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Battle of Tours: Its Significance and Historical Implications

Celeste Neill

01 oct 2018.

On 10 October 732 Frankish General Charles Martel crushed an invading Muslim army at Tours in France , decisively halting the Islamic advance into Europe.

The Islamic advance

After the death of the Prophet Muhammed in 632 AD the speed of the spread of Islam was extraordinary, and by 711 Islamic armies were poised to invade Spain from North Africa. Defeating the Visigothic kingdom of Spain was a prelude to increasing raids into Gaul, or modern France, and in 725 Islamic armies reached as far north as the Vosgues mountains near the modern border with Germany .

Opposing them was the Merovingian Frankish kingdom , perhaps the foremost power in western Europe. However given the seemingly unstoppable nature of the Islamic advance into the lands of the old Roman Empire further Christian defeats seemed almost inevitable.

Map of the Umayyad Caliphate in 750 AD. Image credit: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In 731 Abd al-Rahman, a Muslim warlord north of the Pyrenees who answered to his distant Sultan in Damascus, received reinforcements from North Africa. The Muslims were preparing for a major campaign into Gaul.

The campaign commenced with an invasion of the southern kingdom of Aquitaine, and after defeating the Aquitanians in battle Abd al-Rahman’s army burned their capital of Bordeaux in June 732. The defeated Aquitanian ruler Eudes fled north to the Frankish kingdom with the remnants of his forces in order to plead for help from a fellow Christian, but old enemy: Charles Martel .

Martel’s name meant “the hammer” and he had already many successful campaigns in the name of his lord Thierry IV, mainly against other Christians such as the unfortunate Eudes, who he met somewhere near Paris . Following this meeting Martel ordered a ban , or general summons, as he prepared the Franks for war.

14th century depiction of Charles Martel (middle). Image credit: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Battle of Tours

Once his army had gathered, he marched to the fortified city of Tours, on the border with Aquitaine, to await the Muslim advance. After three months of pillaging Aquitaine, al-Rahman obliged.

His army outnumbered that of Martel but the Frank had a solid core of experienced armoured heavy infantry who he could rely upon to withstand a Muslim cavalry charge.

With both armies unwilling to enter the bloody business of a Medieval battle but the Muslims desperate to pillage the rich cathedral outside the walls of Tours, an uneasy standoff prevailed for seven days before the battle finally began. With winter coming al-Rahman knew that he had to attack.

The battle began with thundering cavalry charges from Rahman’s army but, unusually for a Medieval battle, Martel’s excellent infantry weathered the onslaught and retained their formation. Meanwhile, Prince Eudes’ Aquitanian cavalry used superior local knowledge to outflank the Muslim armies and attack their camp from the rear.

Christian sources then claim that this caused many Muslim soldiers to panic and attempt to flee to save their loot from the campaign. This trickle became a full retreat, and the sources of both sides confirm that al-Rahman died fighting bravely whilst trying to rally his men in the fortified camp.

The battle then ceased for the night, but with much of the Muslim army still at large Martel was cautious about a possible feigned retreat to lure him out into being smashed by the Islamic cavalry. However, searching the hastily abandoned camp and surrounding area revealed that the Muslims had fled south with their loot. The Franks had won.

Despite the deaths of al-Rahman and an estimated 25,000 others at Tours, this war was not over. A second equally dangerous raid into Gaul in 735 took four years to repulse, and the reconquest of Christian territories beyond the Pyrenees would not begin until the reign of Martel’s celebrated grandson Charlemagne.

Martel would later found the famous Carolingian dynasty in Frankia, which would one day extend to most of western Europe and spread Christianity into the east.

Tours was a hugely important moment in the history of Europe, for though the battle of itself was perhaps not as seismic as some have claimed, it stemmed the tide of Islamic advance and showed the European heirs of Rome that these foreign invaders could be defeated.

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This Day In History : October 10

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Battle of Tours

At the Battle of Tours near Poitiers, France, Frankish leader Charles Martel, a Christian, defeats a large army of Spanish Moors, halting the Muslim advance into Western Europe. Abd-ar-Rahman, the Muslim governor of Cordoba, was killed in the fighting, and the Moors retreated from Gaul, never to return in such force.

Charles was the illegitimate son of Pepin, the powerful mayor of the palace of Austrasia and effective ruler of the Frankish kingdom. After Pepin died in 714 (with no surviving legitimate sons), Charles beat out Pepin’s three grandsons in a power struggle and became mayor of the Franks. He expanded the Frankish territory under his control and in 732 repulsed an onslaught by the Muslims.

Victory at Tours ensured the ruling dynasty of Martel’s family, the Carolingians. His son Pepin became the first Carolingian king of the Franks, and his grandson Charlemagne carved out a vast empire that stretched across Europe.

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The Battle of Tours - A Decisive Fight for Europe’s Future

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The early medieval world of our ancestors was built upon struggles and decisive battles. The emerging nations united the broken tribes, expanded their borders, conquered their enemies, and often enough - fended off invaders. But rare are the battles that really left a long lasting impact that echoed through the generations that followed.

Rare are such conflicts that changed the history of the world with their importance and decided the future of us all for centuries to come. And one of those rare, world-changing battles is the Battle of Tours - fought in 732 AD between the Christian Frankish forces and the invading Muslim Umayyad Caliphate.

This fierce and destructive conflict, that shaped the future of Europe and echoed through time, was a great gamble, fought against all odds. But it remains as one of the biggest lessons of Europe’s past, and today we are going in detail about that fated day in 732.

A triumphant Charles Martel (mounted) faces Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi (right) at the Battle of Tours. Source: Bender235 / Public Domain .

The Prelude to the Battle of Tours

Around the very beginning of the 8 th century, in the year 700 AD, the Muslim Umayyad Caliphate was rapidly spreading its empire around the world. It was the second of the four great caliphates that emerged after the death of Muhammad and was one of the largest empires of the world at the time.

After conquering the lands of North Africa, they saw mainland Europe as the next prey for their conquests. From the shores of North Africa, they had a clear passage - in the form of the Gibraltar Strait. This would allow their forces to cross over onto the Iberian Peninsula , from which they would spread further inland.

At the time, Iberia was under the control of the Visigothic Kingdom, a centralized state under the rule of King Roderic. Nonetheless, the Umayyads crossed the strait in the year 711 AD, under the leadership of one Tariq ibn Ziyad, and soon after clashed with the Visigothic army in the Battle of Guadalete, in the same year, in the very south of Iberia.

The "Age of the Caliphs", shows the Umayyad dominance stretched from the Middle East to the Iberian Peninsula, including the port of Narbonne, c. 720. (McZusatz / Public Domain )

At the time of the Umayyad invasion, King Roderic was far in the north, attempting to fight a Basque rebellion. This unfortunately placed him in a bad situation, as he was forced to a long march south, to face this much bigger enemy. In the end, the Visigoths were defeated in the face of the overwhelming Muslim cavalry.

In the battle, King Roderic and most of the nobles of his kingdom lost their lives, which allowed the Umayyads to effectively conquer Iberia, step by step. This they managed in just a little under seven years. And once Iberia was theirs, Frankish Gaul was just a step away.

The only thing that divided the Umayyads from their prey - the Frankish Kingdom - were the Pyrenees Mountains . This was a fitting natural barrier - but it was in no way untraversable. In time, the Umayyads began crossing over and making incursions into the very south of Gaul. By 720 they conquered the southern province of Septimania.

In the following year, they focused on the large city to the immediate west, Toulouse, which they besieged. This siege was brought to an end by the prominent Frankish Duke Odo - who managed to overwhelm the Umayyad forces outside Toulouse and defeat them. Nonetheless, large numbers of Umayyads kept crossing over the Pyrenees and laying waste to the southern provinces of Gaul.

The Duchy of Aquitaine laid in the south and faced the brunt of this invasion. Its largest towns, Bordeaux and Toulouse were ravaged, and in no time the invaders reached even the Duchy of Burgundy to its north.

But it wasn’t until 732 that the Umayyad Caliphate truly amassed its forces with proper conquering intentions and adequate strength. The man that was at the head of this force was Abdul Rahman al Ghafiqi, the then-Governor General of Muslim Iberia. He led his forces across the Pyrenees once again and plundered the land and all the cities he came across.

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Abdul Rahman al Ghafiqi led his troops over the Pyrenees Mountains toward the Battle of Tours. (Jean-Christophe BENOIST / CC BY-SA 3.0 )

The Umayyads greatly coveted riches, and their main activity during this conquest was plunder. After completely ransacking Bordeaux once again, the Umayyad forces faced Duke Odo once more. Odo led his army in an attempt to stop the invasion as he did a few years before.

But this time, he was terribly outnumbered and outmaneuvered, and his forces were crushed. Realizing the gravity of the situation, and that his own lands of Aquitaine were overrun, Odo fled to the north seeking assistance from the de-facto ruler of the Frankish Kingdom - Charles Martel.

Before the Umayyad invasion Odo and Charles were enemies. Charles sought to expand his lordship over Aquitaine and Odo saw the Franks as invaders. But with this new and much greater threat, Odo had no choice but to seek help from the Franks. Charles Martel agreed to join up with him, but the “price” was Odo’s acceptance of Frankish overlordship. Odo agreed.

The Hammer Enters the Fray

Charles Martel was a seasoned ruler and a battle hardened veteran. His troops were equally experienced having been in constant clashes along the eastern borders of their kingdom, fighting neighboring tribes.

Charles also understood how important the situation was and began gathering his levies from all over the north. And he would show his shrewdness as a battle commander, when he carefully understood the intentions of his enemy.

Meanwhile, the Umayyad forces moved slowly across the Frankish lands, their forces spread into war parties that ravaged the countryside and amassed an enormous amount of plunder. This “greedy” focus on war booty would greatly influence their future undoing. They had to take their time, as they greatly depended on the crop season for their food source.

But their destination was clear to Charles Martel. It was the rich city of Tours - prominent and wealthy, filled with abbeys of great importance. Thus, Charles placed his Frankish forces directly on the path of the coming Umayyads. He situated his army roughly in between the city of Tours and the ravaged town of Poitiers further south.

The Franks were placed close to the confluence of rivers Clain and Vienne, on a slightly elevated and forested hill. Charles Martel deliberately and shrewdly chose this position. First of all - he was outnumbered and knew it.

Map of the Battle of Tours with the position of Charles Martel's army. (Evzen M / Public Domain )

Thus he chose the cover of the forest to displace his troops and hide his number in hope to not reveal his disadvantage. Secondly - he chose a place where the Umayyads would have to enter into battle, as the only crossing over the rivers was behind the Frankish forces. Thirdly - the forest protected his troops - mainly the second lines - from the full brunt of a cavalry charge, and somewhat protected his sides from flanking attacks.

When the Umayyads approached the assembled Christian army, their leader Abdul Rahman al Ghafiqi - also a seasoned commander - knew that Charles Martel took the upper hand, by choosing his preferred place of battle. Even so, al Ghafiqi trusted in his strength and deployed for battle.

One thing he must have noticed is the difference in the troops - Umayyads relied heavily on cavalry, while the Franks were mostly footmen. But he failed to take several things into account.

The Muslim cavalry was lightly armored - they preferred to adorn themselves with chainmail and not much else in terms of armor. Riches and trinkets were much more to their liking.

They also rode willful Arabic horses, which were difficult to break in, and thus not the truly perfect cavalry mounts. Some historians also mention that this cavalry was in large part armed with spears - which were unseasoned and would break on first impact.

The Muslim cavalry rode willful Arabic horses during the Battle of Tours. (Trzęsacz / Public Domain )

On the other hand, the Frankish infantry was thoroughly seasoned. Most of the army were veterans, with only a small part of fresh recruits reserved in the second lines. They were well armored for the time, and well-armed as well. They stood packed in tight lines and ready for a cavalry charge.

But the battle did not begin immediately. The opposing forces “tested the waters”, with sporadic small skirmishes going on for seven days.

This was in truth a deliberate stalling from al Ghafiqi, who waited for his whole army to assemble fully. In the end, with the Umayyads fearing the approaching winter, they commenced battle on the seventh day - on the 10th of October 732 AD.

The Umayyad Wave That Broke On the Frankish Rock

The Umayyad commander, al Ghafiqi, heavily relied on his cavalry, even though he didn’t possess much knowledge about the assembled enemy. He sent waves of cavalry charges in an attempt to break the Frankish lines - but this did not happen. The seasoned Franks were tightly packed - shoulder to shoulder - and withstood all assaults.

The rare combination of slight elevation, good arms and armor, and tree cover allowed them to hold their ground - when it was almost impossible for infantry to hold against cavalry in medieval times. Even when some small parts of the line faltered and broke under the cavalry, the fresh second lines were quick to react - sealing the gap.

Frankish knight fighting against an Umayyad horseman. (Helix84 / Public Domain )

As the battle went on in that way, Duke Odo commenced a crucial flanking operation that greatly tipped the scales in Frankish favor. He gathered a cavalry force and flanked wide - reaching the distant Muslim encampment - i.e. their rear. This was where the Umayyad tents were and all of their abundant plunder.

Odo managed to inflict great losses here, retrieve the precious plunder, free around 200 captive Franks, and draw the eye of the enemy. But what happened next was more than he hoped for. Upon realizing that their camp and their plunder were under attack, many Umayyad units from the central battlefield rushed back in a frenzy to save their loot.

This was an unprecedented situation, one that al Ghafiqi never expected. His attempts at rallying his troops were in vain, and Charles Martel - who knew exactly what he was doing - seized this opportunity.

As the Umayyad forces dissipated to retrieve the loot, he swung his forces from left, right, and center, and engaged in both pursuit and encirclement. The remaining body of the Umayyads was surrounded and suffered immense casualties.

The chief of these was al Ghafiqi himself - who fell in battle while attempting to rally his troops. Meanwhile, Duke Odo swung north again and cut off the fleeing Umayyads, inflicting great losses. In effect, the Umayyad forces fled.

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Charles Martel gathered his cavalry at Battle of Tours and attacked the Umayyad encampment. (Levan Ramishvili / Public Domain )

Now, Charles Martel expected a second day of battles and remained in his position, treating the wounded and re-organizing. But another day never came. The Umayyads, with their commander dead, could not successfully organize another attack or choose a fitting leader. They had suffered great losses as well.

Charles Martel feared an ambush and would not descend from the hill at any cost. Eventually, he sent out extensive reconnaissance parties to survey the Umayyad forces - but only to learn that there were none. They had gathered all the remaining plunder they could and fled during the night - extremely hastily. They had returned to Iberia.

Charles Martel won a crushing and glorious victory that cemented his reputation of a noble and capable leader. He was praised all across Europe as the savior of the Christendom and the “Hammer that Broke the Muslims”. Thus he earned his nickname - Martel - meaning Charles the Hammer.

He subsequently expanded his rule over Aquitaine and successfully isolated the invaders to the southern region of Septimania, where they remained for another 27 years and were completely unable to break through. Charles’ wealth, influence, power, and ability led to the emergence of the Carolingian dynasty , which would rise and last for centuries to follow.

Charles Martel's military campaigns in Aquitaine, Septimania, and Provence after the Battle of Tour-Poitiers (734–742). (Iñaki LLM / CC BY-SA 3.0 )

Changing the Future of the World

The Europe of the early 18 th century desperately needed a capable and strong commander that would stop the Muslim Umayyad invaders dead in their tracks. And that commander was Charles Martel. He stood up to ravaging flood of conquerors and using his superior tactics, shrewdness, and reputation, he managed to win a crushing battle - against all odds. Like a beacon that kept burning throughout a storm, his Frankish warriors defied their enemy in battle. And it is this battle that changed the course of European history, and with that - the history of the World.

Top image: Medieval soldier at war. Credit: Andrey Kiselev / Adobe Stock

By Aleksa Vučković

Creasy, E. 2016. The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World . Enhanced Media.

Neiberg, M. 2003. Warfare in World History . Taylor & Francis.

Scott, J. 2011. Battle of Tours - A New Look at an Old Enemy . eBookIt.

I am a published author of over ten historical fiction novels, and I specialize in Slavic linguistics. Always pursuing my passions for writing, history and literature, I strive to deliver a thrilling and captivating read that touches upon history's most... Read More

Muslim Invasions of Western Europe: The 732 Battle of Tours

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M.S., Information and Library Science, Drexel University
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The Battle of Tours was fought during the Muslim invasions of Western Europe in the 8th century.

Armies & Commanders at the Battle of Tours

Charles Martel
20,000-30,000 men
Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi
unknown, but perhaps as high as 80,000 men

Battle of Tours - Date

Martel's triumph at the Battle of Tours occurred on October 10, 732.

Background on the Battle of Tours

In 711, the forces of the Umayyad Caliphate crossed into the Iberian Peninsula from Northern Africa and quickly began overrunning the region's Visigothic Christian kingdoms. Consolidating their position on the peninsula, they used the area as a platform for commencing raids over the Pyrenees into modern-day France. Initially meeting little resistance, they were able to gain a foothold and the forces of Al-Samh ibn Malik established their capital at Narbonne in 720. Commencing attacks against Aquitaine, they were checked at the Battle of Toulouse in 721. This saw Duke Odo defeat the Muslim invaders and kill Al-Samh. Retreating to Narbonne, Umayyad troops continued raiding west and north reached as far as Autun, Burgundy in 725.

In 732, Umayyad forces led by the governor of Al-Andalus, Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, advanced in force into Aquitaine. Meeting Odo at the Battle of the River Garonne they won a decisive victory and commenced sacking the region. Fleeing north, Odo sought aid from the Franks. Coming before Charles Martel, the Frankish mayor of the palace, Odo was promised aid only if he promised to submit to the Franks. Agreeing, Martel began raising his army to meet the invaders. In the years previous, having assessed the situation in Iberia and the Umayyad attack on Aquitaine , Charles came to believe that a professional army, rather than raw conscripts, was needed to defend the realm from invasion. To raise the money necessary to build and train an army that could withstand the Muslim horsemen, Charles began seizing Church lands, earning the ire of the religious community.

Battle of Tours - Moving to Contact

Moving to intercept Abdul Rahman, Charles used secondary roads to avoid detection and allow him to select the battlefield. Marching with approximately 30,000 Frankish troops he assumed a position between the towns of Tours and Poitiers. For the battle, Charles selected a high, wooded plain which would force the Umayyad cavalry to charge uphill through unfavorable terrain. This included trees in front of the Frankish line which would aid in breaking up cavalry attacks. Forming a large square, his men surprised Abdul Rahman, who did not expect to encounter a large enemy army and forced the Umayyad emir to pause for a week to consider his options. This delay benefited Charles as it allowed him to summon more of his veteran infantry to Tours.

Battle of Tours - The Franks Stand Strong

As Charles reinforced, the increasingly cold weather began to prey on the Umayyads who were unprepared for the more northern climate. On the seventh day, after gathering all of his forces, Abdul Rahman attacked with his Berber and Arab cavalry. In one of the few instances where medieval infantry stood up to cavalry, Charles' troops defeated repeated Umayyad attacks. As the battle waged, the Umayyads finally broke through the Frankish lines and attempted to kill Charles. He was promptly surrounded by his personal guard who repulsed the attack. As this was occurring, scouts that Charles had sent out earlier were infiltrating the Umayyad camp and freeing prisoners and enslaved people.

Believing that the plunder of the campaign was being stolen, a large part of the Umayyad army broke off the battle and raced to protect their camp. This departure appeared as a retreat to their comrades who soon began to flee the field. While attempting to stop the apparent retreat, Abdul Rahman was surrounded and killed by Frankish troops. Briefly pursued by the Franks, the Umayyad withdrawal turned into a full retreat. Charles re-formed his troops expecting another attack the next day, but to his surprise, it never came as the Umayyads continued their retreat all the way to Iberia.

While exact casualties for the Battle of Tours are not known, some chronicles relate that Christian losses numbered around 1,500 while Abdul Rahman suffered approximately 10,000. Since Martel's victory, historians have argued over the battle's significance with some stating that his victory saved Western Christendom while others feel that its repercussions were minimal. Regardless, the Frankish victory at Tours, along with subsequent campaigns in 736 and 739, effectively stopped the advance of Muslim forces from Iberia allowing the further development of the Christian states in Western Europe.

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Battle of Tours (732 A.D.)

The Battle of Tours (often called the Battle of Poitiers, but not to be confused with the Battle of Poitiers, 1356) was fought on October 10, 732 between forces under the Frankish leader Charles Martel and a massive invading Islamic army led by Emir Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi Abd al Rahman, near the city of Tours, France. During the battle, the Franks defeated the Islamic army and Emir Abd er Rahman was killed. This battle stopped the northward advance of Islam from the Iberian peninsula, and is considered by most historians to be of macrohistorical importance, in that it halted the Islamic conquests, and preserved Christianity as the controlling faith in Europe, during a period in which Islam was overrunning the remains of the old Roman and Persian Empires.

Franks, led by Charles Martel. Estimates of the Frankish army defending Gaul vary, but by most accounts were between 15,000 and 75,000. Losses according to St. Denis were about 1,500.

Muslims, between 60,000 and 400,000 cavalry, (most likely closer to the lower number) under Abd er Rahman; besides source differences, this army is difficult to estimate in size, since it was often fractured into raiding parties to carry out the pillaging and plundering of various richly cultured Frankish centers; however, the entire Muslim army was present at Tours by Arab accounts. During the six days he waited to begin the Battle, Abd er Rahman recalled all those columns raiding and pillaging, so that on the seventh day, when by both eastern and western accounts the Battle began, both armies were at full strength.

The Muslims in northern Spain had easily overrun Septimania, had set up a capital at Narbonne which they called Arbuna, giving its largely Arian inhabitants honorable terms, and quickly pacified the south and for some years threatened Frankish territories. Duke Odo of Aquitaine, also known as Eudes the Great, had decisively defeated a major invasion force in 721 at the Battle of Toulouse, but Arab raids continued, in 725 reaching as far as the city of Autun in Burgundy. Threatened by both the Arabs in the south and by the Franks in the north, in 730 Eudes allied himself with Uthman ibn Naissa, called "Munuza" by the Franks, the Berber emir in what would later become Catalonia. As a gage, Uthman was given Eudes's daughter Lampade in marriage to seal the alliance, and Arab raids across the Pyrenees, Eudes' southern border, ceased [1].

However, the next year, Uthman rebelled against the governor of al-Andalus, Abd er Rahman. Abd er Rahman quickly crushed the revolt, and next directed his attention against the traitor's former ally, Eudes. According to one unidentified Arab, "That army went through all places like a desolating storm." Duke Eudes (called King by some), collected his army at Bordeaux, but was defeated, and Bordeaux was plundered. The slaughter of Christians at the River Garonne was evidently horrific; Isidorus Pacensis commented that "solus Deus numerum morientium vel pereuntium recognoscat", 'God alone knows the number of the slain' (Chronicon). The Muslim horsemen then utterly devastated that portion of Gaul, their own histories saying the "faithful pierced 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 them at the River Garonne, and fled." Eudes appealed to the Franks for assistance, which Charles Martel only granted after Eudes agreed to submit to Frankish authority.

In 732, the Arab advance force was proceeding north toward the River Loire having already outpaced their supply train and a large part of their army. Essentially, having easily destroyed all resistance in that part of Gaul, the invading army had split off into several raiding parties, simply looting and destroying, while the main body advanced more slowly. A military explanation for why Eudes was defeated so easily at Bordeaux, after having won 11 years earlier at Battle of Toulouse, was simple. At Toulouse, Eudes managed a basic surprise attack against an overconfident and unprepared foe, all of whose defensive works were aimed inward, while he attacked from the outside. The Arab cavalary never got a chance to mobilize and meet him in open battle. At Bordeaux, they did, and resulted in absolute devastation of Eudes army, almost all of whom were killed, with minimal losses to the Muslims. Eudes forces, like other European troops of that era, lacked stirrups, and therefore had no armoured cavalry. Virtually all of their troops were infantry. The Muslim heavy cavalry broke the Christian infantry in their first charge, and then simply slaughtered them at will as they broke and ran. The invading force then went on to devastate southern Gaul, preparing it for complete conquest. One of the major raiding parties advanced on Tours. A possible motive, according to the second continuator of Fredegar, was the riches of the Abbey of Saint Martin of Tours, the most prestigious and holiest shrine in western Europe at the time. Upon hearing this, Austrasia Mayor of the Palace Charles Martel, collected his army of an estimated 15-75,000 veterans, and marched south avoiding the old Roman roads hoping to take the Muslims by surprise.

Despite the great importance of this battle, its exact location remains unknown. Most historians assume that the two armies met each other where the rivers Clain and Vienne join between Tours and Poitiers.

Charles chose to begin the battle in a defensive, phalanx-like formation. According to the Arabian sources they drew up in a large square. Certainly, given the disparity between the armies, in that the Franks were mostly infantry, all without armour, against mounted and Arab armored or mailed horsemen, (the Berbers were less heavily protected) Charles Martel fought a brilliant defensive battle. In a place and time of his choosing, he met a far superior force, and defeated it.

For six days, the two armies watched each other with just minor skirmishes. The Muslims waited for their full strength to arrive, which it did, but they were still uneasy. No good general, and Abd er Rahman was one, liked to let his opponent pick the ground and conditions for battle -- and Martel had done both. Creasy says, and his theory is probably best, that the Muslims best strategic choice would have been to simply decline battle, depart with their loot, garrisoning the captured towns in southern Gaul, and return when they could force Martel to a battleground more to their liking, one that maximized the huge advantage they had of the first true "knights" mailed and amoured horsemen -- the Franks, without stirrups in wide use, had to depend on unarmoured foot soldiers. Martel gambled everything that Abd er Rahman would in the end feel compelled to battle, and to go on and loot Tours. Neither of them wanted to attack. The Franks were well dressed for the cold, and had the terrain advantage. The Arabs were not as prepared for the intense cold, but did not want to attack what they thought might be a numerically superior Frankish army. (most historians believe it was not) Essentially, the Arabs wanted the Franks to come out in the open, while the Franks, formed in a tightly packed defensive formation, wanted them to come uphill, into the trees, (negating at once some of the advantages of their cavalry). It became a waiting game, which Martel won. The fight commenced on the seventh day, as Abd er Rahman did not want to postpone the battle indefinitely.

Abd er Rahman trusted the tactical superiority of his cavalry, and had them charge repeatedly. This time the faith the Muslims had in their cavalry, armed with their long lances and swords which had brought them victory in previous battles, was not justified.

In one of the rare instances where medieval infantry stood up against cavalry charges, the disciplined Frankish soldiers withstood the assaults, though according to Arab sources, the Arab cavalry several times broke into the interior of the Frankish square. But despite this, Franks did not break, and it is probably best expressed by a translation of an Arab account of the battle from the Medieval Source Book: "And in the shock of the battle the men of the North seemed like North a sea that cannot be moved. Firmly they stood, one close to another, forming as it were a bulwark of ice; and with great blows of their swords they hewed down the Arabs. Drawn up in a band around their chief, the people of the Austrasians carried all before them. Their tireless hands drove their swords down to the breasts of the foe."

It might have been different, however, had the Muslim forces remained under control. According to Muslim accounts of the battle, in the midst of the fighting on the second day, scouts from the Franks began to raid the camp and supply train (including slaves and other plunder). A large portion of the army broke off and raced back to their camp to save their plunder. What appeared to be a retreat soon became one. While attempting to restore order to his men, who had managed to break into the defensive square, Abd er Rahman was surrounded by Franks and killed.

According to a Frankish source, the battle lasted one day. Frankish histories claim that when the rumor went through the Arab army that Frankish cavalry threatened the booty they had taken from Bordeaux, (Charles supposedly had sent scouts to cause chaos in the Muslim base camp, and free as many of the slaves as possible, hoping to draw off part of his foe, it succeeded beyond his wildest dreams), many of the Muslim Cavalry returned to their camp. This, to the rest of the Muslim army, appeared to be a full-scale retreat, and soon it was one. Both histories agree that while attempting to stop the retreat, Abd er Rahman became surrounded, which led to his death, and the Muslims returned to their camp.

The next day, when the Muslims did not renew the battle, the Franks feared an ambush. Only after extensive reconnaissance by Frankish soldiers of the Muslim camp was it discovered that the Muslims had retreated during the night.

The Arab army retreated south over the Pyrenees. Charles earned his nickname Martel, meaning hammer, in this battle. He continued to drive the Muslims from France in subsequent years. After Eudes died, who had been forced to acknowledge, albeit reservedly, the suzerainty of Charles in 719, his son wished independence. Though Charles wished to unite the duchy directly to himself and went there to elicit the proper homage of the Aquitainians, the nobility proclaimed Odo's son, Hunold, whose dukedom Charles recognised when the Arabs invaded Provence the next year. Hunold, who originally resisted acknowledging Charles as overlord, had no choice when the Muslims returned.

In 736 the Caliphate launched another massive invasion -- this time by sea. This naval Arab invasion was headed by Abdul Rahman's son. It landed in Narbonne in 736 and took Arles. Charles, the conflict with Hunold put aside, descended on the Proven�al strongholds of the Muslims. In 736, he retook Montfrin and Avignon, and Arles and Aix-en-Provence with the help of Liutprand, King of the Lombards. N�mes, Agde, and B�ziers, held by Isalm since 725, fell to him and their fortresses destroyed. He smashed a Muslim force at the River Berre, and prepared to meet their primary invasion force at Narbonne. He defeated a mighty host outside of that city, using for the first time, heavy cavalry of his own, which he used in coordination with his planax. He crushed the Muslim army, though outnumbered, but failed to take the city. Provence, however, he successfully rid of its foreign occupiers.

Notable about these campaigns was Charles' incorporation, for the first time, of heavy cavalry with stirrups to augment his phalanx. His ability to coordinate infantry and cavalry veterans was unequaled in that era and enabled him to face superior numbers of invaders, and decisively defeat them again and again. Some historians believe Narbonne in particular was as imporant a victory for Christian Europe as Tours. Charles was that rarest of commonities in the dark ages: a brilliant stategic general, who also was a tactical commander par excellance, able in the crush and heat of battle to adapt his plans to his foes forces and movement -- and amazingly, defeated them repeatedly, especially when, as at Tours, they were far superior in men and weaponry, and at Berre and Narbonne, when they were superior in numbers of brave fighting men. Charles had the last quality which defines genuine greatness in a military commander: he foresaw the dangers of his foes, and prepared for them with care; he used ground, time, place, and fierce loyalty of his troops to offset his foes superior weaponry and tactics; third, he adapted, again and again, to the enemy on the battlefield, cooly shifting to compensate for the foreseen and unforeseeable.

The importance of these campaigns, Tours and the later campaigns of 736-7 in putting an end to Muslim bases in Gaul, and any immediate ability to expand Islamic influence in Europe, cannot be overstated. Gibbons and his generation of historians, and the majority of modern experts agree with them that they were unquestionably decisive in world history. Despite these victories, the Arabs remained in control of Narbonne and Septimania for another 27 years, but could not expand further than that. The treaties reached earlier with the local population stood firm and were further consolidated in 734 when the governor of Narbonne, Yusuf ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri, concluded agreements with several towns on common defense arrangements against the encroachments of Charles Martel, who had systematically brought the south to heel as he extended his domains. He believed, and rightly so, that it was vital to keep the Muslims in Iberia, and not allow them a foothold in Gaul itself. Though he won the battle of Narbonne when the army there came out to meet him, Charles failed in his attempt to take Narbonne by siege in 737, when the city was jointly defended by its Muslim Arab and Christian Visigoth citizens. It was left to his son, Pippin the short, to force the city's surrender, in 759, and to drive the Arabs completely back to Iberia, and bring Narbonne into the Frankish Domains. His Grandson, Charlamagne, became the first Christian ruler to actually begin what would be called the Reconquista from Europe proper. In the east of the peninsula the Frankish emperors established the Marca Hispanica across the Pyrenees in part of what today is Catalonia, reconquering Girona in 785 and Barcelona in 801. This formed a buffer zone against Islam across the Pyrenees.

Tours in history

In Western history

Christian contemporaries, from Bede to Theophanes carefully recorded the battle and were keen to spell out what they saw as its implications. Later scholars, such as Edward Gibbon, would contend that had Martel fallen, the Moors would have easily conquered a divided Europe. Gibbon wrote that "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 impassable than the Nile or Euphrates, and the Arabian fleet might have sailed without a naval combat into the mouth of the Thames. Perhaps the interpretation of the Qur'an 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." Certainly, the Islamic invasions were an enormous danger during the window of 721 from Toulouse to 737 at the Arab defeat at Narbonne. But the window was closing. The unified Caliphate collapsed into civil war in 750 at the Battle of the Zab which left the Umayyad dynasty literally wiped out except for the Princes who escaped to Africa, and then Iberia, where they established the Umayyad Emirate in opposition to the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad.

Both ancient, mid, and modern historians agree that Martel was the father of western heavy cavalry, and literally stole the technoloy from his slain foe! He had no trouble using his enemies tools against them, no pride stopped him from seizing any advantage he could in defending his faith, his father's home and homeland, and his people, from what he saw was a danger that would destroy them if not checked. His foresight in moving to strike first, to stop them short of his "front door," reminds one of Winston Churchill's famous statement, that "it is better to fight in your neighbors back yard, than have to defend your own front door." In 5 short years, from the Battle of Tours, to the Battle of Narbonne, he fathered western heavy cavalry, and used it in conjunction with his planax with devastating effect.

In the modern era, Norwich, the most widely read authority on the Eastern Roman Empire, says the Franks halting Muslim Expansion at Tours literally preserved Christianity as we know it. A more realistic viewpoint may be found in Barbarians, Marauders, and Infidels by Antonio Santosuosso, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Western Ontario, and considered an expert historian in the era in dispute in this article. It was published in 2004, and has quite an interesting modern expert opinion on Charles Martel, Tours, and the subsequent campaigns against Rahman's successor in 736-737. Santosuosso makes a compelling case that these defeats of invading Muslim Armies, were at least as important as Tours in their defense of western Christianity, and the preservation of those Christian monastaries and centers of learning which ultimately led Europe out of the dark ages. He also makes a compelling case that while Tours was unquestionably of macrohistorical importance, the later battles were at least equally so. Both invading forces defeated in those campaigns had come to set up permanent outposts for expansion, and there can be no doubt that these three defeats combined broke the back of European expansion by Islam while the Caliphate was still united. While some modern assessments of the battle's impact have backed away from the extreme of Gibbon's position, Gibbons's conjecture is supported by other historians such as Edward Shepard Creasy and William E. Watson. Most modern historians such as Norwich and Santosuosso generally support the concept of Tours as a macrohistorical event favoring western civilization and Christianity . Military writers such as Robert W. Martin, "The Battle of Tours is still felt today", also argue that Tours was such a turning point in favor of western civilization and Christianity that its aftereffect remains to this day.

In Arab history

Contemporary Arab historians and chroniclers are much more interested in the second Umayyad siege Arab defeat at Constantinople in 718, which ended in a disastrous defeat. After the first Arab siege of Constantinople (674-678) ended in complete failure, the Arabs Umayyad Caliphate attempted a second decisive attack on the city. An 80,000 strong army led by Maslama, the brother of Caliph Umar II, crossed the Bosporus from Anatolia to besiege Constantinople by land, while a massive fleet of Arab war galleys, estimated between 1,800 and 2,000, sailed into the Sea of Marmara to the south of the city. Fortunately for the Byzantines, the great chain kept the fleet from entering the inner harbor, and the Arab galleys were unable to sail up the Bosporus as they were under constant attack and harassment by the Greek fleet, who used Greek fire to level the differences in numbers. (The Byzantine fleet was less than a third of the Arab, but Greek fire swiftly evened the numbers). Emperor Leo III was able to use the famed Walls of Constantinople to his advantage and the Arab army was unable to breach them. (it must be noted that Bulgar forces had come to the aid of the Byzantines, and constantly harassed the Muslim army, and definitely disrupted resupply to the point that much of the army was close to starvation by the time the siege was abandoned. Some Muslim historians have argued that had the Caliph recalled his armies from Europe to aid in the siege, the city might have been taken by land, despite the legendary walls - such a recall would have doubled the army laying siege, allowed a full attack while still beating off Bulgar forces attempting to end the siege by harassing the army from outside while the defenders held the walls.

Some contemporary historians argue that had the Arabs actually wished to conquer Europe they could easily have done so. Essentially these historians argue that the Arabs were not interested enough to mount a major invasion, because Northern Europe at that time was considered to be a socially, culturally and economically backward area with little to interest any invaders. Some western scholars, such as Bernard Lewis, agree with this stance, though they are in a minority.

This is also disputed by Arab histories of the period circa 722-850 which mentioned the Franks more than any other Christian people save the Byzantines, (The Arabian chronicles were compiled and translated into Spanish by Jos� Antonio Conde, in his "Historia de la Dominaci�n de los �rabes en Espa�a", published at Madrid in 1820, and in dealing specifically with this period, the Arab chronicles discuss the Franks as one of two non-Muslim Powers then concerning the Caliphate). Further, this is disputed by the records of the Islamic raids into India and other non-Muslim states for loot and converts. Given the great wealth in Christian shrines such as the one at Tours, Islamic expansion into that area would have been likely had it not been sharply defeated in 732, 736, and 737 by Martel, and internal strife in the Islamic world prevented later efforts. Other relevant evidence of the importance of this battle lies in Islamic expansion into all other regions of the old Roman Empire -- except for Europe, and what was retained by Byzantium, the Caliphate took all of the old Roman and Persian Empires. It is not likely Gaul would have been spared save by the campaigns by, and the loyalty of, Charles Martel's veteran Frankish Army. Finally, it ignores that 4 separate Emirs of al-Andalus, over a 25 year period used a Fatwa from the Caliph to levy troops from all provinces of Africa, Syria, and even Turkomens who were beginning conversion, to raise 4 huge invading armies, well supplied and equipped, with the intention of permanent expansion across the Pyrenees into Europe. No such later attempts however were made as conflict between the Umayyad Emirate of Iberia and the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad prevented a unified assault on Europe.

Given the importance Arab histories of the time placed on the death of Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi Abd al Rahman and the defeat in Gaul, and the subsequent defeat and destruction of Muslim bases in what is now France, it seems reasonably certain that this battle did have macrohistorical importance in stopping westward Islamic expansion. Arab histories written during that period and for the next seven centuries make clear that Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi Abd al Rahman's defeat and death was regarded, and most scholars believe, as a catastrophe of major proportions. Their own words record it best: (translated from Arabic) "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." (Islamic Calendar) This, from the portion of the history of the Umayyad Caliphate, and the great Arab period of expansion, also translated into Spanish by Don Jose Antonio Conde, in his "Historia de la Dominacion de los Arabos en Espa�a," appears to put the importance of the Battle of Tours in macrohistorical perspective.

Contemporary analysis

Had Martel fallen at Tours the long term implications for European Christianity may have been devastating. His victory there, and in the following campaigns, may have literally saved Europe and Christianity as we know it, from conquest while the Caliphate was unified and able to mount such a conquest. Had the Franks fallen, no other power existed stopping Muslim conquest of Italy and the effective end of what would become the modern Catholic Church. In addition, Martel's incorporation of the stirrup and mailed cavalry into the Frankish army gave birth to the armoured Knights which would form the backbone of western armies for the next five centuries. But had Martel failed, there would have been no Charlemagne, no Holy Roman Empire or Papal States. The majority view argues that all these events occurred because Martel was able to contain Islam from expanding into Europe while it could. His son retook Narbonne, and his Grandson Charlamagne actually established the Marca Hispanica across the Pyrenees in part of what today is Catalonia, reconquering Girona in 785 and Barcelona in 801. This formed a permanent buffer zone against Islam, with Frankish strongholds in Iberia, which became the basis, along with the King of Asturias, named Pelayo (718-737, who started his fight against the Moors in the mountains of Covadonga 722) for the origins of the Reconquista until all of the Muslims were expelled from the Iberia.

No later Muslim attempts against Asturias or the Franks was made as conflict between what remained of the Umayyad Dynasty, (which was the Umayyad Emirate and then Caliphate of Iberia) and the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad prevented a unified assault on Europe. It would be another 700 years before the Ottomans managed to invade Europe via the Balkans.

The Battle of Tours - 732 AD fr de , en ,

Charles Martel was a ruler of the Carolingian Frankish Empire in the early 8 th century AD. The empire encompassed the territories of much of modern day France, western Germany, Switzerland, as well as Belgium and the Netherlands, and was the dominant Christian power in Western Europe at the time. Having won a civil war between two competing kingdoms in 724, Charles had secured his position as head ruler of the entire Carolingian Empire, but had not yet been granted the title of King.

Although he was constantly repelling Saxon and Bavarian armies, as well as other threats, the empire was for the most part secure. Charles supported St. Boniface and other missionaries in their efforts to convert all remaining German tribes to Christianity as a way of uniting his region. The European continent was slowly becoming more prosperous and stable. But a new threat had begun working its way towards the heart of Western Civilization 100 years prior to Charles’ rule.

Islam Expanding

In the Middle East, the religion of Islam was formed in 622 AD. The region was quickly united under the new religion and then began to conquer more distant lands. By 711 Islamic armies had crossed the Gibraltar Straight and entered into Europe by way of present day Spain. It was from here that they began to set up new kingdoms and seek to conquer other parts of Europe, primarily for plunder of any type of treasure they could find.

The indigenous peoples of Europe referred to the Islamic invaders as the Saracens. From Spain the door stood wide open for the Saracens to enter into France, the conquest of which would have likely been followed by all the rest of Europe, and might have resulted in the banishment of Christianity from the Earth. At this time Christianity was not universally known or practiced, even by those nations which we today regard as the foremost in civilization. Great parts of Britain, Germany, Denmark, and Russia were still pagan and barbarous.

In 712 the Saracens entered into France and began pillaging the region for treasure. In 725 Anbessa, the Saracen governor of Spain, personally leads an army across the Pyrenees Mountains into France and takes the strongly fortified town of Carcassone. During the battle he receives a fatal wound, and the Saracen army retires into the nearby town of Narbonne before retreating back to the safety of Spain.

In 732 the Saracens invade France again under the command of Emir Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi Abd al Rahman. They reach Bordeaux and begin to lay siege to the town when they get word of rich treasures in the Basilica of St. Martin in the city of Tours. They set off towards this area with the intent to plunder it for all it's worth.

Up to this point, the Carolingian Empire, ruled by King Charles, had no need to oppose the Saracens since they had not invaded any of his territories. The area of the Saracens plunder had been Aquitaine, an independent kingdom in southwestern France ruled by King Eude. Having learned of the damage being done to his neighboring kingdom, Charles becomes convinced of the danger presented to his territories. If Aquitaine were to be defeated, his kingdom would surely be next. Charles begins to march an army towards the Saracen invaders to confront them on his own terms.

While Abd al Rahman is advancing towards Tours, he receives intelligence regarding the advance of Charles and his army. He decides to fall back on Poitiers in order to occupy a more advantageous field of battle. Charles, leading an army of such size rarely seen in Europe, crosses the Loire River and joins the remains of the army of Aquitaine.

They come in sight of the Arabs on October 10 th , 732. The enemy spots Charles and his army and at first hesitates. The two armies remain camped, staring each other down, for seven days. Abd al Rahman at last gives the signal to attack. The Saracens rush the Franks with all their might but the Frankish front line holds. The battle rages on until late in the day, when a terrible clamor is heard from behind the Saracen army. It is King Eude, attacking the Saracen camp, stealing all of their ill-gotten plunder. The Saracen army frantically rushes back to protect their possessions.

In this moment of confusion the Franks advance. Abd al Rahman is killed in the chaos. The Saracens regain control of their camp. By this time the sun is beginning to set, and Charles decides to wait until the next day to resume combat, not wanting to risk losing any more troops at night.

The next morning the Franks awake early and assemble their army, expecting to rejoin battle with their enemy. They wait, but no enemy appears. They cautiously approach the Saracen camp and find it completely empty. The Saracens had taken advantage of the night and begun their retreat back towards Spain, leaving most of their plunder behind. As the battlefield was surveyed that day, it was realized that a vast number of Saracen men had been slain. The Franks counted their losses and found that only 1500 of their men had been killed.

Charles is finally proclaimed King of the Carolingian Empire, and for his enormous victory he receives the surname of Martel, "The Hammer". He would later become the grandfather of Charlemagne. The Carolingian Empire becomes the Holy Roman Empire, with Charlemagne proclaimed Emperor by the Pope on Christmas Day, 800 AD. This empire survives for over 1000 years until it is formally dissolved in 1806.

The battle of Tours marks a major turning point in the history of Western Civilization. One where the spread of Islam into Europe was reversed, and Christianity begins to give the people of Europe something more in common with each other. By the year 1000 AD, the continent would be doing fairly well. It would be generally free from foreign attack and steadily creating a more prosperous future.

Do not assume that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. Matthew 10:34

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The Battle of Tours: Where Europe halted Islam

The start of the 8th century was a golden age for Islamic expansionism in Europe. The new religion of Mohammed and his followers swept across the Middle East, north Africa and into southern Spain, and it looked for a moment as if the armies of the Umayyads of Damascus might overrun Europe entirely.

We have already covered the Battle of Guadalete, where the Muslim invaders of Spain overran and defeated the Christian Visigoths and established themselves in western Europe. But this was far from the end of their ambitions, and the armies of the caliphate marched northwards, across Spain and into France.

Europe seemed destined to fall to Islam. It was only at the Battle of Tours, in 732 and after twenty years of fighting the Muslim armies, that they were finally halted.

The High Water Mark

On October 10, 732, the leader of the Franks , Charles Martel and his followers met the Islamic army of Emir Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi Abd al Rahman near the city of Tours in France. During the battle, the Frankish army defeated the invading Islamic army, and their leader was killed.

The Battle of Tours is therefore seen as an important battle which stopped the progress of Islamic invaders into Europe and preserved Christianity. As Islamic conquests stopped in the European region, Christianity grew in influence in France, Italy and other European countries.

The effort to defeat the Islamic army and stop the conquests was important because the Islamic people were already controlling the Persian Empire and the Old Roman Empire. If they had not been defeated at the Battle of Tours, the influence of Islam would have threatened other established empires and religious institutions in Europe.

The army of the Franks raised to face the Muslim threat was claimed to be enormous. The army’s numbers are recorded to be around 75,000 people but more recent revisions suggest a more modest force of maybe 20,000 soldiers.

The Battle of Guadalete: How Islam Fought its way into Spain
Alesia! The Lost Battle and the Roman Conquest of Gaul

The number of Muslims who fought under Abd er Rahman is also uncertain, but the contemporary Christian estimates of 60,000 to 400,000 soldiers seem wildly high. Most likely both sides were evenly matched with the same number of troops.

Moreover, much of the Islamic army was occupied in breaking up into smaller parties to carry out raids and pillaging campaigns of the houses and cultural centers of the Franks. Thus, the actual estimate of the Islamic army is difficult to put down.

However, according to historical accounts, the entire core army of the Muslims was present in the Battle of Tours. The defeat by the Franks, with Christian losses of only 1,500 (according to St. Dennis) was the end of their push northwards.

There are further confusion accounts as to the total number of troops. According to historical texts, the Islamic army waited for six days before the battle started, and during this time, the leaders were able to recalled all parts of their army. It is possible that the Muslim generals themselves did not know how many troops they had amassed.

The Muslims of Northern Spain had taken over Septimania by this time and settled down at Narbonne in southern France , which they called Arbuna. The Muslims were at their peak of power at this time and quickly pacified the nearby territories.

The Muslims threatened the Frankish territories, and the conflict continued for many years. But the Christians hoped that the tide was turning. Before the Battle of Tours, the Frankish people also fought the Battle of Toulouse, and while they were victorious this was not the knock-out blow they were looking for.

The Battle of Tours

As the Muslims pushed into Gaul they faced the Franks in the full might, the most powerful Christian military in Europe. The Muslims were confident: they had swept across much on the known world and, after all, they were convinced they had God on their side.

But the Franks controlled lands across modern France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands and were developing into the first European imperial state since the Western Roman Empire. The Muslim threat brought even more soldiers to their banner, as the Frankish realm emerged as a vast conglomerate standing against the Umayyads.

Outremer: So, you’ve Conquered the Holy Land, Now What?
Does the Islamic Hajj have Pagan Origins?

It seems the Muslim overconfidence played a significant part in their fall. The army had advanced into Gaul rapidly, outstripping their supply chain, and it seems the Muslim commanders were not anticipating that they would encounter a large army in their path.

For seven days the armies refused to engage in force, and although there were multiple minor battles between outriders and scouting forces neither general wished to risk everything on a concerted attack. However the advantage was with the Franks: they were battle hardened, they had chosen the field, and they had concealed a portion of their force in the wooded uplands, preventing the Muslims from assessing their true strength.

Another problem was that the Muslims could not simply go around the Franks. Tours was a major city and it would need to be conquered and sacked to prevent it raising an army in the Muslims’ rear.

Abd-al-Raḥmân felt compelled to give battle and that his force, comprised largely of cavalry , would win the day. It was he that broke formation, sending out waves of cavalry charges to finally attack the Christian center.

The cavalry charges were witheringly destructive but the disciplined Franks held against the onslaught. Against all military theory of the time, infantry were shown to be able to withstand a cavalry charge, and military tactics were changed forever.

Abd-al-Raḥmân himself was killed towards the end of the day in a Frankish counterattack, shortly before night fell and the battle was paused. When the Franks woke the next day the Muslim camp was deserted.

There would be a second Umayyad invasion a few years later, but it met with defeat. Never again would their armies push from Spain into Europe. It seemed that, with his victory at Tours, Charles Martel had changed the course of history.

Top Image: Charles Martel leads a charge against the Saracens at the Battle of Tours. Source: Levan Ramishvili / Public Domain .

By Bipin Dimri

Latin Library, 2023. Battle of Tours (732 A.D.) Available at: https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/imperialism/notes/tours.html

Ahmed, N, 2023. The Battle of Tours . Available at: https://historyofislam.com/the-battle-of-tours/

Serafin, C, 2021. The Legacy of Charles Martel & the Battle of Tours . Available at: https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1809/the-legacy-of-charles-martel-the-battle-of-tours/

Bipin Dimri

Bipin Dimri is a writer from India with an educational background in Management Studies. He has written for 8 years in a variety of fields including history, health and politics. Read More

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Reconquista

Battle of Tours

The Battle of Tours, also called the Battle of Poitiers and, was fought on 10 October 732, resulted in the victory for the Frankish and Aquitanian forces, led by Charles Martel, over the invading forces of the Umayyad Caliphate, led by Abdul Rahman Al-Ghafiqi, governor of al-Andalus. Details of the battle, including the number of combatants and its exact location, are unclear from the surviving sources. Most sources agree that the Umayyads had a larger force and suffered heavier casualties. Notably, the Frankish troops apparently fought without heavy cavalry. Al-Ghafiqi was killed in combat, and the Umayyad army withdrew after the battle. The battle helped lay the foundations of the Carolingian Empire and Frankish domination of western Europe for the next century.

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Battle of Tours 732 Charles Martel

What was the battle of tours.

The Battle of Tours was fought in 732 between a sizable Moorish invading force and a Frankish army under Charles Martel.

The Saracen army prepares for battle near Paris

Martel was able to check the Moorish advance by routing the Muslim army at the Battle of Tours in 732.

The battle is considered highly significant in that it was crucial in stemming the tide of Muslim advance into north-eastern Europe after the Moors had successfully taken over southern Iberia.

Moors in various costumes

Modern historians believe that had Martel not defeated the Moorish army at Tours, Christianity may have lost a vital sphere of influence in Western Europe.

The outcome of the battle was the routing of the Muslim army and a resounding victory for Charles Martel, earning him the title of being the “Savior of Christianity”.

Prelude to the Battle of Tours

Muslim forces were defeated at the 721 Battle of Toulouse in their advance into northern Iberia. Duke Odo of Aquitaine secure this victory but by 732, another sizable Muslim army arrived to invade northern Iberia.

Odo attempted to stem the tide but was defeated and fled. He then turned to the Franks who were conventionally considered rivals of Aquitaine.

Charles Martel, the Frankish military general, agreed to come to Odo’s help if Odo agreed to bend the knee to Frankish authority. Between the threats of a complete Muslim invasion and the condition of submitting to the Franks, Odo chose the latter.

Charles Martel *Frankish Military General

Battle Tactics Battle of Tours

The key advantage that the invading Moorish army had over the Franks was its highly mobile cavalry.

Martel, on the other hand, had thousands of veteran troops. While the Frankish had no cavalry advantage over Muslims, Martel managed a crucial advantage by setting up his army at the ridge of a hill.

The Battle of Tours was also known as the Battle of Poitiers

The phalanx-like formation of his infantry, surrounded by trees on both sides, ensured that any charge from the Muslim cavalry would have little advantage against the Frankish infantry.

Being able to choose the terrain and the condition of the battle played the most central role in ensuring the subsequent Frankish victory in the battle.

Frankish Troops

Battle of Tours Battle

The Muslim army was led by Abd er Rehman. He had been able to victories in many previous battles using the might of Muslim heavy cavalry. At the Battle of Tours , the importance of Rehman’s cavalry was greatly diminished.

The Muslim army was positioned at the foot of the hill while the Frankish stood in a defensive formation atop the ridge of the hill. After waiting for six days, Ab der Rehman made the tactical mistake of making his troops charge uphill.

This negated the cavalry advantage the Muslims had. The Franks, on the other hand, stood in highly organized formations and withstood one cavalry charge after another from the Muslims.

Although the Muslim army was able to pierce through the Frankish formations, they couldn’t penetrate deep enough and sustained heavy losses at the hands of the Frankish infantry.

After the battle which had lasted nearly a day, rumors spread that the Franks had attacked the Muslim camp.

A sizable portion of the Muslim army immediately broke off to reach the camp. Muslim general, Ab der Rehman, was consequently killed while trying to restore order in his army.

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The making of a world historical moment: The Battle of Tours (732/3) in the nineteenth century

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Published: 17 July 2019
Volume 10 , pages 206–218, ( 2019 )

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The Battle of Tours (or Poitiers) in 732/3 is frequently cited as a turning point in world history, when the advance of Muslim Arabs was decisively halted by the Christian army of Frankish mayor Charles Martel. Yet the battle and its reputation seem relatively modest in the earliest sources, with little sense that conquest or religious tensions were key issues. This paper explores how the importance of the battle became amplified in grand historical narratives produced across Europe and in the U.S. in the nineteenth century, as historians contributed to arguments about national and religious identities. It highlights in particular the ways that historians, from Michelet to Oman, were led by their own dispositions in speculating about what could have happened had the result been different. In the process, although their interpretations often differed, debate about the battle generated the legend popular in modern political discourse.

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Palmer, J.T. The making of a world historical moment: The Battle of Tours (732/3) in the nineteenth century. Postmedieval 10 , 206–218 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41280-019-00126-y

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Photo Credit: With a Christian cross prominently displayed at left, Charles Martel’s Frankish forces beat back Muslim invaders at Tours in Charles Steuben’s 19th-century painting.

Charles The Hammer At Tours

An army of fast-moving Muslim raiders collided with a phalanx of Frankish heavy infantry under Charles “the Hammer” Martel at Tours in ad 732. It would be the highwater mark of the Islamic tide in Europe.

This article appears in: December 2010

By William E. Welsh

In the late spring of ad 732, an 80,000-man-strong Muslim army spilled northward through gaps in the western Pyrenees onto the verdant, gently rolling landscape of Gascony. The invaders crossed the 3,800-foot Roncesvalles Pass, shedding extra layers of clothing they had worn as they passed through the snow-covered mountains. As they descended, the air became pleasantly warm in the Duchy of Aquitaine and they were greeted by heavy rains in sharp contrast to the desert air with which they were more familiar.

The supremely confident warriors were looking to slake their thirst for riches by looting the Christian abbeys, churches, and towns in the area. Although by rights one-fifth of the spoils belonged to the Umayyad caliph in Damascus, each man in the ranks was also assured some portion of the plunder. The invading army, led by Abd er-Rahman, governor of al-Andalus, the Muslim-controlled territory on the Iberian Peninsula, reflected the sheer breadth of appeal of the Prophet Muhammad and his teachings. Within its ranks were Arab professional soldiers, Persian warriors, Turkish adventurers, and Berber tribesman. The mounted invaders, armed with lances and shields, wore chain mail beneath loose-fitting, brightly colored robes. They protected their heads with egg-shaped helmets, while the poorer Berbers, toting spears and swords but lacking armor, wore turbans and drab robes.

Abd er-Rahman and his army intended to subjugate and punish Aquitaine’s ruler, Prince Eudes, who had resisted the steady encroachments into Aquitaine by the governor and his Muslim minions for the past several years. The vacuum left by the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire had set the stage for the dramatic spread of Islam by armed conquest across the shores of North Africa in the 7th century. Muslim warriors of the Umayyad caliphate of Damascus, the second of four Islamic caliphates established after Muhammad’s death, reached the shores of the Atlantic in ad 710. Seeking more plunder for the caliph (and for themselves), the invaders cast their eyes on the Iberian Peninsula to the north.

At the time, the Visigoths controlled the Iberian Peninsula, having settled there in the 5th Century. They were ruled by King Roderic, whose sovereignty was disputed by rival factions in Septimania, a former province of Rome just northeast of the Pyrenees. Taking advantage of the discord, the Umayyad governor of North Africa, Musa ibn Nusair, assembled an invasion army bound for Iberia. Lacking their own transport, the Muslims found a willing Byzantine official who bore a grudge against Roderic. Because of the lack of transport and the attendant difficulties of supporting an amphibious invasion, Damascus granted permission for only a small expedition consisting of 400 men. The subsequent success of the expedition, including the sack of Algeciras, and the knowledge that Roderic was tied down in a protracted conflict with Basque tribesmen in northern Iberia, fed the Muslim thirst for even larger riches.

The following year Musa entrusted a second invasion, this time comprising 7,000 Berbers and Arabs, whom the Europeans called Saracens, to Berber leader Tarik ibn Ziyad. Roderic perished fighting the Muslim invaders, and Musa crossed to Iberia to administer the conquered areas. By 712, the Muslims had subjugated most of the population of Iberia, with the exception of the Asturias and the Basques. Driven by their unquenchable thirst for plunder, the Umayyads began raiding north of the Pyrenees into the sprawling Duchy of Aquitaine. To the northeast lay Septimania, the last bastion of the Visigoths. At the time, Aquitaine was nominally ruled by the Merovingian Franks.

Duke Eudes, the ruler of Aquitaine, had taken advantage of civil strife in the Frankish kingdom following the death of the Frankish leader, Pepin of Herstal, to expand his control of the borders of Aquitaine and bestow upon himself the title of prince, a self-anointing act that did not sit well with the Franks. Pepin had ruled the Frankish kingdom from 679 until his death in 714. Before dying, Pepin had designated his young grandson, Theobald, as his heir. Fearing that Pepin’s illegitimate son, Charles, would seize power, Pepin’s wife had Charles imprisoned. He escaped and fought a series of battles over the next several years, during which time he consolidated his power and crushed his opponents in the tripartite Frankish kingdom of Austrasia, Neustrasia, and Burgundy, while also reasserting his control over key dependencies such as Aquitaine. By 723, Charles was firmly in control of the Frankish kingdom and serving as mayor of the palace, as his father had done before him. He spent the next year fighting the Saxons and Bavarians on Austrasia’s eastern flank.

Muslim (also called Saracen) forces gather outside Paris prior to the Battle of Tours in this 19th-century painting. Years of successful raiding had made the Muslims feel invincible.

The Umayyads began launching large-scale raids north of the Pyrenees in 717, and two years later they captured the port of Narbonne in Septimania, transforming it into an Islamic city. The successful capture of Narbonne led to even greater schemes of conquest. In 721, the al-Andalus governor at the time, al-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani, led a large force bent on conquering all or part of Aquitaine by marching on the key city of Toulouse. The confident Muslims brought with them a long train of siege weapons and a large number of camp followers. After crossing the eastern Pyrenees in the springtime, the invaders laid siege to Toulouse. Meanwhile, Eudes set about gathering a relief force composed of Gascons, Basques, and Visigoths.

Eudes attacked the Muslim forces around Toulouse on June 9, scattering and overrunning them as they sought to withdraw. It was a decisive victory, one that greatly enhanced his prestige. The Muslims, however, were by no means through with their military efforts in the region. Four years later they closed their grip on Septimania by capturing the fortresses of Carcassonne and Nimes and driving the Visigoths from their last holdings. These would serve as bases for far-ranging Muslim raids into Burgundy.

Eudes, who found himself in the unenviable position of being sandwiched between the Muslims in al-Andalus and the resurgent Frankish kingdom under Charles, entered into an alliance in 729 with Munusa, the rebel governor of Cerdagne, a district in the eastern Pyrenees, to augment his army in future conflicts. To parry the growing strength of the Franks, Eudes also began meddling in Frankish political affairs.

As part of an ongoing attempt to subjugate the lands bordering the Pyrenees, Abd er-Rahman invaded Cerdagne and forcibly removed Munusa as a threat. Believing it was imperative to punish Eudes for daring to resist Muslim encroachments, er-Rahman began assembling an army in the western Pyrenees at Pamplona to remove Eudes as a threat once and for all. Professional soldiers flooded into the encampment from throughout al-Andalus and from North Africa, giving er-Rahman a sizable army. At the same time, Charles shifted his attention from the Frankish kingdom’s eastern frontier to its western one, launching two punitive raids in 731 on northern Aquitaine and ultimately sacking Bourges.

Keenly aware of the fate that had befallen al-Samh before the gates of Toulouse, er-Rahman purposely chose not to follow the same invasion path through the eastern Pyrenees. Instead, the high Roncesvalles Pass offered the Muslims a more direct route to Bordeaux, which Eudes was bound to defend. When they reached level ground, the Muslims divided into two columns. The main column, led by er-Rahman, took an inland route, stopping north of Aire to burn the abbey of Saint-Sever-de-Rustan. Meanwhile, a smaller column took a coastal route of march, stopping to pillage Bayonne and Dax before resuming its march toward Bordeaux. As the two columns advanced, they met no resistance. Vastly outnumbered, the small garrisons in Gascony had fled north to the Garonne River, where they planned to join Eudes’s main army to defend Bordeaux.

Eudes was presented with two choices for doing battle with the Muslims, both of which favored the invaders. If he fell back on Bordeaux, he risked being trapped on the Medoc peninsula and defeated outside the city walls. Yet if he gave battle in the open countryside in the Garonne valley, his army was likely to be overwhelmed by er-Rahman’s much larger force. Eudes opted for the latter choice, and in early June he suffered a decisive defeat along the banks of the Garonne. The remnants of his army retreated northward to the Dordogne River, a tributary of the Garonne, leaving Bordeaux uncovered. The Muslims immediately plundered Bordeaux, extracting from the city a large treasure of booty that included countless gold objects richly decorated with gems and pearls. They left the town in smoldering ruins when they departed in late June.

While Eudes raised new forces from northern Aquitaine for another clash with the Muslims, er-Rahman rode east along the southern bank of the Garonne until he reached the town of Agen, midway between Bordeaux and Toulouse. There, he crossed the wide river, defeated the town’s small garrison, and added still more plunder to his growing baggage train. Meanwhile, smaller raiding parties gathered additional booty from nearby towns and churches.

Islamic forces advance northward into France in ad 732, while Duke Eudes and Charles Martel move south to meet the looming threat.

The Muslim leader turned his army back west to do battle once again with Eudes. His scouts found Eudes’s army in a defensive position on the north side of the Dordogne, defending a bridge on the Roman road to Saintes. After receiving this information, er-Rahman sent one wing of his army on a wide flanking march upstream of the Franks, which brought his horsemen in on their flank. A major battle occurred at the junction of the Garonne and Dordogne Rivers, and Eudes once again was soundly defeated. No longer able to offer substantial resistance to the advancing Muslims, Eudes rode north with his retainers into the heart of the Frankish kingdom to petition Charles for aid in defending Aquitaine.

News of the Muslim victories in Aquitaine reached Charles while he was in the midst of a campaign against the Bavarians along the Danube River. With Muslim forces operating deep in Aquitaine and Burgundy, Charles rode first to Reims and then on to Paris. In a no doubt uncomfortable meeting with Eudes, he agreed to help—provided that Eudes pledge his allegiance to Charles and agree to maintain Aquitaine as a Frankish dependence rather than an independent principality. After the meeting, Charles issued a summons calling upon all able-bodied men throughout the kingdom to defend the realm. The army assembled at Paris and marched to Orleans and Tours to protect wealthy church properties that were likely targets of marauding Muslims. Charles dispatched advance forces to guard the Basilica of St. Martin, which lay outside the city’s protective walls.

Tours itself was in no immediate danger. The Muslims spent the next three months encamped in central Aquitaine. During that time, they plundered the surrounding cities of Saintes, Perigueux, and Angouleme. In a systematic manner, er-Rahman’s troops stole treasure and artifacts from church properties and dismantled and burned fortifications to remove any local resistance to their authority. Once they had secured all the treasure they believed was to be had in central Aquitaine, the invaders broke camp at Saintes and marched northward via the Roman road toward Poitiers.

Poitiers, a key crossroads in northern Aquitaine on the Clain River, was situated about 60 miles south of the Neustrian border. The second largest town in Aquitaine after Toulouse, Poitiers was surrounded by an inner wall built during Roman times and an outer wall constructed by the Visigoths. Scattered around the city and its outskirts were a number of important religious structures, including the abbey and church of Saint Hilaire and the funerary basilica of Saint-Radegonde. Saint Hilaire, which lay beyond the protection of the outer wall south of the city, was adorned with gold mosaic and undoubtedly would be a prime target for the treasure-seeking Muslim raiders.

A network of tributaries of the Loire River was located east of Poitiers. Among these tributaries, which had their headwaters on the northwestern slope of the Massif Central, were the Vienne, Cher, and Indre Rivers. On their way to join the Loire, the tributaries flowed through a landscape that consisted primarily of upland pastures and valleys and ridges blanketed by thick forests.

As expected, the Muslims attacked the lightly defended Saint Hilaire in mid-September and carried off its religious treasures. At that point, er-Rahman decided to forego a siege of the walled city in favor of sacking Saint-Martin, outside Tours. The Muslims had learned from locals that Saint-Martin contained even greater wealth, and despite the risk inherent in invading another dominion of the Frankish kingdom, they continued north in late September marching past the fortifications of Poitiers. While the largest column led by er-Rahman marched along the Roman road, smaller columns advanced toward the Loire River on less direct routes to the left and right of the main column.

As they marched north along the Roman Road with the Clain River, a tributary of the Vienne, to their left, the Muslims passed by the ruins of a Roman settlement at Vieux-Poitiers that included an amphitheater with a tower that afforded a bird’s-eye view of the surrounding farmland. When er-Rahman reached the village of Cenon on the Vienne River, he paused for a time before crossing. Scouts were sent up and down the river and across to the north bank to make sure Frankish forces were not in the vicinity. After it was determined that a safe passage could be made, the main body of the Muslim army crossed to the north bank.

Frankish forces under Charles Martel took up a defensive line astride the old Roman road south of Poitiers, allowing Martel to anchor his flanks in heavy woods. Duke Eudes outflanked the Muslims and fell on their unguarded camp.

From Cenon, er-Rahman marched north to the village of Port-de-Piles, where he halted his forces on the south bank of the Creuse River, another tributary of the Vienne. In an effort to reconnoiter the road ahead, er-Rahman sent his vanguard across the Creuse. Meanwhile, the Muslim column operating east of the main body ran headlong into a group of Christian pilgrims bound for Rome. They promptly attacked and robbed the pilgrims, leaving a number of the unlucky travelers dead by the roadside.

Advancing cautiously northward in early October, the lead elements of the main Muslim body ran into Frankish positions guarding Tours. Bloody skirmishes foreshadowed a larger battle to come. In a clash with the Franks north of the Creuse River, the Muslim vanguard suffered a serious reverse and was forced to fall back. In another clash farther west, the Franks overran a Muslim encampment near the village of Loudun, forcing the invaders to fall back to a safer position.

In response to these setbacks, er-Rahman ordered his vanguard to fall back behind the Creuse. Still feeling exposed, he withdrew the main body of the Muslim army across the Vienne. In mid-October, the Muslims began constructing a fortified camp on high ground between the Vienne and Clain Rivers just north of marshland along a stream that emptied into the Clain. The military encampment, known as a khandaq, was protected on all sides by ditches and guarded around the clock. Just beyond the ditches were thick woods. A gap in the woods to the west led toward the Roman road, while a gap to the northeast led to two small villages in the Vienne River valley. As the Muslims fell back, Charles ordered his army to advance to the Vienne and halt opposite Cenon.

While the Muslims built their khandaq, the Franks crossed the Vienne and began a cautious advance southward along the Roman road. The Franks made camp at the Roman ruins located on the western side of the old road. They used the tower that was part of the Roman amphitheater as an observation post. For the better part of a week, the two armies warily observed each other, neither willing to launch an attack.

On Saturday, October 25, Charles ordered his troops to form a defensive line astride the Roman road just south of the ruins at Vieux-Poitiers on a narrow tract of cleared land. The position allowed Charles to anchor both flanks in dense woods. By securing his flanks, the Frankish commander ensured that the Muslim cavalry would not be able to ride around his army and fall on his main line from the rear.

The Frankish army, numbering about 30,000 men, was divided into four divisions. It consisted of Frankish infantry, both mounted and on foot, and a body of irregular cavalry composed of mounted bands of Bretons, Basques, and Gascons that was commanded by Eudes. Rather than pit his less-agile cavalry against the well-trained Muslim horsemen, Charles ordered the mounted infantry to dismount and take their place in one of three divisions that would form a formidable phalanx to await the Muslim attack. The soldiers in the main line of battle stood shoulder to shoulder in order to leave no gap through which their line might be breached. The fourth division, under Eudes, formed a rear guard that was stationed behind the main line and had orders to respond to any Muslim cavalry that might be clever enough to find a way around or through the front line.

Just after sunrise, the Muslim army marched west until it reached the Roman road. It then formed for battle just beyond the village of Moussais-le-Bataille. In keeping with Muslim tradition, the army was organized into five divisions consisting of a center, two wings, a vanguard, and rear guard. The rear guard did not march into battle, but stayed behind to protect the khandaq. Muslim tactics were to overwhelm their adversaries by moving swiftly across open ground, outflanking the enemy’s position, and disrupting the opposing forces so that the enemy could be ridden down and slaughtered in small groups.

The Franks fighting under Charles would use tactics that completely negated the Muslim advantage in numbers and speed. The Frankish tactics closely resembled those of the Romans. The Franks used heavy spears and short swords as their main weapons. On the whole, these weapons were heavier than those used by the mounted Muslim forces. The Franks were clad in chain-mail shirts or leather jerkins reinforced with metal scales. Their primary protection in battle was an impressive round, wooden shield covered in leather that was three feet in diameter. The concave shield, with an iron boss in the center, protected the soldiers from their necks to their thighs. It was used not only for protection against incoming projectiles or slashing swords, but also as an offensive weapon to drive back and batter the enemy in close-quarters combat. To protect their heads, the Frankish infantry wore conical hats angled to deflect blows to the head, whether delivered from an enemy on foot or on horseback.

Mounted Christians and Muslims collide in combat during the climax of the Battle of Tours in this 15th-century manuscript illumination.

The élan that the Frankish heavy infantry exhibited in battle was derived from the fact that they were free men serving to protect their homeland against marauding invaders. In preparation for the Muslim attack, the Franks presented an unbroken wall of shields. They rested their spears on the ground to impale any Muslim horsemen who might be foolish enough to charge them directly.

The battle began when the Muslims rode at the Franks and began hurling javelins or firing arrows into their ranks at close range. Some brave men rode close enough to slash at the Franks with their swords, a dangerous proposition considering that the Franks was armed with multiple weapons and well protected by their armor, shields, and helmets. The Muslims tried to inflict sufficient casualties to open a gap in the enemy line or, failing that, to entice the Franks to advance to the attack and then work their way inside their lines. At no time did the Muslims try to break the enemy phalanx. It was simply impossible for light cavalry to overrun a strong line of heavy infantry. “The Muslim horsemen dashed fierce and frequent forward against the battalions of the Franks, who resisted manfully, and many fell dead on either side,” wrote an anonymous Muslim chronicler.

The Franks exhibited discipline and control while under attack by a numerically superior foe. “The men of the north stood motionless as a wall,” wrote al-Andalusian chronicler Isidorus Pacensis. “They were like a belt of ice frozen together, and not to be dissolved, as they slew the Arab with sword. The Austrasians, vast of limb, and iron of hand, hewed bravely in the thick of the fight.” When the Muslims came close to their line, the Franks did their best to thrust their spears into the enemy horses and stab and slash at the riders with their swords. They also employed their shields to tear or puncture the enemy mounts. Large numbers of Muslim cavalry were unhorsed near the Frankish line and then either dispatched with swords or trampled as the Franks advanced a short distance to drive back the enemy. Incensed by the constant Muslim looting of their homeland, particularly their churches, the Franks did not take any prisoners.

For most of the day, the fight was an even one, but as the battle wore on into the afternoon the Muslims had yet to punch through the solid Frankish phalanx. As a result of hard fighting, Muslim casualties were particularly heavy. Nevertheless, Charles was concerned about the strength of his line in the agonizing hours that the sun arced slowly across the sky. Late in the day he made a bold decision to switch to the offensive. Taking advantage of the Aquitainians’ superior local knowledge of geography, he ordered Eudes to take his mounted division on a wide flanking march and fall on the enemy’s fortified camp.

Having completed their flank march, Eudes’s men advanced on the Muslim camp from the northeast just before sunset through a passage in the forested country east of the Vienne. The Muslim rear guard detected the enemy on its flank and fell back to protect the khandaq, the riders dismounting and filing into the surrounding ditches. Armed with spears and swords, the defenders were backed by archers with simple bows who fired on the Franks as they advanced.

Eudes’s attack on the Muslim khandaq essentially spelled the end of the main battle. When Muslim front-line forces learned that their camp was under full-scale attack, one squadron of cavalry after another peeled off and rode back toward the encampment. The Muslims were determined to protect the hard-fought treasures amassed during their raids on Aquitaine.

Some of Eudes’s men attacked the khandaq on foot, while others remained mounted in order to hurl their spears and javelins over the defensive barriers. In hand-to-hand combat in the ditches surrounding the encampment, the Franks gained the upper hand in a matter of minutes. As the resistance in front of him crumbled on his front, Charles brushed aside the remaining Muslims and marched his men in good order toward the enemy camp as darkness began to swallow up the last light of day on the bloody hilltop.

“Charles boldly drew up his battle line against them and the warriors rushed in against them,” wrote an observer, the Continuator of Fredegar. “With Christ’s help, he overturned their tents, and hastened to battle to grind them small in slaughter.” While directing the defense of the Muslim camp, er-Rahman was killed by a javelin thrown with expert marksmanship by one of the mounted Gascons or Bretons riding with Eudes.

With a Christian cross prominently displayed at left, Charles Martel’s Frankish forces beat back Muslim invaders at Tours in Charles Steuben’s 19th-century painting.

Although Charles’s well-disciplined army killed large numbers of the Muslims, they failed to capture the fortified camp by nightfall. Satisfied with the day’s achievements, Charles ordered his men to quit the field and await the morning’s developments. Meanwhile, learning that er-Rahman had fallen, the Muslims prepared to withdraw southward under the cover of darkness. To hasten their escape, the Muslim survivors made the heartbreaking decision to abandon the baggage train containing their spoils of war. In a skilled move that reflected their military professionalism, the Muslims purposely left their tents standing to deceive the Franks.

On Sunday, the Franks formed up with the intent of resuming the battle. After sending forward several small groups to probe the Muslim defenses, Charles learned that the bulk of the Muslim army had fled during the night, leaving behind their prisoners and plunder so that neither would impede their flight. The rank and file of the Frankish army were spellbound by the treasure they found in the abandoned khandaq. They were anxious to divide the spoils and return to their homes and families with a portion of the recovered loot.

Charles, who was acutely in tune with the mood of his troops, was reluctant to order a pursuit of the Muslims with an unwilling body of men. Furthermore, he feared that the Franks might become strung out during the pursuit, allowing the Muslims to turn on their pursuers and maul them severely. Last but not least, Charles wanted the Muslims to remain a serious threat to the security of Aquitaine, forcing Eudes to focus his political and military efforts against the Muslims rather than the Franks.

Casualties for the battle are difficult to gauge. Muslim accounts state that the Franks lost 1,500 men, but those numbers seem light given that the battle lasted most of the day. In all probability, the Franks lost several thousand men. Muslim casualties were significantly greater than those of the Franks, with the Muslims losing an estimated 10,000 men in the day-long battle.

Charles made a wise decision not to follow the retreating Muslims. The Muslim retreat was by no means the rout of a panicked army. Because of its professional nature, the army’s withdrawal was conducted in a cohesive fashion, with some elements retreating through Aquitaine and others through Burgundy to the safety of al-Andalus and Septimania. The main army turned west toward Burgundy, where it was assisted in its withdrawal by Muslim raiding parties operating deep in the Rhone Valley. Those elements operating west of the Muslim main army slipped across the Dordogne and Garonne Rivers to Gascony and then on to al-Andalus.

After the battle, Charles withdrew through Neustria with his army, but not before replacing the bishops of Tours and Poitiers, both of whom had shown questionable allegiance to him. Eudes, who still had a sizable command despite many months of hard campaigning, marched south, battling the Muslim raiders remaining in Aquitaine as he went.

The battle marked the highwater mark of the Islamic tide that had swept into Western Europe during the Middle Ages. By turning back the Muslims at Tours, the Franks broke the string of Muslim conquests that had spread like a terrible storm through the Iberian Peninsula and beyond. Charles was given the sobriquet Martel (the Hammer) by contemporary chroniclers for the way he had battered his enemies in battle. As the centuries passed, the saga of his defeat of the Muslims at Tours grew in importance until he was credited with nothing less than saving Western Christianity from Islamic subjugation. While there is some truth to the idea, the Muslim raids into Aquitaine and Burgundy were more of a nuisance than a true threat to Western Europe. Charles, for his part, considered rival nobles and hostile clergy in the Frankish dependencies far more of a threat to his rule than the Muslims.

Nevertheless, Charles’s victory at Tours had unanticipated benefits beyond stopping the Muslim advance at the Loire. The Franks enjoyed a significant boost in prestige throughout Europe, particularly in the eyes of the papacy, for having defeated the fearsome Muslims in a set-piece battle. That victory, in turn, laid the foundation for the establishment of the Holy Roman Empire two generations later by Charles’s grandson, Charlemagne. Either way, the Muslims’ halcyon days of raiding Western Europe at will were over.

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The battle of tours, - introduction -.

In AD 732, two vast armies clashed in what is frequently termed one of the world’s most significant battles. The fate of both Europe and all of Christendom hinged on this one conflict between a powerful Islamic army and one commanded by a famed Christian warrior. Was this encounter, however, now called the Battle of Tours, really as consequential as we have been led to believe?

- Before the Battle -

On October 10, AD 732, Abd al-Rahman, also known as Abu Said Abdul Rahman ibn Abdullah ibn Bishr ibn Al Sarem Al 'Aki Al Ghafiqi, a powerful Muslim ruler, led his mighty Saracen army against a force of Frankish troops. For years now, a divided Europe had fallen prey to militant Islamic armies.

By 711, Muslims had crossed the Mediterranean and conquered all of Spain. Realising his peril, Charles, the most powerful of the Franks, urgently began training a ‘standing army’. At that time, European armies were made up of ordinary citizens, called up only in times of war. Charles, however, realised that the only way he could stop the unstoppable Islamic forces was with a well-trained, disciplined army. It was this army, 75,000 strong, that now faced a Muslim force of, reportedly, as many as 400,000 ferocious horsemen.

- The Battle of Tours -

As the armies met, Charles’ strategy soon began to pay off. Although attacked by wave after wave of Saracens, his heavily outnumbered force held firm. A writer from the time put it this way: “...the men of the North seemed like a sea that cannot be moved. Firmly they stood, one close to another, forming as it were a bulwark of ice; and with great blows of their swords they hewed down the Arabs.”

The day was soon lost for Abd al-Rahman. As Charles sent in his scouts to raid the Saracen camp, the Arab force dissolved. Thousands were cut down but many more fled. Abd al-Rahman was himself slain in this time of chaos. A mere one thousand five hundred Franks lost their lives. In honour of his victory, Charles was given the surname “Martel”, meaning “the Hammer”. Abd al-Rahman’s hopes of an Islamic Europe had been decisively dashed.

- Significance in Doubt -

In recent years, some modern historians have challenged not only the minute details of the conflict but the significance of the battle itself.

The general consensus is that, if the Muslims had conquered Europe, Christianity (as we know it today) may not have survived. As it is, Charles defeated the Muslims and Christianity has gone on to become the world’s largest religion and has had a massive impact on ethical, social and general development around the world.

A number of modern historians suggest, however, that there are several reasons to doubt this consensus. One of the most popular is that Abd al-Rahman’s Muslim force could have realistically been a mere raiding party. The fact that his army was made up of mostly horsemen seems to support this logic.

Many people also point out that it would be unrealistic to suppose that a society as staunchly Christian as Europe would submit to Islamic rule for any amount of time without rising up to overthrow their conquerors. In other words, as long as there were Christians in Europe, there would be no peace for their Islamic oppressors.

- Conclusion -

on the other hand, many historians claim that this belief is simply a form of politicised historical revisionism. they point out that even the invasion of spain had begun with sea raids. as soon as these “raiders” discovered that they could conquer the country, they did. it is quite obvious, considering the speed of the muslim expanse, that they had all of europe (if not the world) in their sights. it is also reasonable to suppose that they would not have engaged in a full-fledged battle against charles martel unless their aim was to crush him entirely. the arab horsemen would have been lighter and faster and would have been fully capable of escape had that been their wish., furthermore, it is interesting to note that both turkey and palestine had once been some of the most christianised parts of the world - both central parts of the christian byzantine empire - until conquered by muslim forces in 1453 and 1517 respectively. today, turkey is one of the most islamic countries in the world. the same went for palestine, until the recent establishment of the nation of israel in 1948. it seems most likely that the ultimate goal of the muslim force was to conquer france and expand their caliphate into all of europe., while the battle of tours did not put an absolute end to islamic conquests in europe, it was certainly the single most influential conflict of its time. with abd al-rahman out of the picture, charles could look to further his military and economic strength. certainly, if he had not been able to stem the muslim advance - or, worse, he had fallen during combat - gaul, if not all of europe, would have become part of the new islamic caliphate. we have much to thank charles the hammer, preserver of europe, for..

Researched and Written By

Cody Mitchell

1. Bunting, Tony. “Battle of Tours.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 28 Mar. 2017, www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Tours-732 .

2. Bulfinch, Thomas, and H.G. Wells. “The Battle of Tours - 732 AD.” Classic History, 7 Aug. 2015, www.classichistory.net/archives/battle-of-tours .

3. “Battle of Tours.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/battle-of-tours .

4. “Battle of Tours (732 A.D.).” Robert Anderson (1805-1871), www.thelatinlibrary.com/imperialism/notes/tours.html .

5. “Charles Martel Stops Muslim Expansion at the Battle of Tours” (732). (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.historyofinformation.com/expanded.php?id=1971

6. “This Day in History: October 10th- The Battle That Shaped History.” (2014, October 07). Retrieved from http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/10/day-history-october-10th-battle-shaped-history/

Summary : A significant battle fought between Islamic forces under Abd al-Rahman and Christian forces under Charles Martel

Date : October 10, AD 732

Contestants : The Islamic Caliphate had been expanding for decades now and Muslim forces under Abd al-Rahman were looking to conquer Gaul (modern day France). Charles Martel, de facto King of the Franks, had been training a 'standing' army with which he met the Arab force.

Location : B etween Tours and Poitiers, West-Central France

Fought in A.D. 732, the Battle of Tours (also called the Battle of Poitiers), fought between Abd al-Rahman and Charles Martel, was among the most decisive events in European history.

The Battle of Tours: A Turning Point in Early Medieval History

Post author By Library Author
Post date February 15, 2023

Table of Contents

History is just that: a story . It follows people, the characters, through their environment, the setting, and the things that happen to them, the plot.

Like any story, it moves along thanks to specific events. And while they might not seem so significant at the moment, when we look back, we can use them to connect the dots to how we got where we are today.

One such event was the Battle of Tours. Fought between the invading, Muslim-run Umayyad Caliphate and the Christian Kingdom of the Franks, this battlefield duel drew a “line in the sand” in European history that is still alive and well in the 21st century.

The Advancing Muslim Kingdoms

To understand the Battle of Tours, the first place to look is the Middle East in the three centuries before the fighting began. Something was happening in these lands east of the Mediterranean and in the foothills of Asia.

In a word: Islam.

Founded in the 7th century by the Arabian prophet Muhammad, the monotheistic religion that descended from Judaism and Christianity had taken the Middle East by storm. Not only had huge swaths of territory converted to this new faith, its leaders, starting with Muhammad himself, had created a new empire.

As they spread their version of the word of God, they conquered new lands, spreading throughout Mesopotamia, western Asian lands such as Pakistan and India, as well as North Africa.

By the end of the 8th century, they had one of the largest empires in history. But they weren’t interested in stopping in North Africa, so they didn’t. In 711 AD, they crossed the Mediterranean and crashed onto the shores of Spain. Their armies quickly advanced through Spain, defeating the Visigoths and establishing a new province of their empire: Al-Andalus.

After so much success, why would they stop there?

Well, they didn’t. They crossed over the Pyrenees Mountains and into what is now France and kept on fighting.

Things were looking good for the Muslim caliphate. Until they weren’t.

The Christians Respond

The Battle of Tours is ultimately a story about the battle between Christianity and Islam. As Islam grew, it did so mainly in non-Christian lands.

The tribes of Arabia that united under Muhammad had been polytheistic, meaning they believed in many gods. As Islam spread, though, it came into contact with more and more Christian territories.

This worried the people of Europe. Not only did they devoutly believe their religion was the one true religion, but a threat to the Christian faith was a threat to the rulers of Europe who used faith as a source of their power.

So, when the Muslim-led armies crashed into Spain, a largely Christian territory, conquered it in the blink of an eye (historically speaking…it was more like a period of 50 years), there had to be a response.

The one to answer the call was a man named Charles Martel. He was the ruler of the Franks, a Germanic people who populated much of western Europe.

A Christian, Martel commanded a considerable army and rose to power as Islam was spreading into Europe. His decisions and the results of these decisions left a lasting mark on European history.

The Battle of Tours

The Battle of Tours itself took place in 732 AD, just twenty years after the Umayyad Caliphate had crossed into Spain. In just that short time, Muslim armies had made their way into what is now central France.

The lack of political unity at the time made it easy for the strong, unified army of the Caliphate to march across Europe. Kingdoms next to one another would often not come to the support of each other due to feuds both past and present.

This was exactly what the Umayyad army was hoping for when they attacked Tours, a wealthy city on the Loire River in central France. Technically part of Aquitaine, which Charles Martel had invaded for his own purposes, no one thought Martel would fight for the defense of Tours.

But Martel was a true man of mystery and did exactly what no one expected him to do.

The battle, which lasted more than a week, came as a surprise to the Umayyads army. Not only did they not really know that Martel and his army of Franks were waiting there, they had no idea how many people were in the army and how strong they really were.

So, the Umayyad commander, Abdul Rahman Al-Ghafiqi , sent his cavalry, or horse-mounted units, into the city for what he thought would be a quick victory.

Talk about wishful thinking.

The mainly-Frankish army was as big if not bigger than the invading force, and they fought them back handedly.

Martel’s force remained in the forest in the highlands, forcing Al-Gfaiqi’s army to try and charge uphill, something that never works, not even for Anakin Skywalker.

Numbers of casualties are impossible to know for sure, but by the end of the seventh day, the Umayyad army had lost.

Once beaten back, they turned and ran. Al-Gafiqi was killed in battle and the Muslim invasion of Europe was in big, big trouble.

Frankish Conquest of Gaul and the Early Stages of the Holy Roman Empire

After failing to beat back Martel, the Umayyad force ran south in retreat. Martel followed them, chasing them further and further from his people. Eventually, the Umayyad army crossed the Pyrenees.

“Finally!” he shouted. “Now down through Hispania and back to North Africa!”

Wrong.

Instead of making the same mistake his enemies had made by chasing them through foreign territory, Martel decided to call it a day once he felt safe.

He drew a line in the map, right through the Pyrnees and said “I’m done.”

This move had two major impacts.

First, it allowed him to maintain the gains he just made against the advancing Umayyad army.

Second, it allowed him to consolidate power in France. He just chased away the “evil” Muslims advancing with their army, outdoing his rival kings in the area, proving his strength to the people.

By stopping his pursuit, he made himself the most powerful man in western Europe.

The Rise of the Catholic Church

This victory, and the moves Martel made after it, put an end to the advance of Islam into Europe. The Umayyads would try again a few years later, but Martel’s position was too strong to defeat.

Internal strife in the Umayyad Caliphate also caused interest in a European invasion to stop. Eventually, Al-Andalus split off from its leaders in Damascus and became its own independent Caliphate.

The fact that this line that Martel “drew” also separated two very popular religions is why the Battle of Tours is so significant. From this moment on, the lands east of the Pyrenees were to be Christian. South of the Pyrenees were primarily Muslim.

Recognizing this divide, Martel did one more thing to cement his power. He went to the Pope, the leader of the Christian faith and one of the only authorities everyone would listen to and asked for his blessing to rule the land he had just conquered, or, as he might have put it, liberated from Muslim rule.

The Pope went along with this and the Frankish empire was born.

A New Era in Medieval History

The acknowledgement by the Church in Rome gave Europe its largest central authority since the fall of the Roman Empire. Many at the time still longed for the “glory days” or Rome, and were waiting for someone to take its place. For someone to fill that power vacuum.

The Frankish kingdom turned empire established by Martel helped fill this vacuum, at least for the time. Martel’s successors combined forces with the church to revive the title “Roman emperor” in an effort to unite Europe and Christianity.

In addition to proving the foundation for the Frankish empire, the Battle of Tours set the stage for the epic religious battle that was about to take place throughout the 11th and 12th centuries.

Stricken with fear over the threat of a Muslim invasion into Christian lands, the Pope and the kings of Europe would go on to organize the Crusades.

These wars sought to “take back” lands seen as rightfully Christian, which included the Holy Land of Jerusalem and the recently conquered Spain.

The Battle of Tours helped define the boundaries between the Christian and Muslim worlds and set the stage for conflicts that defined much of Medieval history.

Written by Matthew Jones

Illustrated by Jean Galvao

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In 732, Charles Martel led the Franks to victory against the Arabs at the Battle of Tours (Poitiers). It is widely believed that the Muslim advance was halted due to this legendary fight.

Historians disagree on the exact date, but October 25th, 732 seems to be when the Battle of Tours (Poitiers) occurred. During this period, the Umayyad caliphate of Muslims controlled almost all of Spain. They made repeated inroads into Gaul and even occupied the southeast of the region. The Duke of Aquitaine, Eudes (Odo the Great), faced another invasion in 732 and enlisted the help of the Franks under Charles Martel to repel it.

Since the Franks and Aquitaine celebrated their victory against the Muslims headed by Abd al-Rahman, who was killed in the engagement, the decisive combat has been commemorated in history as the “Battle of Tours,” even though the precise site of the fighting is unknown. While warfare persisted for several more years, this incident came to symbolize the end of the Arab invasion of France. It will have been worthwhile since it increased Charles Martel’s influence and helped bring about the Carolingian victory over the Merovingians.

Why did the Battle of Tours (Poitiers) take place?

The Umayyad Caliphate maintained its massive growth in the early eighth century, expanding its control over most of North Africa and the eastern section of the Arabian Peninsula. In addition to controlling modern-day Portugal and Spain on the Iberian Peninsula, the caliphate also overran southern Europe with the help of a formidable cavalry of Berbers who had just converted to Islam. Located in the southeast of France, the Visigoths conquered the city of Narbonne and eventually became firmly rooted inside the Visigothic Kingdom in Septimania.

They often made raids over the Pyrenees, known as razzias, to steal valuables. In 719, the caliphate started paying attention to the Frankish realm. In 721, during one of his expeditions, he was soundly defeated by Eudes, Duke of Aquitaine (Odo the Great), and his forces in Toulouse.

But in 732, Abd al-Rahman led a new raid and ravaged Aquitaine. Duke of the Franks and mayor of the palace is a designation more often associated with a monarch than a mayor; thus, Eudes had to summon Charles Martel. Thus, Charles Martel and Eudes (Odo the Great), Duke of Aquitaine, will work together to repel the Islamic invasion.

What is the correct place and date of the Battle of Tours?

Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours, depicted in the Grandes Chroniques de France

There is considerable agreement among historians that 732 was the year of the Battle of Poitiers; however, others say it occurred in 733. As for when exactly, it is still very speculative. This is unquestionably the 25th of October, 732, a Saturday. Arab reports, which are now considered the most credible, place the fight on the first Saturday of Ramadan (114 of the Hegira) or October 25. Historians are also sharply split about the precise location of the battle.

Rather than mentioning the Battle of Poitiers, the Anglo-Saxon chroniclers of the period refer to the Battle of Tours . A reasonable assumption, given the apparent destination of Abd al-Rahman: Rahman’s sanctuary in Saint-Martin in Tours. Another theory places the conflict in the little town of Moussais-la-Bataille, inside the commune of Vouneuil-sur-Vienne, about 25 kilometers from Poitiers.

Who were the main protagonists of the Battle of Tours in 732?

In the Umayyad Caliphate’s army, Abd al-Rahman held the rank of general. In 721, he participated in the Battle of Toulouse. Hisham, the Caliph, named him wali (governor) of Al-Andalus in 730. Thus, he was in command of the whole Iberian peninsula that the Muslims had conquered during the preceding decades. Charles Martel, for his part, held the titles of duke of the Franks and mayor of the palace. During that ancient period, there was no such thing as France. Charles Martel ruled over what was still a divided Francia.

He set out to expand his domain, particularly to the east. The Burgundians were also governed by Charles Martel. On the other side, Eudes reigned over the huge duchy of Aquitaine, which covered a sizable portion of present-day southern France. Eudes of Aquitaine, like Charles Martel, was an ambitious man, and in 719 their forces fought one another. Eudes, defeated, made a peace deal with the Franks and thereafter had to endure constant invasions from the south by the Arabs. An event that would lead him to form an alliance with Charles Martel in 732 for the Battle of Tours.

How did the Battle of Tours in 732 take place?

Charles Martel and Eudes mustered around 20,000 troops between them. Abd al-Rahman amassed a crowd of 25,000. Abd al-Rahman, true to the strategies that permitted Muslims to take over such a large area, sent out his powerful cavalry, which consisted mostly of Berber fighters. However, the other side employs an entirely different tactic.

The bulk of the Frankish army is made up of foot men. Strongly armed and nearly entirely armored in steel, they are formidable foes. They formed a tight line to fend off the terrifying attack, as wave after wave of enemy riders were impaled on the impregnable barrier. A actual “rampart of ice” would be mentioned in the future by Arab historians.

Who won the Battle of Tours in 732?

After a week of fighting, it seems that Eudes’s forces were successful in attacking the Muslims from behind, forcing them to retreat in order to save not only their loot but also the families who had joined them on the raids. There was a retreat by the Arabs toward Narbonne. As Abd al-Rahman was slain in the battle, the victory was decisive. The Arabs lost a total of 12,000 troops in the battle, while their opponents lost just 1,000.

What were the effects of the Battle of Tours in 732?

The outcome of the Battle of Tours was pivotal for the development of the French monarchy. The big political victor was Charles Martel, who aided Duke Eudes of Aquitaine. Because Aquitaine stubbornly defied him, his power was diminished. As a result, he was able to quickly seize control of Bordeaux, a rich city. In the years after his death in 735, Eudes’ sons took over as dukes of Aquitaine. But this was a pivotal moment in history, and Aquitaine eventually became a part of the Frankish empire under Charlemagne’s rule.

The second crucial point is the well-known saying, “Charles Martel defeated the Arabs at the Battle of Tours.” An asymmetrical dictum Although the extension of the Umayyad caliphate into Western Europe was halted thanks to Charles Martel’s triumph, the conflict itself persisted for decades. Bayonne, for instance, was ruled by Muslims until the year 759. Even when Charlemagne , the future ruler of Europe, arrived in the early ninth century, Europe still suffered from sporadic attacks.

Bibliography:

Mastnak, Tomaž (2002). Crusading Peace: Christendom, the Muslim World, and Western Political Order . University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-22635-6
Oman, Charles W. (1960). Art of War in the Middle Ages A.D. 378–1515 . Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-9062-6
Poke, The Battle of Tours, from the book Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World From Marathon to Waterloo by Sir Edward Creasy, MA
Reagan, Geoffrey, The Guinness Book of Decisive Battles , Canopy Books, New York (1992) ISBN 1-55859-431-0
Collins, Roger (1989). The Arab Conquest of Spain: 710–797 . Oxford, England: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-15923-0 .

This 12-Year-Old Boy Fought on a World War II Battleship and Became the Nation’s Youngest Decorated War Hero

In 1942, young Calvin Graham was decorated for valor in battle, before his worried mother learned of his whereabouts and revealed his secret to the Navy

Gilbert King; Updated by Sonja Anderson

USS_South_Dakota_(BB-57)_anchored_in_Hvalfjörður,_Iceland,_on_24_June_1943_(NH_97265).jpg

With powerful engines, extensive firepower and heavy armor, the newly christened battleship USS South Dakota steamed out of Philadelphia in August of 1942, spoiling for a fight. The crew was made up of “green boys”—new recruits who enlisted after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor —who had no qualms about either their destination or the action they were likely to see. Brash and confident, the crew couldn’t get through the Panama Canal fast enough, and their captain, Thomas Gatch , made no secret of the grudge he bore against the Japanese. “No ship more eager to fight ever entered the Pacific,” one naval historian wrote .

In less than four months, the South Dakota would limp back to port in New York for repairs to extensive damage suffered in some of World War II’s most ferocious battles at sea. The ship would become one of the most decorated warships in U.S. Navy history and acquire a new moniker to reflect the secrets it carried. The Japanese, it turned out, were convinced the vessel had been destroyed at sea, and the Navy was only too happy to keep the mystery alive—stripping the South Dakota of identifying markings and avoiding any mention of it in communications and even sailors’ diaries. When newspapers later reported on the ship’s remarkable accomplishments in the Pacific Theater, they referred to it simply as “ Battleship X .”

That the vessel was not resting at the bottom of the Pacific was not the only secret Battleship X carried through day after day of hellish war at sea. Aboard was a gunner from Texas who would soon become the nation’s youngest decorated war hero. Calvin Graham , the fresh-faced seaman who had set off for battle from the Philadelphia Navy Yard in the summer of 1942, was only 12 years old.

When Graham hatched a plan to lie about his age and join the Navy, he was an 11-year-old sixth grader in Crockett, Texas. One of seven children living at home with an abusive stepfather, he and an older brother moved into a cheap rooming house, and Calvin supported himself by selling newspapers and delivering telegrams on weekends and after school. Even though he moved out, his mother would occasionally visit—sometimes only to sign his report cards at the end of a semester. Being around newspapers afforded the boy the opportunity to keep up on events overseas, as his country was at war.

“I didn’t like Hitler to start with,” Graham later told a reporter. When he learned that some of his cousins had died in battles, he knew what he wanted to do with his life. He wanted to fight. “In those days, you could join up at 16 with your parents’ consent, but they preferred 17,” Graham later said. But he had no intention of waiting five more years. He began to shave at age 11, hoping it would somehow make him look older when he met with military recruiters. Then he lined up with some buddies (who forged his mother’s signature and stole a notary stamp from a local hotel) and waited to enlist.

At 5 feet 2 inches and just 125 pounds, Graham dressed in an older brother’s clothes and fedora and practiced “talking deep.” What worried him most was not that an enlistment officer would spot the forged signature. It was the dentist who would peer into the mouths of potential recruits. “I knew he’d know how young I was by my teeth,” Graham recalled. He lined up behind a couple of guys he knew who were already 14 or 15, and “when the dentist kept saying I was 12, I said I was 17.” At last, Graham played his ace, telling the dentist that he knew for a fact that the boys in front of him weren’t 17 yet, and the dentist had let them through. “Finally,” Graham recalled, “he said he didn’t have time to mess with me, and he let me go.” Graham maintained that the Navy knew he and the others in line that day were underage, “but we were losing the war then, so they took six of us.”

The youngest U.S. serviceman to serve and fight during World War II was Calvin Graham. He enlisted in the United States Navy at the age of 12 and served as a gunner on the USS South Dakota. Graham lied about his age and joined in August 1942. He participated in the Battle of… pic.twitter.com/gPdFh9o0fF — Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) June 27, 2023

It wasn’t uncommon for boys to lie about their age in order to serve. Ray Jackson , who joined the Marines at 16 during World War II, founded the group Veterans of Underage Military Service in 1991, and it listed more than 1,200 active members, including 26 women. “Some of these guys came from large families, and there wasn’t enough food to go around, and this was a way out,” Jackson told a reporter. “Others just had family problems and wanted to get away.”

Graham told his mother he was going to visit relatives. Instead, he dropped out of the seventh grade and shipped off to San Diego for basic training. There, he said, the drill instructors were aware of the underage recruits and often made them run extra miles and lug heavier packs. After three weeks of bootcamp, Graham was assigned to the Navy’s Pacific Fleet and sent to Pearl Harbor, where he joined the crew of the South Dakota .

Marine Henry Buecker recalled meeting Graham aboard the South Dakota during their journey to the South Pacific. “Calvin asked me: ‘Can you keep a secret? I’m 15,’” Buecker later told the Chicago Tribune . “After that, he took me as his best friend. I didn’t find out he was only 12 until 35 years later.”

By the time the South Dakota reached its destination, the ship had become part of a task force alongside the legendary carrier USS Enterprise (the “ Big E ”). In early October 1942, the two ships, along with their escorting cruisers and destroyers, engaged in fierce fighting in the battle for Guadalcanal . After the ships reached the Santa Cruz Islands on October 26, the Japanese quickly set their sights on the carrier and launched an air attack that easily penetrated the Enterprise ’s own air patrol. The carrier USS Hornet was repeatedly torpedoed and sank off Santa Cruz, but the South Dakota managed to protect Enterprise , destroying 26 enemy planes with a barrage from its antiaircraft guns.

This 12-Year-Old Boy Fought on a World War II Battleship and Became the Nation's Youngest Decorated War Hero

Standing on the bridge, Captain Gatch watched as a 500-pound bomb struck the South Dakota’s main gun turret. The explosion injured 50 men, including the captain, and killed one. The ship’s armor was so thick, many of the crew were unaware they’d been hit. But word quickly spread that Gatch had been knocked unconscious. Quick-thinking quartermasters managed to save the captain’s life—his jugular vein had been severed, and the ligaments in his arms suffered permanent damage—but some onboard were aghast that he didn’t hit the deck when he saw the bomb coming. “I consider it beneath the dignity of a captain of an American battleship to flop for a Japanese bomb,” Gatch later said.

The ship’s young crew continued to fire at anything in the air, including American bombers that were low on fuel and trying to land on the Enterprise . The South Dakota was quickly getting a reputation for being wild-eyed and quick to shoot, and Navy pilots were warned not to fly anywhere near it. At Pearl Harbor, the ship was fully repaired, and Gatch returned to his post wearing a sling and bandages. In November 1942, Japanese naval forces began shelling an American airfield on Guadalcanal Island. Steaming south with the Enterprise , Task Force 64, with the South Dakota and the USS Washington , took four American destroyers on a night search for the enemy near Savo Island. There, on November 14, Japanese ships opened fire, sinking or heavily damaging the American destroyers in a four- day engagement that became known as the Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal .

Later that evening, the South Dakota encountered eight Japanese destroyers; with deadly accurate 16-inch guns, the South Dakota set fire to three of them. “They never knew what sank ’em,” Gatch would recall. One Japanese ship set its searchlights on the South Dakota , and the ship took 42 enemy hits, temporarily losing power. Graham was manning his gun when shrapnel tore through his jaw and mouth; another hit knocked him down, and he fell through three stories of superstructure. Still, the 12-year-old made it to his feet, dazed and bleeding, and helped pull other crew members to safety while others were thrown by the force of the explosions, their bodies aflame, into the Pacific.

“I took belts off the dead and made tourniquets for the living and gave them cigarettes and encouraged them all night,” Graham later said. “It was a long night. It aged me.” The shrapnel had knocked out his front teeth, and he had flash burns from the hot guns, but he was “fixed up with salve and a couple of stitches,” he recalled. “I didn’t do any complaining, because half the ship was dead. It was a while before they worked on my mouth.” In fact, the ship had casualties of 38 men killed and 60 wounded.

Regaining power, and after afflicting heavy damage to the Japanese ships, the South Dakota rapidly disappeared in the smoke. Gatch would later remark of his “green” men, “Not one of the ship’s company flinched from his post or showed the least disaffection.” With the Japanese Imperial Navy under the impression that it had sunk the South Dakota , the legend of Battleship X was born.

In mid-December, the damaged ship returned to the Brooklyn Navy Yard for major repairs, where Gatch and his crew were profiled for their heroic deeds in the Pacific. Calvin Graham received a Bronze Star for distinguishing himself in combat, as well as a Purple Heart for his injuries. But he couldn’t bask in glory with his fellow crewmen while their ship was being repaired. Graham’s mother, reportedly having recognized her son in newsreel footage, had written the Navy and revealed the gunner’s true age.

Graham returned to Texas and was thrown in a brig in Corpus Christi, Texas, for almost three months.

Battleship X returned to the Pacific and continued to shoot Japanese planes out of the sky. Graham, meanwhile, managed to get a message out to his sister Pearl, who complained to the newspapers that the Navy was mistreating the “Baby Vet.” The Navy eventually ordered Graham’s release, but not before stripping him of his medals for lying about his age and revoking his disability benefits. He was simply tossed from jail with a suit and a few dollars in his pocket—and no honorable discharge.

Back in Houston, though, Graham was treated like a celebrity. Reporters were eager to write his story, and when the war film Bombardier premiered at a local theater, the film’s star, Pat O’Brien , invited Graham onstage to be saluted by the audience. The attention quickly faded. At age 13, Graham tried to return to school, but he couldn’t keep pace with students his age and quickly dropped out. He married at age 14, became a father the following year, and found work as a welder in a Houston shipyard. Neither his job nor his marriage lasted long. At 17 years old and divorced, and with no service record, Graham was about to be drafted when he enlisted in the Marine Corps. He soon broke his back in a fall, for which he received a 20 percent service-connected disability. The only work he could find after that was selling magazine subscriptions.

In 1977, Texas Senators Lloyd Bentsen and John Tower introduced a bill to give Graham his discharge, and in 1978, Carter announced it had been approved and that Graham’s medals would be restored, with the exception of the Purple Heart. Ten years later, President Ronald Reagan signed legislation approving disability benefits for Graham.

At the age of 12, Graham broke the law to serve his country, at a time when the U.S. military might well be accused of having a “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy with regard to underage enlistees. For fear of losing their benefits or their honorable discharges, many “Baby Vets” never came forward to claim the nation’s gratitude. It wasn’t until 1994 , two years after Graham died, that the military relented and returned his last medal—his Purple Heart—to his family.

Additional Sources

“A Medal of Honor,” Chicago Tribune , 1994

“Life Aboard ‘Battleship X’: The USS South Dakota in World War II,” South Dakota State Historical Society

“Calvin Graham, 62, Who Fought in War as a 12-Year-Old,” New York Times

“Congress Votes WWII Benefits For Boy Sailor,” Washington Post

“Underage Sailor Wins Recognition,” Hartford Courant

“U.S. Battleship’s Green Crew Bags 32 Planes, 4 Warships,” New York Times

“Civilian Seeks Navy Discharge,” Hartford Courant

“The Navy’s ‘Baby’ Hero Who Won the Bronze Star at 12 Now Wants Justice From the Nation He Served,” People

“The USS South Dakota (BB-57) Battleship,” MilitaryFactory.com

“ USS South Dakota BB 57 ”

“Decades Later, Military Veterans Admit Being Underage When They Enlisted,” Associated Press

“ Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal: Turning Point in the Pacific War ,” World War II magazine

“I’m Twelve, Sir: The Youngest Allied Soldier in World War Two,” Giles Milton

“Sailor Who Enlisted at 12 Seeks Help,” Washington Post

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Gilbert King is a contributing writer in history for Smithsonian.com. His book Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America won the Pulitzer Prize in 2013.

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Masters a reunion of the world’s best players. But the numbers are shrinking

Tyrrell Hatton, of England, reacts on the 11th hole during a practice round in preparation for the Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club Wednesday, April 10, 2024, in Augusta, GA. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Phil Mickelson warms up on the driving range before a practice round in preparation for the Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club Wednesday, April 10, 2024, in Augusta, GA. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Scottie Scheffler hits his tee shot on the 10th hole during a practice round in preparation for the Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club Wednesday, April 10, 2024, in Augusta, GA. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Sam Burns waits to hit on the 10th hole during a practice round in preparation for the Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club Wednesday, April 10, 2024, in Augusta, GA. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Hideki Matsuyama, of Japan, putts on the 11th hole during a practice round in preparation for the Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club Wednesday, April 10, 2024, in Augusta, GA. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Jon Rahm, of Spain, watches his tee shot on the fourth hole during a practice round in preparation for the Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club Wednesday, April 10, 2024, in Augusta, GA. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

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AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — More than golf’s first major championship of the year, the Masters represents unification. This is the first time since July at the British Open the best players regardless of their tours compete against each other — same course, same tournament, same television network.

“I believe everyone agrees there’s excitement in the air this week,” Masters Chairman Fred Ridley said Wednesday. “The best players in the world are together once again.”

Still unclear at Augusta National is for how much longer.

Saudi-funded LIV Golf has 13 players at the Masters, seven of them former champions who can play as long as they want. That’s down from 18 a year ago. Only nine LIV players are assured of being back to Augusta National next year, depending on how they fare in the majors this year.

Ridley offered little hope the pathway for LIV to Augusta National was about to get wider.

He said the Official World Golf Ranking was a “legitimate determiner” of the best in golf, bad news for a rival league that does not get world ranking points. And while the Masters annually reviews its criteria for invitations, Ridley announced no new changes.

Wyndham Clark hits from the fairway on the second hole during the first round at the Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club Thursday, April 11, 2024, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Instead, he leaned on the Masters being an invitational, and the club alone decides who it deems worthy of getting that elegant, cream-colored invitation in the mail.

“If we felt that there were a player or players, whether they played on the LIV Tour or any other tour, who were deserving of an invitation to the Masters, we would exercise that discretion with regard to special invitations,” Ridley said.

The battle is for a green jacket, but that might not be the only competition.

It will be difficult to look at a leaderboard without considering who is with LIV Golf. That much hasn’t changed from last year — the first Masters since LIV was launched — and LIV certainly showed the 54-hole, no-cut league didn’t affect them. Three players were among the top four on the final leaderboard.

And just like last year, there is no animosity inside the ropes.

Phil Mickelson and Joaquin Niemann from LIV Golf played a practice round with Akshay Bhatia, the final player into the field because of his Texas Open victory last week. Xander Schauffele told of running into Dustin Johnson and the two decided to play a practice round, no different from what would have happened long before LIV began luring away players with guaranteed riches.

But the future remains murky.

Augusta National and the other three organizations that run majors have seats on the OWGR board that reviewed LIV’s application to join and get world ranking points. The vote was unanimous not to award points until certain enhancements were met.

LIV eventually decided to withdraw its application , and several players decried the world ranking as no longer relevant.

It is to Ridley and the Masters. The top 50 at the end of the year and a week before the Masters still get invitations. Bryson DeChambeau said the majors, including the Masters, should invite the top 12 from the LIV points list.

Ridley wasn’t buying that.

Jon Rahm, of Spain, watches his tee shot on the fourth hole during a practice round in preparation for the Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club Wednesday, April 10, 2024, in Augusta, GA. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

“I think it will be difficult to establish any type of point system that had any connection to the rest of the world of golf because they’re basically — not totally, but for the most part — a closed shop,” Ridley said. “There is some relegation, but not very much.

“But I don’t think that prevents us from giving subjective consideration based on talent, based on performance to those players.”

That’s what led Augusta National to offer an invitation to Niemann. The club did not cite anything he did on LIV — the Chilean has two LIV wins this year — but his willingness to travel outside LIV and win the Australian Open, along with a top finish in the Australian PGA.

Talor Gooch did not get an invitation. He won three LIV events last year and later suggested Rory McIlroy would have an asterisk next to his name if he won the Masters because all the best aren’t there.

Gooch is unlikely to be missed, not with Scottie Scheffler going for a second green jacket, with McIlroy chasing the career Grand Slam, Tiger Woods playing for only the second time this year and a host of others from all tours chasing one of golf’s most prized possessions.

And then the PGA Tour will head to Hilton Head and LIV Golf will make its way to Australia, and they all have to wait until the next major May 16-19 at the PGA Championship.

“There’s a lot of people a lot smarter than me that could figure this out in a much more efficient way,” Jon Rahm said. “But the obvious answer is that there’s got to be a way for certain players in whatever tour to be able to earn their way in. That’s the only thing can I say. I don’t know what that looks like. But there’s got to be a fair way for everybody to compete.”

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

O.J. Simpson Dead at 76 After Cancer Battle

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Oj simpson dead at 76 after cancer battle.

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10:48 AM PT -- Kato Kaelin -- who was a key witness during the O.J. Simpson trial -- just posted a video responding to the news ... and he sends thoughts and prayers to O.J.'s children, as well as the families of the victims, including Nicole Brown Simpson .

He doesn't say much else about O.J. himself.

10:17 AM PT -- Gloria Allred , who repped Nicole Brown Simpson's family during the trial, tells TMZ ... "Simpson's death reminds us that the legal system even 30 years later is still failing battered women, and that the power of celebrity men to avoid true justice for the harm that they inflict on their wives or significant others is still a major obstacle to the right of women to be free of the gender violence to which they are still subjected."

She adds, "My heart goes out to the children of OJ Simpson and to the very brave family of Nicole Brown Simpson. The truth about OJ Simpson can never be erased and should never be forgotten. OJ Simpson is dead. May his victims finally rest in peace."

8:57 AM PT -- The Goldmans' attorney, David Cook , tells TMZ ... "O.J. died without penance," adding that while he may be gone -- his multi-million-dollar judgment is not ... and the Goldmans are interested in discerning what money/assets he may have left behind that they can collect.

Cook goes on to say they'll be exploring their options now that O.J. Simpson is dead, including figuring out whether he left behind a fund with his estate that they can pounce on.

8:36 AM PT -- Caitlyn Jenner , who used to be close friends with O.J., tells TMZ ... "Good riddance." She has since posted on X .

Good Riddance #OJSimpson — Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) April 11, 2024 @Caitlyn_Jenner

8:20 AM PT -- Tom Lange -- one of the lead detectives who worked on the O.J. murder case -- tells TMZ ... "I have nothing to say, I simply don't care."

O.J. Simpson -- one of the most infamous high-profile Americans of all time -- is dead after a cancer battle.

On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer. He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren. During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace. -The Simpson Family — O.J. Simpson (@TheRealOJ32) April 11, 2024 @TheRealOJ32

The former NFL great -- who stood trial for the double-murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman , in the '90s, only to be acquitted -- passed away Wednesday in Las Vegas ... this according to his family.

They say he was surrounded by his children and grandchildren when he died Wednesday night. Simpson's attorney also confirmed his death to TMZ.

O.J. had reportedly been battling prostate cancer in recent years, and his health took a turn for the worse of late -- with him landing in hospice care within the past few months.

Word about O.J.'s cancer diagnosis first made the rounds in February, when a local outlet reported it, although the details were hazy ... as was O.J.'s response to the news at the time, when he denied he was in hospice, but didn't address the cancer report.

Never before a game! pic.twitter.com/F0rFCwWQ3n — O.J. Simpson (@TheRealOJ32) May 30, 2023 @TheRealOJ32

Adding to the mystery was the fact O.J. actually touched on a cancer diagnosis in 2023 in a video he posted on X -- when he said he'd "caught" some form of cancer, but suggested he'd beaten it. In any case, the cancer came back and claimed his life about a year later.

O.J. had been looking frail in the lead-up to his passing ... including during an outing in January when he was spotted using a cane.

The last time O.J. posted was a video of himself talking about Super Bowl LVIII, where he said he was rooting for his former team the San Francisco 49ers. He seemed to be in good spirits then. He was seated in the clip and talking from the backyard of a home.

It goes without saying ... O.J.'s life was momentous for a variety of reasons -- lots of good and bad, especially in his later, post-football years. Before that though, he was a beloved all-American hero on the field -- a Heisman winner from USC, and a Buffalo Bills legend.

Even after football ... he was a bona fide A-lister in Hollywood, acting in tons of movies and TV shows ... and famously serving as the face and pitchman for Hertz for many, many years.

Of course ... all of that goodwill left in the 1990s, when he was accused of the heinous murders.

His death marks the end of a multi-decade saga of crime and intrigue surrounding O.J. -- which peaked after the brutal slayings of Nicole and Ron in 1994, and in the aftermath of what was dubbed the Trial of the Century ... when O.J. was prosecuted on national TV.

Even before he was apprehended by police for questioning in the immediate aftermath of the murders ... O.J. led cops on a low-speed chase in his Ford Bronco on L.A. freeways -- a moment that was nationally televised, and one of the most dramatic, shared experiences in modern American history.

Once he was caught, a case started to form with him as the prime suspect. Prosecutors eventually charged him -- alleging O.J. carried out the horrific stabbing deaths of Nicole and Ron at her Brentwood home on June 12, 1994.

O.J. hired a so-called dream team of defense lawyers -- led by the late Johnnie Cochran , who ran point, and helped pick apart the State's case.

A fundamental element Cochran latched onto during the trial was the fact LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman had made racist remarks in the past ... which O.J.'s defense team suggested could've led to him planting a bloody glove found at Simpson's home.

This also led to another pivotal point in the trial, when O.J.'s team requested he be allowed to try on the gloves in court for the jury, and they ended up not fitting him perfectly.

That prompted Cochran to eventually utter the famous line, during closing arguments -- namely, "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit." In the end, the jury bought that defense.

O.J. was acquitted of the murder charges -- to the shock of much of the nation. However, not too long after that ... he was sued by the Goldmans and the Browns in civil court for wrongful death ... and that case played out in Santa Monica, where a jury found him liable for the deaths of Nicole and Ron. He was ordered to pay tens of millions in damages.

Despite being dogged by the families for the money, O.J. mostly avoided paying the judgment ... and eventually fled Los Angeles and settled down in Las Vegas -- where other legal troubles started to find him ... including tax woes, and eventually ... another criminal case.

In 2007, he was accused of busting into a Vegas hotel room in an attempt to recover sports memorabilia that he believed had been stolen from him ... rolling up to confront the new owner with a bunch of goons in tow, armed with weapons too ... according to prosecutors.

He was eventually arrested, charged and prosecuted ... and ultimately convicted on all the charges. O.J. was then imprisoned for a long time -- until he was released on parole in 2017.

Once O.J. got out of prison ... he ended up settling down in Sin City -- where he lived a relatively private and peaceful life out of the public eye ... although, he was active on social media -- often posting to Twitter/X with opinions on sports, politics and other topics.

Of course, his reputation was completely destroyed by then -- partially because many believe he actually confessed to the '94 killings in a book and subsequent interview he did in the 2000s, touting it as "hypothetical" ... plus, everything else that had transpired over the years.

And yet ... he was still approached by lots of fans post-prison regardless, posing for pics often. He also still had the support of some of his family ... including his children.

O.J. was 76.

Originally Published -- 7:34 AM PT

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O.J. Simpson Blasts Henry Ruggs' 3-10 Yr. Prison Sentence, 'Math Doesn't Add Up'

O.J. Simpson Says He Never Hooked Up With Kris Jenner, Isn't Khloe's Dad

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2024 Masters first round live updates: Bryson DeChambeau grabs lead, Tiger Woods sits 1-under when Round 1 was suspended

After a rain delay to start the morning, the 88th masters is underway with the first round to wrap up on friday morning.

The 88th Masters is off and running.

Bryson DeChambeau got off to a hot start on Thursday after rain delayed the start of the opening round . DeChambeau fired a 7-under 65 to grab the early lead with LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman watching , and he got his round done before winds really picked up at Augusta National.

Tiger Woods went off in the late wave, and opened his day with a birdie. He got through 13 holes before play was called due to darkness, so he'll have five holes left on Friday in his opening round.

Scottie Scheffler finished a shot back from DeChambeau with his 6-under 66. Nicolai Højgaard, who had two birdie chip-ins on Thursday, is alone in third at 5-under. He got through 15 holes when play was called.

The first round will resume at 7:50 a.m. ET on Friday morning.

Stick here for live updates throughout the first round.

View tee times

View leaderboard

Leaderboard after Thursday

With play called for the day on Thursday, here’s a look at where things stand at Augusta National:

1. Bryson DeChambeau (-7) 2. Scottie Scheffler (-6) 3. Nicolai Højgaard (-5) (Thru 15) T4. Danny Willett (-4) T4. Max Homa (-3) (Thru 13) T6. Ryan Fox (-3) T6. Cameron Davis (-3) T6. Tyrrell Hatton (-3) (Thru 14)

Other notables:

T17. Tiger Woods (-1) (Thru 13) T17. Rory McIlroy (-1) T17. Patrick Cantlay (-1) T32. Brooks Koepka (E) T42. Phil Mickelson (+1) T42. Jon Rahm (+1) T54. Jordan Spieth (+2) T75. Rickie Fowler (+4)

The following Featured Groups will resume coverage at 8:00 a.m. ET through the completion of their rounds: - Tiger Woods, Jason Day, Max Homa - Dustin Johnson, Collin Morikawa, Tommy Fleetwood #themasters — The Masters (@TheMasters) April 11, 2024

And there's the horn calling play for the day. Golfers can finish out their current hole if they want to. Tiger is on the 13th green now.

That's another up-and-down par save, this time from the woodchips above the green, for Tiger there at the 12th. He's hanging in there with only a bit of daylight left at Augusta.

Three straight par saves for @TigerWoods . He is 1-under thru 12 at #theMasters pic.twitter.com/qSBG7ubwVP — PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 11, 2024

Tiger Woods with an absolutely perfect par save at the 11th. He's still at 1-under on the day.

A nifty shot to save par. #themasters pic.twitter.com/olXxD5RSjP — The Masters (@TheMasters) April 11, 2024

He should definitely be more concerned...

The nursery isn't ready, which does feel like a problem. — Hugh Kellenberger (@KellenbergerGLF) April 11, 2024

Højgaard is perfect with his wedge today. He's T3 now at 4-under.

This is Nicolai Højgaard's second chip-in birdie of the day at #theMasters pic.twitter.com/SQPQPYaPiK — PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 11, 2024

Tiger Woods is 1-under par at the turn, but he's rapidly running out of time here.

Tiger's group makes the turn in 2 hours, 50 minutes. About 80 minutes of daylight left. They'll probably finish 13 holes. Going to be a very long day tomorrow. — Dan Rapaport (@Daniel_Rapaport) April 11, 2024

Tiger with a monster drive off the ninth tee.

177 MPH ball speed. 303-yard carry. @TigerWoods can move it. pic.twitter.com/F1qWaeNrwt — PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 11, 2024

Hey, we have another birdie from Tiger Woods. He snuck in a birdie put at the par-5 8th to get back to 1-under on the day.

Back into red figures. 🐦 #themasters pic.twitter.com/PD37tNJfFy — Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) April 11, 2024

Scottie Scheffler is in a great spot with three days to go.

Scottie Scheffler: 1st career bogey-free round at #TheMasters He's the 3rd reigning world no. 1 to open a Masters with 66 or lower - Dustin Johnson shot 65 in 2020 (won) and Greg Norman shot 63 in 1996 (finished 2nd). — Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) April 11, 2024

Scottie Scheffler is just one back of Bryson DeChambeau after 18 holes. His opening-round 66 is his lowest round ever at Augusta National.

Solo second following the first round. #themasters pic.twitter.com/l4wIBBCjct — The Masters (@TheMasters) April 11, 2024

Tiger Woods is holding steady through 7 holes this afternoon.

The early walk. @TigerWoods remains even par thru 7 holes at #theMasters pic.twitter.com/DJPp3sJi16 — PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 11, 2024

Scottie Scheffler is making moves. He's at 6-under now after this ridiculous dart at 16.

Scottie Scheffler is good at golf. #themasters pic.twitter.com/oEx5XgESAh — Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) April 11, 2024

Jay Busbee tracked down Greg Norman at Augusta this afternoon as a LIV golfer took the early lead at the Masters

Ran into -- OK, tracked down -- Greg Norman on the course today at ANGC. After Bryson DeChambeau's opening-round 65, the LIV CEO has plenty to be happy about: https://t.co/qQoe4u3H89 — Jay Busbee (@jaybusbee) April 11, 2024

Patrick Cantlay from 146 yards out! That's one way to get under par.

Patrick Cantlay holes out from the fairway on No. 17 to move to one under par. #themasters pic.twitter.com/Cdm5mkj9d9 — The Masters (@TheMasters) April 11, 2024

Tiger Woods just left a birdie putt well short at the 5th. He's still at even on the day.

Man in the arena. (📸: @benwalton_gd for Golf Digest) pic.twitter.com/RWHMjgWczF — Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) April 11, 2024

That's two birdies in three holes now for Rory McIlroy. He's at 2-under on the day.

Rolling it in for birdie. @McIlroyRory | #theMasters pic.twitter.com/pzqUkfk00p — PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 11, 2024

Greg Norman found a way into Augusta National this week, and he was spotted following LIV Golf member Jon Rahm for much of the first round. Just a few holes ahead, Bryson DeChambeau entered the clubhouse with a 7-under 65 to grab the early lead.

Nicolai Højgaard with a chip-in now! That's brought him into the red on the day.

Chip-in birdie for Nicolai Højgaard! pic.twitter.com/6ZegGLopBi — PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 11, 2024

Tiger Woods just barely misses a long par putt at the par-3 4th. He tapped in for bogey to drop back to even on the day.

Tyrrell Hatton from nearly 200 yards out! A routine birdie at the fifth.

Tyrrell Hatton holes out for birdie on No. 5. #themasters pic.twitter.com/DKwXgK7PC2 — The Masters (@TheMasters) April 11, 2024

Scottie Scheffler making moves from the Augusta beach! He's at 3-under now thru 12.

Scottie Scheffler holes out from the bunker 🔥 pic.twitter.com/4otalgSBBF — PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 11, 2024

The wind is picking up quickly at Augusta National now. Upwards of 30 mph gusts in some places. Bryson DeChambeau and the morning wave seem to have lucked out here.

Will Zalatoris again! That eagle jumps him to 3-under on the day.

From 194 yards to eight feet. Will Zalatoris eagles No. 13 to reach three under par. #themasters pic.twitter.com/vv5owmwjFZ — The Masters (@TheMasters) April 11, 2024

After punching out from the trees left-handed, Tiger Woods managed to save his par at the second. He'll head to the third still at 1-under.

Tiger Woods in the woods. pic.twitter.com/kvlRxyhcFQ — PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 11, 2024

Bryson DeChambeau just recorded his best round ever at Augusta National, and it couldn't have come at a better time as the wind starts to pick up.

He carded 8 birdies en route to his 7-under 65.

-7 for Bryson, leads by 3 right now pic.twitter.com/2Q3kUxXOr0 — CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) April 11, 2024

Tiger Woods is right up against a tree on the second hole. He'll likely have to go lefty here to get it out.

Oh dear 🐯 pic.twitter.com/JMhzuRlaUv — CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) April 11, 2024

Welp, Tiger Woods teed off on the second and immediately yelled out, "No!"

It looks like his ball went down into the trees along the left side of the fairway.

Never a doubt. Tiger Woods played the first hole perfectly and sank an 8-foot putt to start the Masters with a birdie.

It's just his third time at the Masters with a birdie on the opening hole.

First hole, first birdie. Tiger Woods opens the Masters in style. pic.twitter.com/X8YjEk9OUu — Golf on CBS ⛳ (@GolfonCBS) April 11, 2024

Well this birdie putt for Tiger just got a whole lot bigger.

Tiger Woods' round is underway. He hit the first fairway, his 5th straight Masters finding the fairway on his first tee shot of the week. Overall in his career, he's now 16-for-26 on the week's opening hole. He's birdied the first hole of the week just once since 2000 (2020). — Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) April 11, 2024

The first tee was packed to see Tiger Woods tee off alongside Jason Day and Max Homa.

First tee scenes. 🔥 #themasters pic.twitter.com/uYnNF3iT3t — Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) April 11, 2024

Tiger Woods is off, and he wasted no time picking up his tee. His round is now underway at Augusta.

Fore, please! Now driving... Tiger Woods. #themasters pic.twitter.com/nXAvLUXWP3 — Golf on CBS ⛳ (@GolfonCBS) April 11, 2024

Bryson DeChambeau rolls it right down by the pin at the par-3 6th. He's cruising now on the back nine.

Bryson DeChambeau takes a two-shot lead at Augusta with a birdie on No. 16. #TheMasters 🎥 @TheMasters pic.twitter.com/D8lWOuOQ6r — Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) April 11, 2024

Bryson DeChambeau with back-to-back birdies again on his back nine. He's at 6-under now with an early two-shot lead over the field.

Bryson DeChambeau is tearing it up at Augusta right now. Solo first at 6-under. Last week in Miami, Brooks Koepka of all people went on a somewhat unprovoked tangent on seeing the growth in Bryson lately. Really interesting. pic.twitter.com/svA9MK4sHk — Brody Miller (@BrodyAMiller) April 11, 2024

Tiger Woods is repping his new "Sun Day Red" here at Augusta. It's almost time.

It's almost time 🐅 pic.twitter.com/rR9SKSAQtu — PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 11, 2024

Wyndham with a dart! He's at 2-under now, just three shots back from Bryson DeChambeau.

Wyndham Clark's exacting approach into No. 7 results in a birdie and moves him to two under par. #themasters pic.twitter.com/nFiNstLeKY — The Masters (@TheMasters) April 11, 2024

Bryson DeChambeau is now just a shot back from Ryan Fox at 4-under on the day.

Bryson DeChambeau plays Amen Corner in two under par to reach solo-second place. #themasters pic.twitter.com/E7apmVwTV9 — The Masters (@TheMasters) April 11, 2024

Tiger Woods is set to tee off at 3:54 p.m. ET for his 26th career Masters. He's won the event five times and has nine other top-10 finishes. This year he's looking to make the cut for the 24th consecutive time, but will he be able to shoot under par in his first round? Yahoo Sports' Nick Bromberg weighed in on Tiger's chances to get out of Thursday (and maybe Friday morning) in red numbers, and to see if he can don his famous "Sunday Red" at Augusta National this weekend.

Incredible touch from Wyndham Clark here at the third for his first birdie of the day. A great start for the reigning U.S. Open winner

A classy touch from @Wyndham_Clark results in a birdie 👏 pic.twitter.com/ImMYg9L8Sz — PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 11, 2024

Ryan Fox has pulled into the first round lead at the Masters after making an eagle on the par-5, eighth hole — the longest hole on the golf course at 570 yards. He's the first player to get to 5-under for the championship.

Ryan Fox moves into the solo lead at five under par with an eagle on hole No. 8. #themasters pic.twitter.com/Z5LEgdkizv — The Masters (@TheMasters) April 11, 2024

Three straight birdies to start his day and then an eagle at the 8th. Ryan Fox is making the turn as the solo leader at 5-under.

Solo leader at the turn. In just his second Masters start, @RyanFoxGolfer is off and running. pic.twitter.com/82GV5MkUF2 — PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 11, 2024

Will Zalatoris with the perfect wedge to save par. He's hanging in there at 1-under early.

Will Zalatoris chips in to save par on No. 5 and remain one under. #themasters pic.twitter.com/sItBxWLfmP — Golf on CBS ⛳ (@GolfonCBS) April 11, 2024

Nick Taylor with an early nominee for bad break of the week. On the par-3 sixth hole, Taylor was nearly perfect with his tee shot...nearly because it hit the flag stick about a foot off the ground — just inches away from making a hole-in-one — and ricocheted back toward the front of the green where he nearly rolled into the bunker, some 75 feet away from the hole.

Awful luck for Nick Taylor as his tee shot on the Par 3 6th hits the flag stick and rolls all the way off the green. #themasters pic.twitter.com/HKWAG5xDNm — 36 GOLF (@thirtysixgolf) April 11, 2024

The Masters leaderboard is already getting crowded at the top with several players at 3-under as the earliest groups head to the second nine at Augusta National. Among those leaders is South Korea's Byeong Hun An, who nailed this long putt on No. 6 to put himself among the players in red numbers in the early going of the first round.

Byeong Hun An makes a lengthy birdie putt on No. 6 to move into a tie for the lead. #themasters pic.twitter.com/oYlgkne4dG — The Masters (@TheMasters) April 11, 2024

Harris English nearly boxes an ace on No. 6! He would have been the first player to make a hole-in-one on No. 6 at the Masters since Corey Conners back in 2021. Take a look:

On No. 6, Harris English's tee shot finishes inches from the hole. #themasters pic.twitter.com/RRCokm7VoS — The Masters (@TheMasters) April 11, 2024

As he makes the turn, it's South Africa's Erik van Rooyen out to an early first round lead, at 3-under, tied with Bryson DeChambeau atop the leaderboard . van Rooyen was in the first group out following the rain delay and posted a bogey-free first nine with birdies on No. 3, No. 6 and No. 9.

Phil Mickelson is off and running at the 2024 Masters. The three-time champion made a furious charge on Sunday at the Masters in 2023 to finish with a T2 after a 7-under, 65. Mickelson made bogey on the first hole.

Bryson DeChambeau is off to a hot start, in search of his first Masters win and first major since the 2020 U.S. Open. The LIV star birdied each of the first three holes to grab an early lead. At the very least, DeChambeau would love to make the cut at Augusta National — something he hasn't done since 2021.

And Danny Willett, the 2016 Masters winner — remember that one, where Jordan Speith was well on his way to a wire-to-wire (and back-to-back) victory? — is out to a quick start, with birdies on 1 and 3 to move to 2-under.

Bryson DeChambeau also birdied the first and is at 1-under.

And yes, we are on the lookout for Greg Norman here at Augusta.

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IMAGES

The Battle of Tours
732 Battle of Tours: Charles Martel the 'Hammer' preserves Western
The Battle of Tours: Where Europe halted Islam
The Battle of Tours: a turning point in European History
The Battle of Poitiers by Charles Auguste Steuben
The Battle of Tours

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The Battle of Tours (732) #greatmenHistory #Shorts #yearofyou
Where Did Battle Jackets & Cuts Originate From??
Battle of Tours: "Halting the Islamic Expansion" #ytshorts #feedshorts #history
The battle that saved europe. Battle of tours, France⚔️Umayyad Caliphate
The Battle of Tours In 732 #battleoftours #charlesmartel #war #battle #history
The Battle of Tours: A Turning Point in History #BattleOfTours #CharlesMartel #medievalhistory

COMMENTS

Battle of Tours
Battle of Tours (October 732), victory won by Charles Martel, the de facto ruler of the Frankish kingdoms, over Muslim invaders from Spain. ... When considering the historical importance of the Battle of Tours, it is important to note that it did not actually mark the end of significant Muslim incursions into Gaul.
Battle of Tours
The Battle of Tours, also called the Battle of Poitiers and the Battle of the Highway of the Martyrs (Arabic: معركة بلاط الشهداء, romanized: Maʿrakat Balāṭ ash-Shuhadā'), was fought on 10 October 732, and was an important battle during the Umayyad invasion of Gaul.It resulted in the victory for the Frankish and Aquitanian forces, led by Charles Martel, over the invading ...
Battle of Tours: Its Significance and Historical Implications
Tours was a hugely important moment in the history of Europe, for though the battle of itself was perhaps not as seismic as some have claimed, it stemmed the tide of Islamic advance and showed the European heirs of Rome that these foreign invaders could be defeated. On 10 October 732 Frankish General Charles Martel crushed an invading Muslim ...
Battle of Tours
At the Battle of Tours near Poitiers, France, Frankish leader Charles Martel, a Christian, defeats a large army of Spanish Moors, halting the Muslim advance into Western Europe. Abd-ar-Rahman, the ...
The Legacy of Charles Martel & the Battle of Tours
The Battle of Poitiers aka the Battle of Tours took place over roughly a week in early October of 732. The opposing sides consisted of a Frankish army led by Charles Martel (r. 718-741) against an invading Muslim army under the nominal sovereignty of the Umayyad Caliphate (c. 661-750) based in Damascus, Syria.. These two forces came together as Umayyad power sought expansion and plunder in ...
Battle of Tours
The Battle of Tours (October 10, 732), often called Battle of Poitiers and also called in Arabic بلاط الشهداء (Balâṭ al-Shuhadâ') The Court of Martyrs was fought near the city of Tours, close to the border between the Frankish realm and the independent region of Aquitaine. The battle pitted Frankish and Burgundian. forces under Austrasian Mayor of the Palace Charles Martel ...
The Battle of Tours
Rare are such conflicts that changed the history of the world with their importance and decided the future of us all for centuries to come. And one of those rare, world-changing battles is the Battle of Tours - fought in 732 AD between the Christian Frankish forces and the invading Muslim Umayyad Caliphate. This fierce and destructive conflict ...
Battle of Tours, 732: Muslims vs. Christians
Background on the Battle of Tours In 711, the forces of the Umayyad Caliphate crossed into the Iberian Peninsula from Northern Africa and quickly began overrunning the region's Visigothic Christian kingdoms. Consolidating their position on the peninsula, they used the area as a platform for commencing raids over the Pyrenees into modern-day France.
Battle Report: Battle of Tours
The Battle of Tours is unquestionably a noteworthy battle, but what exactly were its impacts om history. First, and most importantly, the Battle of Tours halted the spread of Islam into Western Europe. The Battle ended the First Umayyad invasion of modern-day France. The second invasion occurred from 735-739CE and arguably posed a greater threat.
Battle of Tours (732 A.D.)
The Battle of Tours (often called the Battle of Poitiers, but not to be confused with the Battle of Poitiers, 1356) was fought on October 10, 732 between forces under the Frankish leader Charles Martel and a massive invading Islamic army led by Emir Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi Abd al Rahman, near the city of Tours, France. During the battle, the ...
The Battle of Tours
The battle rages on until late in the day, when a terrible clamor is heard from behind the Saracen army. It is King Eude, attacking the Saracen camp, stealing all of their ill-gotten plunder. The Saracen army frantically rushes back to protect their possessions. In this moment of confusion the Franks advance.
Battle of Tours
The Battle of Tours was fought on 10 October 732, and was an important battle during the Umayyad invasion of Gaul. It resulted in the victory for the Frankish and Aquitanian forces, led by Charles Martel, over the invading forces of the Umayyad Caliphate, led by Abdul Rahman Al-Ghafiqi, governor of al-Andalus. ...
The Battle of Tours: Where Europe halted Islam
The Battle of Tours: Where Europe halted Islam. The start of the 8th century was a golden age for Islamic expansionism in Europe. The new religion of Mohammed and his followers swept across the Middle East, north Africa and into southern Spain, and it looked for a moment as if the armies of the Umayyads of Damascus might overrun Europe entirely.
Battle of Tours
Battle of Tours. The Battle of Tours, also called the Battle of Poitiers and, was fought on 10 October 732, resulted in the victory for the Frankish and Aquitanian forces, led by Charles Martel, over the invading forces of the Umayyad Caliphate, led by Abdul Rahman Al-Ghafiqi, governor of al-Andalus. Details of the battle, including the number ...
The Battle of Tours || Facts, History, & Importance
The Battle of Tours; The Turning Point; FAQs. Q1: What led to the internal conflicts within the Umayyad Caliphate after Kalif Yazied died in 724? Q2: How did the Battle of Tours in 732 impact the course of Islamic expansion in Western Europe? Q3: Did the Battle of Tours end Islamic expansion in the West entirely?
Battle of Tours
The Battle of Tours was fought in 732 between a sizable Moorish invading force and a Frankish army under Charles Martel. Martel was able to check the Moorish advance by routing the Muslim army at the Battle of Tours in 732. The battle is considered highly significant in that it was crucial in stemming the tide of Muslim advance into north ...
The making of a world historical moment: The Battle of Tours (732/3) in
The Battle of Tours (or Poitiers) in 732/3 is frequently cited as a turning point in world history, when the advance of Muslim Arabs was decisively halted by the Christian army of Frankish mayor Charles Martel. Yet the battle and its reputation seem relatively modest in the earliest sources, with little sense that conquest or religious tensions were key issues. This paper explores how the ...
Charles The Hammer At Tours
Muslim (also called Saracen) forces gather outside Paris prior to the Battle of Tours in this 19th-century painting. Years of successful raiding had made the Muslims feel invincible. ... Eudes's attack on the Muslim khandaq essentially spelled the end of the main battle. When Muslim front-line forces learned that their camp was under full ...
The Battle of Tours / Poitiers
Fought in A.D. 732, the Battle of Tours (also called the Battle of Poitiers), fought between Abd al-Rahman and Charles Martel, was among the most decisive events in European history. ... While the Battle of Tours did not put an absolute end to Islamic conquests in Europe, it was certainly the single most influential conflict of its time. ...
The Battle of Tours: A Turning Point in Early Medieval History
The Battle of Tours is ultimately a story about the battle between Christianity and Islam. As Islam grew, it did so mainly in non-Christian lands. The tribes of Arabia that united under Muhammad had been polytheistic, meaning they believed in many gods. As Islam spread, though, it came into contact with more and more Christian territories.
Battle of Tours: End of the Arab Invasion of Europe
Battle of Tours: End of the Arab Invasion of Europe. In 732, Charles Martel led the Franks to victory against the Arabs at the Battle of Tours (Poitiers). It is widely believed that the Muslim advance was halted due to this legendary fight. Charles Martel in the Battle of Tours.
Charles Martel: The Battle of Tours, 732 AD ⚔️
The Battle of Tours was a significant military conflict that occurred in 732 near the city of Tours, in modern-day France. Charles Martel, the leader of the ...
The Battle of Tours Reconsidered
Since the 18th century and the seminal works of Edward Gibbons, the battle of. Tours/Poitier has been seen as a turning point in the wars between Roman Catholic Europe and. the Islamic world. The location of the battle was close to the border between the Frankish. kingdom and the then independent Duchy of Aquitaine.
This 12-Year-Old Boy Fought on a World War II Battleship and Became the
USS South Dakota (BB-57) underway at high speed during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands U.S. Navy Standing on the bridge, Captain Gatch watched as a 500-pound bomb struck the South Dakota's ...
The Masters showcases world's best
This is the first time since July at the British Open the best players regardless of their tours compete against each other — same course, same tournament, same television network. ... The battle is for a green jacket, but that might not be the only competition. ... The top 50 at the end of the year and a week before the Masters still get ...
OJ Simpson Dead at 76 After Cancer Battle
remembering O.j. Simpson Launch Gallery. O.J. Simpson -- one of the most infamous high-profile Americans of all time -- is dead after a cancer battle. The former NFL great -- who stood trial for ...
2024 Masters first round live updates: Bryson DeChambeau grabs lead
Thu, Apr 11, 2024, 11:01 AM EDT. 2024 Masters first round live updates: Rain has cleared and play has begun. The 88th Masters is here, where Jon Rahm is trying to go back-to-back, Tiger Woods is ...

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The making of a world historical moment: The Battle of Tours (732/3) in the nineteenth century

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- Before the Battle -

- The Battle of Tours -

- Significance in Doubt -

- Conclusion -