Battle of Tours–Poitiers

Also called: Battle of Tours, Battle of Poitiers (732), Battle of the Path of the Martyrs

The army of Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi, governor of al-Andalus, advancing north across the Pyrenees, was defeated between Tours and Poitiers by the Frankish mayor of the palace Charles Martel.

Having taken the Iberian Peninsula, the Muslims often raided southern Gaul. In 732 Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi, governor of al-Andalus, defeated Duke Odo of Aquitaine, sacked Bordeaux and marched north towards Tours and its rich abbey of Saint-Martin. Charles Martel, mayor of the palace of the Frankish kingdom, blocked him between Tours and Poitiers. The Frankish infantry held firm in close formation, al-Ghafiqi was killed, and the Muslim army withdrew during the night. The usual date is October 732, though some scholars argue for 733, and the exact site is uncertain.

Arab sources call it the battle of the “Path of the Martyrs” (Balat al-Shuhada) and record it as one failed expedition among many. Muslim forces kept raiding southern France and held Narbonne until 759, but the Berber revolt of the 740s and the change of dynasty effectively halted expansion at the western edge of the Islamic world. In Europe it was remembered as the battle that stopped Islam’s advance into the West, and Charles Martel’s prestige laid the ground for his son Pepin to found the Carolingian dynasty.