3 Location

Despite the supposedly 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.

4 The battle

Charles positioned his army at a place where he expected the Muslim army to pass, at a defensive position. It is possible that his tightly packed infantry, armed with swords, spears and shield formed a phalanx-like formation. According to the Arabian sources they drew up in a large square.

For six days the two armies watched each other, with just minor skirmishes. 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 was a numerically superior Frankish army. The fight commenced on the seventh day, as Abd er Rahman did not want to postpone the battle indefinitely.

Abd er Rahman trusted the numerical superiority of his cavalry, and had them charge repeatedly. This time the faith the Muslims had in their cavalry, armed with their long lances, long swords and spears, 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 determined charges, though according to Arab sources, their cavalry several times broke into the interior of the Frankish square.

For the Frankish soldiers the heavy Saracen cavalry looked invincible: heavily armoured, with even their horses wearing protective armour. It is probable that the numerous Berber cavalry were just lightly armoured. The Franks thus fared much better against the Berber cavalry than against the Saracens.

According to a Frankish source the battle lasted one day, according to Arab sources two days. When the rumour went through the Arab army that Frankish cavalry threatened the booty they had taken from Bordeaux, many returned to their camp. This, to the majority of the Muslim army, appeared to be a full-scale retreat, and soon, it was one. Abd er Rahman attempted to stop this retreat. At this time he was surrounded and killed, 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 did it turn out that the Muslims had retreated during the night.

5 Aftermath

The Arab army retreated back south over the Pyrenees. Charles, who earned his nickname Martel (hammer) in this battle, drove the Muslims in the following years from the area between Arles and Avignon. He would continue by defeating the Muslims once more in a battle near the River Berre near Narbonne.

5.1 Importance of the battle

The actual importance of the Battle of Tours is a topic of much debate. Contemporaries, from Bede in Northumbria to Theophanes in Constantinople carefully recorded this battle. Some later scholars, such as the famous historian Edward Gibbon, contend that if Martel had fallen, then the Muslims would have easily conquered Europe. Gibbon, in fact, wrote a famous passage of prose on the topic, stating 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 Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Muhammed." Similarly, the historian Sir Edward Creasy, however, does not think so, saying, "it is unlikely a lesser man could have succeeded where his superior had failed."

Arab historians, such as Ibn Hayyan and Ibn al-Athir instead have traditionally blamed the Andalusian army's earlier defeat at the Battle of Toulouse on its overall failure at achieving lasting territorial gains north of the Pyrenees, de-emphasizing the defeat of the smaller force involved at Tours. Some western historians, such as William E. Watson, agree, saying that the importance of the Battle of Tours has been greatly exaggerated over the passage of time, and that the fame of Charles Martel's grandson Charlemagne caused the earlier exploits of the Franks to be written larger than their historical impact warrants.

At any rate, even before the battle, discord among Arabs, Berbers, and the Iberian populations in al-Andalus had undermined the Muslim's ability to further their conquests: between 715 and 755, al-Andalus went through nearly twenty emirs, only three of whom ruled for more than five years. The death of Abd er Rahman threw his army into turmoil, and Muslim armies made no further major raids on western Europe until late in the 8th century.

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