|
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PRESENTERER
Slaget ved Poitiers
(Tours)
Bare de færreste nordmenn har antakelig
hørt om det, enda færre vet hvor og når, og bare ytterst få vet at hele den
siviliserte verdens fremtid sto på spill i Syd-Frankrike i oktober i år 732.
hundre år etter at den perverse pedofile terroristen som muslimene kaller
”profet” døde hadde islam veltet utover verden som en flodbølge av terror og
massakrer, og nådd det sydlige Frankrike. Der, i begynnelsen av oktober det
året, et sted mellom Poitiers og Tours, ble flodbølgen stoppet i et monumentalt
slag som til denne dato er det mest avgjørende i menneskehetens historie. Hadde
utfallet blitt det motsatte ville intet ha kunnet hindre de muslimske
morderhordene fra å underlegge seg hele Europa. Det ville aldri ha blitt bygget
noe kapell i Longyearbyen, det ville ha blitt en moske i stedet. Og
konsekvensene ville blitt større enn som må. Med hele Europa i islams
terrorgrep ville også Amerika etter alt å dømme blitt kolonisert av muslimer,
og ikke av kristne. Det Amerika vi kjenner i dag ville aldri sett dagens lys.
Og sist men ikke minst, med de ekstra menneskelige og materielle ressurser som
Europa ville ha tilført islam er det tvilsomt om hinduene i India ville ha
klart å stanse den samme syndfloden på dens vei østover, og møysommelig drive
den tilbake.
Beskrivelsen nedenfor av slaget ved Poitiers,
eller slaget ved Tours, er sendt oss av en av FOMIs medlemmer. Den er på
engelsk. Med tid og stunder er det meningen å få den oversatt til norsk, men i
mellomtiden legges den ut på engelsk.
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CHARLES MARTEL: At the Battle of
Tours in AD 732, Charles Martel, called the 'Hammer' and the Frankish Army
met the host of Islam in battle and defeated them, thus preventing Islam from
spreading throughout Europe. |
The Battle of Tours
(732)
October 10, 732 AD marks the
conclusion of the Battle of Tours, arguably one of the most decisive battles in
all of history.
A Muslim army, in a crusading search for land and the end of
Christianity, after the conquest of Syria, Egypt, and North Africa, began to
invade Western Europe under the leadership of Abd-er Rahman, governor of Spain.
Abd-er Rahman led an infantry of 60,000 to 400,000 soldiers across the Western
Pyrenees and toward the Loire River, but they were met just outside the city of
Tours by Charles Martel, known as the Hammer, and the Frankish Army.
Martel gathered
his forces directly in the path of the oncoming Muslim army and prepared to
defend themselves by using a phalanx style of combat. The invading Muslims
rushed forward, relying on the slashing tactics and overwhelming number of
horsemen that had brought them victories in the past. However, the French Army,
composed of foot soldiers armed only with swords, shields, axes, javelins, and
daggers, was well trained. Despite the effectiveness of the Muslim army in
previous battles, the terrain caused them a disadvantage. Their strength lied
within their cavalry, armed with large swords and lances, which along with
their baggage mules, limited their mobility. The French army displayed great
ardency in withstanding the ferocious attack. It was one of the rare times in
the Middle Ages when infantry held its ground against a mounted attack. The
exact length of the battle is undetermined; Arab sources claim that it was a
two day battle whereas Christian sources hold that the fighting clamored on for
seven days. In either case, the battle ended when the French captured and
killed Abd-er Rahman. The Muslim army withdrew peacefully overnight and even
though Martel expected a surprise retaliation, there was none. For the Muslims,
the death of their leader caused a sharp setback and they had no choice but to
retreat back across the Pyrenees, never to return again.Not only did this prove
to be a decisive battle for the Christians, but the Battle of Tours is
considered the high water mark of the Muslim invasion of Western Europe.
BibliographyA Dictionary of Battles, Eggenberger, David. Thomas Y. Crowell
Company, 1967Battlefields of Europe, Edited by David Chandler. Hugh Evelyn
Ltd,1965The Cambridge Medival History Volume IV, Planned by J.B. Bory, M.A.,
F.B.A., edited by J.R.Tanner, Litt.D., C.W. Previte-Orton, M.A., Z.N. Brooke,
M.A. New York The MacMillan Company, 1923
" The events that rescued our ancestors of Britain and our
neighbors of Gaul from the civil and religious yoke of the Koran."-GIBBON.
THE
BATTLE OF TOURS A.D. 732
From: Fifteen Decisive
Battles Of The WorldFrom Marathon To Waterloo
According to Edward Shepherd
Creasy
Chapter VII.
THE broad tract of champaign country which intervenes between the
cities of Poitiers and Tours is principally composed of a succession of rich
pasture lands, which are traversed and fertilized by the Cher, the Creuse, the
Vienne, the Claine, the Indre, and other tributaries of the River Loire. Here
and there the ground swells into picturesque eminences and occasionally a belt
of forest land, a brown heath, or a clustering series of vineyards breaks the
monontony of the widespread meadows ; but the general character of the land is
that of a grassy plain, and it seems naturally adapted for the evolutions of
numerous armies, especially of those vast bodies of cavalry which principally
decided the fate of nations during the centuries that followed the downfall of
Rome, and preceded the consolidation of the modern European powers.
This region has been signalized by more than one memorable conflict ;
but it is principally interesting to the historian by having been the scene of
the great victory won by Charles Martel over the Saracens, A.D. 732, which gave
a decisive check to the career of Arab conquest in Western Europe, rescued
Christendom from Islam, preserved the relics of ancient and the germs of modern
civilization, and re-established the old superiority of the Indo-European over
the Semitic family of mankind.
Sismondi and Michelet have underrated the enduring interest of this
great Appeal of Battle between the champions of the Crescent and the Cross.
But, if French writers have slighted the exploits of their national hero, the
Saracenic trophies of Charles Martel have had full justice done to them by
English and German historians. Gibbon devotes several pages of his great
work(i) to the narrative of the battle of Tours, and to the consideration of
the consequences which probably would have resulted if Abderrahman's enterprise
had not been crushed by the Frankish chief. Schlegel(ii) speaks of this "
mighty victory " in terms of fervent gratitude, and tells how " the
arm of Charles Martel saved and delivered the Christian nations of the West
from the deadly grasp of all-destroying Islam". and Ranke(iii) points out,
as " one of the most important epochs in the history of the world, the
commencement of the eighth century, when on the one side Mohammedanism
threatened to overspread Italy and Gaul, and on the other the ancient idolatry
of Saxony and Friesland once more forced its way across the Rhine. In this
peril of Christian institutions, a youthful prince of Germanic race, Karl
Martell, arose as their champion, maintained them with all the energy which the
necessity for self-defence calls forth, and finally extended them into new
regions."
Arnold(iv) ranks the victory of Charles Martel even higher than the
victory of Arminius, " among those signal deliverances which have affected
for centuries the happiness of mankind." In fact, the more we test its
importance, the higher we shall be led to estimate it; and, though all
authentic details which we possess of its circumstances and its heroes are but
meagre, we can trace enough of its general character to make us watch with deep
interest this encounter between the rival conquerors of the decaying Roman
empire. That old classic world, the history of which occupies so large a
portion of our early studies, lay, in the eighth century of our era, utterly
exanimate and overthrown. On the north the German, on the south the Arab, was
rending away its provinces. At last the spoilers encountered one another, each
striving for the full master of the prey. Their conflict brought back upon the
memory of Gibbon the old Homeric simile, where the strife of Hector and
Patroclus over the dead body of Cebriones is compared to the combat of two
lions, that in their hate and hunger fight together on the mountain tops over
the carcass of a slaughtered stag; and the reluctant yielding of the Saracen
power to the superior might of the Northern warriors might not inaptly recall
those other lines of the same book of the Iliad, where the downfall of
Patroclus beneath Hector is likened to the forced yielding of the panting and
exhausted wild boar, that had long and furiously fought with a superior beast
of prey for the possession of the scanty fountain among the rocks at which each
burned to drink.(v)
Although three centuries had passed away since the Germanic conquerors
of Rome had crossed the Rhine, never to repass that frontier stream, no settled
system of institutions or government, no amalgamation of the various races into
our people, no uniformity of language or habits had been established in the
country at the time when Charles Martel was called to repel the menacing tide
of Saracenic invasion from the south. Gaul was not yet France. In that, as in
other provinces of the Roman empire of the West, the dominion of the Caesars
had been shattered as early as the fifth century, and barbaric kingdoms and
principalities had promptly arisen on the ruins of the Roman power. But few of
these had any permanency, and none of them consolidated the rest, or any
considerable number of the rest, into one coherent and organized civil and
political society. The great bulk of the population still consisted of the
conquered provincials, that is to say, of Romanized Celts, of a Gallic race
which had long been under the dominion of the Caesars, and had acquired,
together with no slight infusion of Roman blood, the language, the literature,
the laws, and the civilization of Latium. Among these, and dominant over them,
roved or dwelt the German victors; some retaining nearly all the rude
independence of their primitive netional character, others softened and disciplined
by the aspect and contact of the manners and institutions of civilized life ;
for it is to be borne in mind that the Roman empire in the West was not crushed
by any sudden avalanche of barbaric invasion.
The German conquerors came across the Rhine, not in enormous hosts, but
in bands of a few thousand warriors at a time. The conquest of a province was
the result of an infinite series of partial local invasions, carried on by
little armies of this description. The victorious warriors either retired with
their booty, or fixed themselves in the invaded district, taking care to keep
sufficiently concentrated for military purposes, and ever ready for some fresh
foray, either against a rival Teutonic band, or some hitherto unassailed city
of the provincials. Gradually, however, the conquerors acquired a desire for
permanent landed possessions. They lost somewhat of the restless thirst for
novelty and adventure which had first made them throng beneath the banner of
the boldest captains of their tribe, and leave their native forests for a
roving military life on the left bank of the Rhine. They were converted to the
Christian faith, and gave up with their old creed much of the coarse ferocity
which must have been fostered in the spirits of the ancient warriors of the
North by a mythology which promised, as the reward of the brave on earth, an
eternal cycle of fighting and drunkenness in heaven.
But, although their conversion and other civilizing influences operated
powerfully upon the Germans in Gaul, and although the Franks (who were
originally a confederation of the Teutonic tribes that dwelt between the Rhine,
the Maine, and the Weser) established a decisive superiority over the other
conquerors of the province, as well as over the conquered provincials, the
country long remained a chaos of uncombined and shifting elements. The early
princes of the Merovingian dynasty were generally occupied in wars against
other princes of their house, occasioned by the frequent subdivisions of the
Frank monarchy. and the ablest and best of them had found all their energies
tasked to the utmost to defend the barrier of the Rhine against the pagan
Germans who strove to pass that river and gather their share of the spoils of
the empire.
The conquests which the Saracens effected over the southern and eastern
provinces of Rome were far more rapid than those achieved by the Germans in the
north, and the new organizations of society which the Moslems introduced were
summarily and uniformly enforced. Exactly a century passed between the death of
Mohammed and the date of the battle of Tours. During that century the followers
of the Prophet had torn away half the Roman empire; and, besides their
conquests over Persia, the Saracens had overrun Syria, Egypt, Africa, and
Spain, in an uncheckered and apparently irresistible career of victory. Nor, at
the commencement of the eighth century of our era, was the Mohammedan world
divided against itself, as it subsequently became. All these vast regions
obeyed the caliph; throughout them all, from the Pyrenees to the Oxus, the name
of Mohammed was invoked in prayer, and the Koran revered as the book of the
law.
It was under one of their ablest and most renowned commanders, with a
veteran army, and with every apparent advantage of time, place, and
circumstance, that the Arabs made their great effort at the conquest of Europe
north of the Pyrenees. The victorious Moslem soldiery in Spain:
" A countless multitude
;
Syrian, Moor, Saracen, Greek
renegade,
Persian, and Copt, and
Tartar, in one bond
Of erring faith
conjoined-strong in the youth
And heat of zeal-a dreadful
brotherhood,"
were eager for the plunder
of more Christian cities and shrines, and full of fanatic confidence in the
invincibility of their arms.
" Nor were the chiefs
Of victory less assured, by long success
Elate, and proud of that o'
erwhelming strength
Which, surely they believed,
as it had rolled
Thus far uncheck' d, would
roll victorious on,
Till, like the Orient, the
subjected West
Should bow in reverence at
Mohammed' s name;
And pilgrims from
remotest Arctic shores
Tread with
religious feet the burning sands
Of Araby and
Mecca's stony soil."
-SOUTHEY'S Roderick.
It is not only by the modern Christian poet, but by the old Arabian
chroniclers also, that these feelings of ambition and arrogance are attributed
to the Moslems who had overthrown the Visigoth power in Spain. And their eager
expectations of new wars were excited to the utmost on the reappointment by the
caliph of Abderrahman Ibn Abdillah Alghafeki to the government of that country,
A.D. 729, which restored them a general who had signalized his skill and
prowess during the conquests of Africa and Spain, whose ready valor and
generosity had made him the idol of the troops, who had already been engaged in
several expeditions into Gaul, so as to be well acquainted with the national
character and tactics of the Franks, and who was known to thirst, like a good
Moslem, for revenge for the slaughter of some detachments of the True
Believers, which had been cut off on the north of the Pyrenees.
In addition to his cardinal military virtues, Abderrahman is described
by the Arab writers as a model of integrity and justice. The first two years of
his second administration in Spain were occupied in severe reforms of the
abuses which under his predecessors had crept into the system of government,
and in extensive preparations for his intended conquest in Gaul. Besides the
troops which he collected from his province, he obtained from Africa a large
body of chosen Berber cavalry, officered by Arabs of proved skill and valor ;
and in the summer of 732, he crossed the Pyrenees at the head of an army which
some Arab writers rate at eighty thousand strong, while some of the Christian
chroniclers swell its numbers to many hundreds of thousands more. Probably the
Arab account diminishes, but of the two keeps nearer to the truth. It was from
this formidable host, after Eudes, the Count of Aquitaine, had vainly striven
to check it, after many strong cities had fallen before it, and half the land
had been overrun, that Gaul and Christendom were at last rescued by the strong
arm of Prince Charles, who acquired a surname,(vi) like that of the war-god of
his forefathers' creed, from the might with which he broke and shattered his
enemies in the battle.
The Merovingian kings had sunk into absolute insignificance, and had
become mere puppets of royalty before the eighth century. Charles Martel, like
his father, Pepin Heristal, was Duke of the Austrasian Franks, the bravest and
most thoroughly Germanic part of the nation, and exercised, in the name of the
titular king, what little paramount authority the turbulent minor rulers of
districts and towns could be persuaded or compelled to acknowledge. Engaged
with his national Competitors in perpetual conflicts for power, and in more
serious struggles for safety against the fierce tribes of the unconverted
Frisians, Bavarians, Saxons, and Thuringians, who at that epoch assailed with
peculiar ferocity the Christianized Germans on the left bank of the Rhine,
Charles Martel added experienced skill to his natural courage, and he had also
formed a militia of veterans among the Franks. Hallam has thrown out a doubt
whether, in our admiration of his victory at Tours, we do not judge a little
too much by the event, and whether there was not rashness in his risking the
fate of France on the result of a general battle with the invaders.
But when we remember that Charles had no standing army, and the
independent spirit of the Frank warriors who followed his standard, it seems
most probable that it was not in his power to adopt the cautious policy of
watching the invaders, and wearing out their strength by delay. So dreadful and
so widespread were the ravages of the Saracenic light cavalry throughout Gaul,
that it must have been impossible to restrain for any length of time the
indignant ardor of the Franks. And, even, if Charles could have persuaded his
men to look tamely on while the Arabs stormed more towns and desolated more
districts, he could not have kept an army together when the usual period of a
military expedition had expired. If, indeed, the Arab account of the
disorganization of the Moslem forces be correct, the battle was as well timed
on the part of Charles, as it was, beyond all question, well fought.
The monkish chroniclers, from whom we are obliged to glean a narrative
of this memorable campaign, bear full evidence to the terror which the Saracen
invasion inspired, and to the agony of that great struggle. The Saracens, say
they, and their king, who was called Abdirames, came out of Spain, with all
their wives, and their children, and their substance, in such great multitudes
that no man could reckon or estimate them. They brought with them all their
armor, and whatever they had, as if they were thenceforth always to dwell in
France.(vii)
" Then Abderrahman, seeing the land filled with the multitude of
his army, pierces through the mountains, tramples over rough and level ground,
plunders far into the country of the Franks, and smites all with the sword, insomuch
that when Eudo came to battle with him at the River Garonne, and fled before
him, God alone knows the number of the slain. Then Abderrahman pursued after
Count Eudo, and, While he strives to spoil and burn the holy shrine at Tours,
he encounters the chief of the Austrasian Franks, Charles, a man of war from
his youth up, to whom Eudo had sent warning. There for nearly seven day's they
strive intensely, and at last they set themselves in battle array, and the
nations of the North standing firm as a wall, and impenetrable as a zone of
ice, utterly slay the Arabs with the edge of the sword."(viii)
The European writers all concur in speaking of the fall of Abderrahman
as one of the principal causes of the defeat of the Arabs; who, according to
one writer, after finding that their leader was slain, dispersed in the night,
to the agreeable surprise of the Christians, who expected the next morning to
see them issue from their tents and renew the combat. One monkish chronicler
puts the loss of the Arabs at 375,000 men, while he says that only 1,007
Christians fell ; a disparity of loss which he feels bound to account for by a
special interposition of Providence. I have translated above some of the most
spirited passages of these writers; but it is impossible to collect from them
anything like a full or authentic description of the great battle itself, or of
the operations which preceded and followed it.
Though, however, we may have cause to regret the meagreness and
doubtful character of these narratives, we have the great advantage of being
able to compare the accounts given of Abderrahman's expedition by the national
writers of each side. This is a benefit which the inquirer into antiquity so
seldom can obtain, that the fact of possessing it, in the case of the battle of
Tours, makes us think the historical testimony respecting that great event more
certain and satisfactory than is the case in many other instances, where we
possess abundant details respecting military exploits, but where those details
come to us from the annalist of one nation only, and where we have,
consequently no safeguard against the exaggemtions, the distortions, and the
fictions which national vanity has so often put forth in the garb and under the
title of history. The Arabian writers who recorded the conquests and wars of
their countrymen in Spain have narrated also the expedition into Gaul of their
great emir, and his defeat and death near Tours, in battle with the host of the
Franks under King Caldus, the name into which they metamorphose Charles
Martel.(ix)
They tell us how there was war between the count of the Frankish
frontier and the Moslems, and how the count gathered together all his people,
and fought for a time with doubtful success. " But," say the Arabian
chroniclers, " Abderrahman drove them back; and the men of Abderrahman
were puffed up in spirit by their repeated successes, and they were full of
trust in the valor and the practice in war of their emir. So the Moslems smote
their enemies, and passed the River Garonne, and laid waste the country, and
took captives without number. And that army went through all places like a
desolating storm. Prosperity made these warriors insatiable. At the passage of
the river, Abderrahman overthrew the count, and the count retired into his
stronghold, but the Moslems fought against it, and entered it by force and slew
the count; for everything gave way to their cimeters, which were the robbers of
lives. All the nations of the Franks trembled at that terrible army, and they
betook them to their king Caldus, and told him of the havoc made by the Moslem
horsemen, and how they rode at their will through all the land of Narbonne,
Toulouse, and Bordeaux, and they told the king of the death of their count.
Then the king bade them be of good cheer, and offered to aid them. And
in the 114th year(x) he mounted his horse, and he took with him a host that
could not be numbered, and went against the Moslems. And he came upon them at
the great city of Tours. And Abderrahman and other prudent cavaliers saw the
disorder of the Moslem troops, who were loaded with spoil; but they did not
venture to displease the soldiers by ordering them to abandon everything except
their arms and war-horses. And Abderrahman trusted in the valor of his
soldiers, and in the good fortune which had ever attended him. But (the Arab
writer remarks) such defect of discipline always is fatal to armies. So
Abderrahman and his host attacked Tours to gain still more spoil, and they
fought against it so fiercely that they stormed the city almost before the eyes
of the army that came to save it; and the fury and the cruelty of the Moslems
towards the inhabitants of the city were like the fury and cruelty of raging
tigers. It was manifest," adds the Arab, " that God's chastisement
was sure to follow such excesses; and Fortune thereupon turned her back upon
the Moslems. "
Near the River Owar,(xi) the two great hosts of the two languages and
the two creeds were set in array against each other. The hearts of Abderrahman,
his captains, and his men, were filled with wrath and pride, and they were the
first to begin the fight. The Moslem horsemen dashed fierce and frequent
forward against the battalions of the Franks, who resisted manfully, and many
fell dead on either side, until the going down of the sun. Night parted the two
armies ; but in the gray of the morning the Moslems returned to the battle.
Their cavaliers had soon hewn their way into the centre of the Christian host.
But many of the Moslems were fearful for the safety of the spoil which they had
stored in their tents, and a false cry arose in their ranks that some of the
enemy were plundering the camp ; whereupon several squadrons of the Moslem
horsemen rode off to protect their tents. But it seemed as if they fled ; and
all the host was troubled. And, while Abderrahman strove to check their tumult,
and to lead them back to battle, the warriors of the Franks came around him,
and he was pierced through with many spears, so that he died. Then all the host
fled before the enemy and many died in the flight. This deadly defeat of the
Moslems, and the loss of the great leader and good cavalier, Abderrahman, took
place in the hundred and fifteenth year."
It would be difficult to expect from an adversary a more explicit
confession of having been thoroughly vanquished than the Arabs here accord to
the Europeans. The points on which their narrative differs from those of the
Christians-as to how many days the conflict lasted, whether the assailed city
was actually rescued or not, and the like-are of little moment compared with
the admitted great fact that there was a decisive trial of strength between
Frank and Saracen, in which the former conquered. The enduring importance of
the battle of Tours in the eyes of the Moslems is attested not only by the
expressions of " the deadly battle " and " the disgraceful
overthrow " which their writers constantly employ when referring to it,
but also by the fact that no more serious attempts at conquest beyond the
pyrenees were made by the Saracens. Charles Martel, and his son and grandson,
were left at leisure to consolidate and extend their power. The new Christian
Roman empire of the West, which the genius of Charlemagne founded, and
throughout which his iron will imposed peace on the old anarchy of creeds and
races, did not indeed retain its integrity after its great ruler' s death.
Fresh troubles came over Europe ; but Christendom, though disunited, was safe.
The progress of civilization, and the development of the nationalities and
governments of modern Europe, from that time forth went forward in not
uninterrupted, but ultimately certain career.
References
i Vol. vii., p. 17 et seq. Gibbon's sneering
remark, that if the Saracen conquests had not then been checked, " perhaps
the interpretation of the Koran 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 Mohammed," has almost an air of regret.
ii " Philosophy of History," p. 331.
iii " History of the Reformation in Germany," vol. i., p. 5.
iv " History of the later Roman Commonwealth," vol. ii., p.
317.
v A Greek quote should appear here.
vi Martel-The Hammer. See the Scandinavian Sagas for an account of the
favorite weapon of Thor.
vii " Lors issirent d'Espaigne li Sarrazins, et un leur Roi qui
avoit nom Abdirames, et ont leur fames et enfans et toute leur substance en si
grand plente que nus ne le prevoit nombrer ne estimer. tout leur harnois et
quanques il avoient amenement avec entz, aussi com'me si ils deussent toujours
mes habiter en France."
viii Tunc Abdirrahman. multitudine sui exercitûs repletam prospicens
terram, &c.-Script. Gest. Franc., p. 785.
ix The Arabian chronicles were compiled and translated into Spanish by
Don Jose Antonio Conde, in his " Historia de
x Of the Hegira.
xi Probably the Loire.
xii Hallam's " Middle Ages."
xiii Hallam, ut supra.
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