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Daniel Hawkins
Franks, Umayyads, and the Most Important Early Medieval Battle: Scholarship on
the Battle of Tours
In the early Middle Ages, the political centralization and military ascendancy
of the Franks—first under the Merovingians and then under the Carolingians—
made them the largest and most powerful Christian power in Europe. The Umayyad
caliphate had spread in the last two centuries from Arabia through North Africa and
into Spain, where they created a complex polity with its own strong presence. As the
eighth century dawned, these Muslim forces raided and fought their way into Gaul.
As an Umayyad force led by the emir Abd al-Rahman reached Poitiers or Tours
(both primary sources and scholars differ on the exact location), they clashed with
Charles, son of Pippin II. At this battle—which for the sake of clarity I will term the
Battle of Tours—Charles earned his historical moniker Charles Martel, or Charles
the Hammer, repelling the Umayyads, who never again crossed into Gaul after 732.
As the soon-to-be progenitor of the Carolingian dynasty, the Battle of Tours
solidified Charles Martel’s authority among the Franks and paved the way for
medieval Christian civilization as we know it.
In part due to inconsistencies among primary chroniclers, historians at least
from Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) onward have debated the significance of the
Battle of Tours both in its medieval context and in the context of Western
civilization. Gibbon, writing in 1788, stated that without Martel’s victory, “the
repetition of an equal space [from Gibraltar to the Loire] would have carried the
Saracens to the confines of Poland and to the Highlands of Scotland…Perhaps the
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interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her
pupils might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the
revelation of Muhammad.”1 This interpretation of the Battle has since colored the
views of historians toward its significance, whether they substantiate or disagree
with Gibbon’s claims. I will argue in this paper that although some historians have
written on the Battle of Tours’ significance on the scale of Western civilization, it is
only recently that historians have evaluated the Battle of Tours’ significance in the
context of Carolingian culture with due attentiveness to the primary sources and
political/military history. I will also argue that even with the recent scholarship
dedicated toward the Battle, the attention given to the Battle of Tours (especially
when one considers its assumed historical magnitude by some historians) has been
limited when compared to more general histories on the Franks and the early
Middle Ages.
Academia certainly does not currently suffer from a shortage of general
literature on the Carolingians, the Merovingians, the Franks as a whole, or
Charlemagne—areas of study which have only flourished in the last few decades.2
Most discussion of early medieval Europe cannot help but include the Carolingian
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (New York, 1974). As appears in William
E. Watson, “The Battle of Tours-Poitiers Revisited,” Providence: Studies in Western Civilization 2, no. 1
(1993), as published in “De Re Militari: The Society for Medieval Military History,” September 20,
2013, http://deremilitari.org/2013/09/the-battle-of-tours-poitiers-revisited/.
2 Works on these topics include, but are by no means limited to: Jonathan P. Conant, “Louis the Pious
and the Contours of Empire,” Early Medieval Europe 22, no. 3 (August 2014): 336-60; Paul Fouracre,
“Merovingian History and Hagiography,” Past and Present 127 (1990): 3-38; Paul Fouracre and
Richard A. Gerberding, Late Merovingian France: History and Hagiography, 650-720, Manchester
Medieval Series (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996); Rosamond McKitterick,
Charlemagne: The Formation of a European Identity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008);
Rosamond McKitterick, The Early Middle Ages: Europe 400-1000, Short Oxford History of Europe
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001); Pierre Riché, The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe,
Middle Ages Series (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993).
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Franks, and more recent scholarship has also included the prominent (and often
complex) role that Muslims influenced medieval society.3 The rise in western
scholarship on Umayyad interactions with Christian Europe in the early Middle Ages
probably comes as a result of more progressive approaches to history as well as the
need for an even-handed evaluation of its history. The political history of the Franks
toward the end of the Merovingian dynasty and the beginning of the Carolingian era
necessitates at least a mention of the various alliances and rivalries between
Christian and Muslim powers in western Europe during this period. Paul Fouracre,
in The Age of Charles Martel (2000), Ian Wood, in The Merovingian Kingdoms, 450751 (1994), and William E. Watson, in “The Battle of Tours-Poitiers Revisited”
(1993), discuss in detail with close reference to primary sources these political and
military relationships, with special attention to the rivalry between Eudo, the
Neustrians, different Muslim emirs, and the Pippinids with little to no detectable
bias (as may have appeared in the writings of historians like Gibbon).4 Still, despite
this scholarship, not as much exists with respect to Charles Martel specifically or to
the Battle of Tours itself.
Paul Fouracre’s scholarship on Charles Martel dominates the field in terms of
monographs devoted specifically to this historical figure. While not exactly a
José C. Carvajal, “Islamicization or Islamicizations? Expansion of Islam and Social
Practice in the Vega of Granada (south-East Spain),” World Archaeology 45, no. 1
(March 2013) 109-123; Tomaž Mastnak, Crusading Peace: Christendom, the Muslim
World, and Western Political Order (Berkley: University of California Press, 2002).
4 Paul Fouracre, The Age of Charles Martel, Medieval World, (New York: Longman,
2000), 82-89; Ian Wood, The Merovingian Kingdoms, 450-751, (London: Longman,
1994), 283-84; William E. Watson, “The Battle of Tours-Poitiers Revisited,”
Providence: Studies in Western Civilization 2, no. 1 (1993), as published in “De Re
Militari: The Society for Medieval Military History,” September 20, 2013.
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biography in its traditional sense, The Age of Charles Martel (2000) discusses
Martel’s place in Frankish (and by extent, European) history in a great deal of detail
with extensive use of primary sources. Despite this level of detail with respect to
Martel’s life, Fouracre does not dedicate a significant amount of writing to
Tours/Poitiers, but where he does address its significance (on one page), he
essentially dismisses Abd al-Rahman’s forces as raiders than as a serious army
capable of conquering Europe.5 In his exhaustive history of the Merovingian era,
Merovingian Kingdoms (1994), Ian Wood dedicates slightly more discussion to
Martel’s victory and its significance in his trajectory as ruler of the Franks and
patriarch to the Carolingians. Here Wood uses historical context and primary
sources (as well as their possible biases) to conclude that the Battle was only
significant as a propaganda tool for Martel and his successors.6 Largely in agreement
with Wood that Tours has been over-emphasized, Rosamond McKitterick, Matthew
Innes, and Hugh Kennedy discuss in a 2014 interview with host Melvyn Bragg on
BBC Radio the significance of the Battle of Tours, citing evidence ranging from
medieval battle tactics to Muslim primary sources.7 Pierre Riché somewhat takes
the middle ground in The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe (1993),
interpreting most of the same evidence used by those previously mentioned as
Fouracre, The Age of Charles Martel, 88.
Wood, Merovingian Kingdoms, 274-75, 286-87.
7 Rosamond McKitterick, Matthew Innes, Hugh Kennedy, interview by Melvyn Bragg,
“The Battle of Tours, In Our Time – BBC Radio 4,” BBC, 2014,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03pm7dv.
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indicative of the Battle having both historical and propagandistic significance for the
Carolingians.8
William E. Watson represents the most prominent modern voice in favor of
Gibbon’s interpretation of Tours. Although Watson only dedicates an article to the
topic instead of an entire book, he nonetheless parses out historical nuances evident
from contemporary primary sources, the military capabilities and aspirations of the
Umayyads, the political rivalries of Christian Europeans, using this evidence to
support his analysis of Martel’s victory as essential to the formation of the Christian
medieval world. Watson hesitates to cement the Umayyad’s loss at Tours as the sole
obstacle to their Islamicization of Europe; he does, however, conclude that it was
not only crucial for the success of the Carolingians, but that “the history of the West
would have proceeded along vastly different currents” had Martel lost.
Despite more scholarly analysis of the evidence surrounding the Battle of
Tours, historians still do not agree on the significance of the Battle of Tours during
Charles Martel’s lifetime, let alone its significance as a watershed moment in world
history. Some historians have dismissed the validity of presenting battles as
“turning points” in macrohistory, while others urge a cautious but valid approach.9
While shorter discussions in the form of articles, chapter subheadings, or interviews
have certainly attempted to either dismiss Martel’s victory at Tours as anything but
a military “stepping stone” in his career and as a blueprint for further Carolingian
Riché, The Carolingians, 14-15, 35, 44.
Yuval N. Harari, “The Concept of ‘Decisive Battles’ in World History,” Journal of
World History 18, no. 3 (2007): 251-66. Harari uses a different battle as a sort of
case study here, but he does include more than one mention of Tours as an example
of one of these controversial “turning points” that warrants more study.
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expansion, accurately evaluating the battle’s significance among the Carolingians
requires further study and discussion of the primary sources available as well as
historical events that preceded and followed the Battle. While general histories do
mention Martel and the Battle of Tours, only some specialized and limited
discussions address the battle’s significance in the early medieval context and in the
context of Western history. While I cannot write an entire volume on the Battle of
Tours, in my paper I plan on combining analysis of most of the primary sources used
by these scholars as well as more secondary sources to conclude that the Battle of
Tours held very little significance in and immediately following 732, instead acting
mostly as a propaganda tool for the Carolingians during and after Martel’s lifetime,
which in turn has strongly influenced Western history, although not for the same
reason Gibbon (and his modern counterpart, William E. Watson) concluded.
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Bibliography
Carvajal, José C. “Islamicization or Islamicizations? Expansion of Islam and Social
Practice in the Vega of Granada (south-east Spain).” World Archaeology 45,
no. 1 (March 2013): 109-123.
Conant, Jonathan P. “Louis the Pious and the Contours of Empire.” Early Medieval
Europe 22, no. 3 (Aug. 2014): 336-60.
Fouracre, Paul. “Merovingian History and Merovingian Hagiography.” Past & Present,
no. 127 (1990): 3-38.
Fouracre, Paul. The Age of Charles Martel. The Medieval World. New York: Longman,
2000.
Fouracre, Paul and Richard A. Gerberding. Late Merovingian France: History and
Hagiography, 640-720. Manchester Medieval Sources Series. Manchester:
Manchester University Press, 1996.
Harari, Yuval N. “The Concept of ‘Decisive Battles’ in World History.” Journal of
World History 18, no. 3 (2007): 251-66.
Mastank, Tomaž. Crusading Peace: Christendom, the Muslim World, and Western
Political Order. Berkley: University of California Press, 2002.
McKitterick, Rosamond. Charlemagne: The Formation of a European Identity.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
McKitterick, Rosamond. The Early Middle Ages: Europe 400-1000. Short Oxford
History of Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
McKitterick, Rosamond Matthew Innes, Hugh Kennedy. Interview by Melvyn Bragg.
“The Battle of Tours, In Our Time – BBC Radio 4.” BBC, 2014.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03pm7dv.
Riché, Pierre. The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe. Translated by Michael
Idomir Allen. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvaia Press, 1993.
Watson, William E. “The Battle of Tours-Poitiers Revisited.” De Re Militari: The
Society for Medieval Military History. September 20, 2013.
http://deremilitari.org/2013/09/the-battle-of-tours-poitiers-revisited/
Wood, Ian. The Merovingian Kingdoms, 450-751. London: Longman, 1994.