Frankish-Moorish Wars
The Frankish-Moorish Wars were a series of military conflicts that occurred primarily in the early 8th century between the Frankish states of Gaul and the invading Moorish forces from North Africa. Sparked by Muslim incursions into Hispania in 711, these conflicts saw the Moors initially capturing large territories, including parts of what is now France. The Franks, led by notable leaders such as Charles Martel, sought to resist the expansion of Muslim rule into Europe.
Key battles, including the notable Battle of Tours in 732, marked significant turning points, where Frankish forces achieved a decisive victory against the Moors, halting their advance into Gaul. Despite this, small-scale Moorish raids continued for several years, as conflicts between local Christian and Muslim factions persisted. The wars culminated in the eventual expulsion of Moorish forces from Gaul by the Frankish king Pépin III in the late 8th century, thus shaping the nascent identity of France. This series of conflicts played a vital role in the religious and cultural dynamics of medieval Europe, reflecting the complex interactions between Christian and Muslim powers during that period.
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Frankish-Moorish Wars
At issue: Control of Gaul
Date: 718-759
Location: Gaul
Combatants: Franks vs. Moors
Principal commanders:Frankish, Charles Martel (689-741), mayor of the palace; Moorish, ʿAbd-ar-Raḥmān (d. 732), viceroy of Hispania
Principal battles: Tours, Narbonne
Result: End of the greatest Moorish threat to Gaul and consolidation of Frankish control
Background
In 711, ṭāriq ibn-Ziyād led a Moorish army from northwest Africa into Hispania, where his Muslim intervention in a conflict between rival Christian Visigothic factions served as a prelude to an invasion the next year by a larger Muslim army, commanded by Mūsā ibn Nuṣayr, the ruler of northwest Africa, on behalf of the caliph in Damascus. Soon almost all Hispania fell under Muslim control.
Beyond the Pyrenees, the political disunity of Christian Gaul must have looked appealing to the new Hispanic power. Although the Franks in the northern and eastern parts of the old Roman province were more formidable militarily than the Visigoths, the Franks tended to fight among themselves and had little control of southwestern Gaul.
Action
Perhaps as early as 718, Moorish warriors crossed the Pyrenees into Septimania, where in 719, they captured Narbonne. In 721, a nominal vassal of the Franks, Duke Eudo of Aquitaine, defeated a Moorish force at Toulouse in a battle in which the Moorish commander, El-Samah, died. In 725, however, Anbasa-ibn-Johim, leading a Moorish army out of Narbonne, captured Carcassone and Nîmes, as well as other cities, and pillaged Gaul as far north as Autun, in Burgundy. Pursued by a Frankish army, Anbasa retreated fast to Hispania, dying soon afterward.
Fighting among the Muslims in Hispania after Anbasa’s death kept Gaul safe from further incursions for several years. Meanwhile, to form an alliance with a powerful Muslim, Eudo gave his daughter in marriage to Othman-ben-abu-Neza, the ruler of Septimania. Then, in 731, Eudo declared himself independent of Charles Martel, the Frankish mayor of the palace—a man who, supposedly the steward of the Merovingian king of the Franks, was really the ruler of all the Franks, including the king. Charles proceeded to lead an army into Aquitaine to restore Frankish authority. However, Othman, instead of going to his father-in-law’s aid, died in his own revolt against the new viceroy of Hispania, ʿAbd-ar-Raḥmān; and Eudo lost in battle against Charles.
Despite that defeat, Eudo refused to surrender to the invading Franks. However, he learned that ʿAbd-ar-Raḥmān had crossed the western Pyrenees with a huge army of horsemen. Trying to divert his Christian foes, ʿAbd-ar-Raḥmān sent a portion of his troops east toward Arles, while personally leading the main force north into Aquitaine. Eudo’s army arrived too late to prevent the Moors from pillaging and burning Bordeaux. When the Aquitainians did meet ʿAbd-ar-Raḥmān’s army at the Dordogne River, the result was a Moorish victory. Humbling himself, Eudo appealed to Charles, his Christian enemy, for help.
Probably more intent on looting than on winning greater territory for Islam, ʿAbd-ar-Raḥmān’s main force moved farther north, toward a rich abbey at Tours; however, as Charles’s army of Franks and their German allies approached, the Moors turned back toward Poitiers, near which the Christians and Muslims met in the Battle of Tours (October, 732). The immediate results were the triumph of the Franks, mostly infantrymen, over the Moors, the death of ʿAbd-ar-Raḥmān on the battlefield, and the retreat toward the Pyrenees of the surviving Moors, with as much plunder as they could carry.
Thus ended the greatest Moorish raid into Gaul, but the threat remained, with further Moorish looting and the Moorish capture of Arles and Avignon. Charles counterattacked with some success and received help from the Lombards. The Frankish-Moorish Wars in Gaul, however, continued after Charles’s death until his son Pépin III the Short, who had become king of the Franks in 751, captured much of Septimania in 752 and eventually ended an era of Moorish presence in Gaul by seizing Narbonne (759).
Aftermath
Having pushed the Moors back into Hispania, the Franks turned Gaul into their land—France.
Bibliography
Crompton, Samuel Willard. One Hundred Military Leaders Who Shaped World History. San Mateo, Calif.: Bluewood, 1999.
Oman, Charles. The Dark Ages, 476-918. 6th ed. London: Rivingtons, 1919.
Riche, Pierre. The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.