PropertyValue
rdf:type
rdfs:label
  • Battle of Tours
rdfs:comment
  • The Battle of Tours was waged in AD 732. It was the decisive battle in which Charles Martel stopped the advance of the Muslim armies into Europe, after they had conquered all of Spain. The Muslim leader, Emir Abd er Rahman was killed and the Muslims retreated to Spain, where it would take over 700 more years for the Christians to reconquer. Muslims refer to the Battle of Tours as the "Court of Martyrs". It is referred to as the Battle of Poitiers in France (in truth, the battle happened between Poitiers and Tours).
  • The Franks were victorious. ‘Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi was killed, and Charles subsequently extended his authority in the south. Ninth-century chroniclers, who interpreted the outcome of the battle as divine judgment in his favour, gave Charles 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. Notably, the Frankish troops won the battle without cavalry.
owl:sameAs
Strength
  • 10
  • 20000
  • varying estimates 15,000–20,000, although other estimates range from 30,000 to 80,000 ---- Arab sources agree that the Frankish army was much greater in number than the Umayyad. Some of them estimate the Frankish army at 400,000 This is supported by the Mozarabic chronicle of 754.
dcterms:subject
dbkwik:military/property/wikiPageUsesTemplate
dbkwik:religion/property/wikiPageUsesTemplate
Partof
  • the Islamic invasion of Gaul
Date
  • October 732
Label
  • Tours
  • Toulouse
  • Autun
  • Narbonne
Commander
float
  • right
Caption
  • Charles de Steuben's Bataille de Poitiers en octobre 732 depicts a triumphant Charles Martel facing ‘Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi at the Battle of Tours.
  • Modern-day French borders. Septimania runs along the Mediterranean coast from the Spanish border, and Aquitaine is along the Atlantic coast running north from Spain.
Border
  • none
Width
  • 250
long
  • 0.689167
  • 1.444000
  • 3.004200
  • 4.299444
Casualties
  • 1100
  • 12000
Result
  • Decisive Frankish victory, withdrawal of the Umayyad army.
combatant
  • Umayyad Caliphate: *Berbers *Arabs
  • Merovingian Franks: * Forces from Austrasia. * Forces from Neustria. * Forces from Burgundy. * Forces from Swabia. * Forces from Aquitaine. * Forces from Lombard kingdom in Italy. * Forces of pagan mercenaries from areas around the Rhine River. * Other forces from Europe.
Place
  • Between Tours and Poitiers, France.
Conflict
  • Battle of Tours
LAT
  • 43.183600
  • 43.604500
  • 46.951667
  • 47.393611
abstract
  • The Franks were victorious. ‘Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi was killed, and Charles subsequently extended his authority in the south. Ninth-century chroniclers, who interpreted the outcome of the battle as divine judgment in his favour, gave Charles 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. Notably, the Frankish troops won the battle without cavalry. Later Christian chroniclers and pre-20th century historians praised Charles Martel as the champion of Christianity, characterizing the battle as the decisive turning point in the struggle against Islam, a struggle which preserved Christianity as the religion of Europe; according to modern military historian Victor Davis Hanson, "most of the 18th and 19th century historians, like Gibbon, saw Poitiers (Tours), as a landmark battle that marked the high tide of the Muslim advance into Europe." Leopold von Ranke felt that "Poitiers was the turning point of one of the most important epochs in the history of the world." Other modern historians, by contrast, are divided over the battle's importance, and considerable disagreement exists as to whether the victory was responsible — as Gibbon and his generation of historians claimed, and many modern historians have echoed — for saving Christianity and halting the conquest of Europe by Islam; however, there is little dispute that the battle helped lay the foundations of the Carolingian Empire and Frankish domination of Europe for the next century. Most historians agree that "the establishment of Frankish power in western Europe shaped that continent's destiny and the Battle of Tours confirmed that power."
  • The Battle of Tours was waged in AD 732. It was the decisive battle in which Charles Martel stopped the advance of the Muslim armies into Europe, after they had conquered all of Spain. The Muslim leader, Emir Abd er Rahman was killed and the Muslims retreated to Spain, where it would take over 700 more years for the Christians to reconquer. Muslims refer to the Battle of Tours as the "Court of Martyrs". It is referred to as the Battle of Poitiers in France (in truth, the battle happened between Poitiers and Tours).