it's not just

Speaker A

that it is ruled by Muslims it becomes Muslim over the course of the centuries that follow its conquest and I think you could you know if if suppose the Muslims hold on to Southern Gul you could see the same process happening there and

Speaker A

that would I think be you know that would have pretty seismic implications for the future course of of medieval history and I think ultimately to suppose that had Charles mortell lost the battle had he had he died had had his his troops been

Speaker A

wiped out had the the shrine of St Martin been attacked but that would have had no impact that it was just a raid I think that to kind of believe that it's effectively to argue that Islam and Christianity ity and specifically the

Speaker A

distinctive form of Christianity that emerges in Western Europe in the centuries after the battle of T that there essentially the same there's no real difference between them it doesn't really matter if you're ruled by Christians or by Muslims and I just

Speaker A

don't think that's true I think that there is a very very profound difference between the two ways of seeing the world and so therefore I think that the Battle of tour is significant I mean I don't think it's a kind of peripheral Clash I

Speaker A

think it is momentum perhaps not quite as momentous as as Gibbon suggested but pretty important and Charles Martell's victory in that sense is pretty seismic in the long run but it's seismic also in the short term because it has very important

Speaker A

implications for the future of um the Frankish Kingdom um and for his own Dynasty are there not some other reasons why uh you could question the idea about the momentousness of this battle so for example my Chronicles often

Speaker A

mention big defeats so they mentioned defeats in the early stages of the Recon Kea for example but they never mentioned this at all like it doesn't even feature they treat it as a raid that just you know just one raid among many and beaten

Speaker A

back and actually I was I looked I looked this up there were more raids in 734 there was a raid in 736 and there was actually argu some people think an even bigger raid even bigger invasion in 739 when the amads got to deel and were

Speaker A

beat to be beat only so in burgundy only to be beaten back by the Franks so in other words this was not the end of their incursions so it's not so in that sense it's not really a turning point it

Speaker A

doesn't change anything because they just keep coming I think it is for reasons that we'll look at in the next episode because it means it's not just the Franks who've won it sha Martell has won and he the the kind of the glory of

Speaker A

his victory kind of resonates to his Prestige and as we will see he is now in a position not just to defend his kingdom against the Invaders but to go on the offensive and his son in turn will be able to do that and his grandson

Speaker A

who is Charlamagne will definitely be able to do that but there's one other thing which is even more important which I think is arguably much more important than the battle at tour and that's in 740 a huge Revolt breaks out in what's

Speaker A

now Morocco great Berber revolt and that basically cuts off umad Spain from the sort of Arab Heartland and it mean means that the age of raiding kind of comes to an end because they can't keep raising all the you know there's so much

Speaker A

internal dissension thees can't keep raising all all these Berber troops so that would seem to undermine the idea that oh they get acone then they get this and they get this then they get this because actually there's so they've

Speaker A

got so many problems in their own kind of backyard as it were were that they were actually never going to be able to do all that because the massive ructions going on in North Africa uh I no I don't

Speaker A

think so because um what also then happens after that is that um and we've done this we did this in our history of Baghdad is that the amads are overthrown by the abbasids but one of the amads is

Speaker A

able to get to Spain where he establishes himself as its ruler and in the long term as its kaliff um and this is the great golden age of uh May at Spain and it it it's ferociously uh and

Speaker A

impressively um formidable uh it's it's a a very potent military power and it's a very great kind of civilizational power and this is the period when you see large numbers of Christian Spaniards converting to Islam because you know it

Speaker A

has this kind of great force of appeal it's it's culturally militarily politically more appealing than than Christian ity which seems a kind of defeated and superseded way of seeing the world way of of of explaining man's relationship to God and

Speaker A

had that realm that the amads take over in the wake of the the abased revolution had that extended to Southern Gul had it extended to Northern Italy then you know that would have been an even larger power base for for the am Cade all right

Speaker A

well if people want toist that they've got an episode on umad Spain which I greatly recommend but for the time being we're going to be going on with the story of the Franks right Tom so what's coming next so coming up next um it's uh

Speaker A

the son of sha marel uh and his relationship with the papacy which is again a development of seismic impact for the future history of Europe and therefore in the long run the world uh and this man uh Pippin um who overthrows

Speaker A

the marav engin makes himself King he is the father of a much greater and more famous King charag and so at the end of our next episode Charlamagne will be entering the story brilliant so next up is our Charlamagne Trilogy and members

Speaker A

of the rest's history Club will be able to hear all three episodes of the Charlamagne Trilogy at once straight away if you want to join them go to uh the restus history.com uh if not we'll be back on

Speaker A

Thursday with the first episode of our epic Charlamagne series see you then bye-bye bye-bye

Topics:Battle of ToursCharles MartelUmayyad CaliphateSaracensIslamic SpainChristianityMedieval EuropeEdward GibbonFrankish WarlordsHistorical Debate

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is the Battle of Tours considered important in history?

The battle is seen as a pivotal moment where Charles Martel's victory halted the advance of Islamic forces into Western Europe, shaping the religious and political future of the continent.

Who were the Saracens in the Battle of Tours?

The Saracens were the army serving the Umayyad Caliphate, the first great Arab Islamic empire, which invaded parts of Europe including Islamic Spain.

Do modern historians agree on the significance of the Battle of Tours?

Most modern historians view the battle as less decisive than traditionally thought, considering it more a raid than a major invasion and not a clear-cut religious conflict.

Get More with the Söz AI App

Transcribe recordings, audio files, and YouTube videos — with AI summaries, speaker detection, and unlimited transcriptions.

App Store Google Play

Or transcribe another YouTube video here →

Free tools: TXT to SRT · SRT Validator · Merge SRT · Subtitle to Text · All tools