Read The Great Arab Conquests Online
Authors: Hugh Kennedy
The Great Arab Conquests (59 page)
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 the 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 Mahomet.
And he goes on to explain how Christendom was delivered from ‘such calamities’ by the genius and fortune of one man, Charles Martel.
In 1915 Edward Creasy, in an influential work of popular history, included it as one of his ‘Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World’. In reality it does mark something of a watershed. Until this point the Muslim armies had raided far and wide in France, even if they had not made any permanent conquests. As the people of Central Asia were finding out at exactly this time, Arab raids could be the prelude to more lasting conquest. After this point, Arab military activity was largely confined to the area around Narbonne, and al-Andalus began the transformation from a jihādist state to a more settled government.
For Western military historians the battle of Poitiers has acquired a further significance. It has been argued that Charles Martel was successful because, for the first time, he used the heavily armoured mounted warriors, the knights, in a coordinated charge that destroyed the enemy. According to these theories, this marked the beginning of the dominance of the battlefield by the heavily armoured horsemen which became characteristic of western Europe in the Middle Ages. With the rise of the knight there came the emergence of feudalism as the characteristic form of fiscal and social control.
It is all the more frustrating therefore that our information on what actually happened is short and confused, and even the date of the conflict is uncertain, though the traditional date of Saturday, 25 October 732 is as likely to be as right as any other.
48
The earliest important account is given in the Christian Chronicle of 754. Writing no more than twenty years after the events, the chronicler seems to have been fairly well informed, probably by Muslim survivors of the expedition who had returned to Cordova. He describes how the governor, Abd al-Rahmān al-Ghāfiqī, first defeated a Muslim rebel, Munnuza, in the mountains of the eastern Pyrenees. Munnuza had sought support from Duke Eudes of Aquitaine and Abd al-Rahmān now went in pursuit of him. He caught up with the duke and defeated him on the banks of the Garonne.
48
The earliest important account is given in the Christian Chronicle of 754. Writing no more than twenty years after the events, the chronicler seems to have been fairly well informed, probably by Muslim survivors of the expedition who had returned to Cordova. He describes how the governor, Abd al-Rahmān al-Ghāfiqī, first defeated a Muslim rebel, Munnuza, in the mountains of the eastern Pyrenees. Munnuza had sought support from Duke Eudes of Aquitaine and Abd al-Rahmān now went in pursuit of him. He caught up with the duke and defeated him on the banks of the Garonne.
Abd al-Rahmān then determined to continue the pursuit. He sacked Bordeaux and burned the famous church of St Hilary at Poitiers. He then decided to go on north along the Roman road to despoil the great church of St Martin at Tours on the Loire. While he was on the road from Poitiers to Tours he was confronted by Charles Martel, ‘a man who had proved himself a warrior from his youth and an expert in things military, who had been summoned by Eudes’. The two armies probably met at a small town still known as Moussais la Bataille.
After each side had tormented the other for almost seven days with raids, they finally prepared their battle lines and fought fiercely. The northern peoples remained immobile like a wall, holding together like a glacier in the cold regions, and in the blink of an eye, annihilated the Arabs with the sword. The people of Austrasia [that is, the followers of Charles Martel], greater in number of soldiers and formidably armed, killed the king Abd al-Rahmān, when they found him, striking him on the chest. But suddenly, within sight of the countless tents of the Arabs, the Franks despicably put up their swords, saving themselves to fight the next day since night had fallen during the battle. Rising from their own camp at dawn, the Europeans saw the tents of the Arabs all arranged according to their canopies, just as the camp had been set up before. Not knowing that they were all empty and thinking that inside them were phalanxes of Saracens ready for battle, they sent scouts to reconnoitre and discovered that all the troops of the Ishmaelites had left. They had all fled silently by night in tight formation, returning to their own country. But the Europeans, worried lest the Saracens deceitfully attempt to ambush them in hidden paths were slow to react and searched in vain everywhere around. Having no intention of pursuing the Saracens, they took the spoils and the booty, which they divided up fairly, back to their country and were overjoyed.
The main Frankish source, the Continuator of Fredegar, is altogether briefer. ‘Prince Charles’, he recounts, ‘boldly drew up his battle line against them [the Arabs]. With Christ’s help he overturned their tents, and hastened to grind them small in slaughter. The King Abdirama having been killed, he destroyed them, driving forth the army he fought and he won.’
49
49
The accounts are not nearly as detailed as we would like, but certain things do emerge clearly. The first is that this was no cavalry battle. The author of the
Chronicle of 754
, with his image of the glacier, suggests strongly that the Franks fought on foot as a sort of phalanx. He also makes it clear that they were very disciplined. The failure to follow up victory by pursuing the enemy that night is evidence not of cowardice but of the need for discipline and the dangers of chasing an enemy in the dark through unknown country. Most of the Arabs may have saved their lives, but they certainly abandoned their tents and much of their military equipment.
Chronicle of 754
, with his image of the glacier, suggests strongly that the Franks fought on foot as a sort of phalanx. He also makes it clear that they were very disciplined. The failure to follow up victory by pursuing the enemy that night is evidence not of cowardice but of the need for discipline and the dangers of chasing an enemy in the dark through unknown country. Most of the Arabs may have saved their lives, but they certainly abandoned their tents and much of their military equipment.
The defeat of the Muslims at Poitiers effectively marked the end of large-scale raiding in France. It became clear that they were not going to the able to conquer the country, or even to continue raiding with any degree of success. The military prowess of the Franks, like the ‘northern glacier’, was only one of the reasons for the end of expansion. The Muslims were probably short of manpower. The North African conquests had been made possible because large numbers of Berbers had joined the Muslim armies; these same Berbers had formed a major contingent in the armies that invaded al-Andalus. There are no reliable reports of Franks or other inhabitants of France joining the invading armies. Perhaps they were too alien to allow easy cooperation, perhaps their presence was always too transitory to inspire confidence, but whatever the reason, the lack of local support left the Muslim armies very isolated and vulnerable.
The Muslim presence in al-Andalus was also changing. By 732 many of the original conquerors were ageing or dead. Administrative structures had been set up to collect taxes and, at least according to one Arabic source, the local Muslims ‘lived like kings’, a small minority in a rich land. They no longer needed the plunder from raids to maintain their lifestyles and perhaps they did not even desire the adrenalin rush that raiding must have created.
But perhaps the most important reason for the change was the great Berber rebellion in North Africa in 741. The brutalities of the slave trade had caused massive resentment throughout the Maghreb and the Berbers almost succeeded in driving the Arabs out altogether. Only the sending of a massive army from Syria restored Muslim control in the area. This great conflict meant that neither Berbers nor Arabs were able to spare manpower for extending the conquests further in the cold and unfriendly fields and forests of the north.
10
THE WAR AT SEA
In the summer of 626, the ancient world was in turmoil. The Byzantine Empire seemed to be in its death throes. The nomad Avars were besieging Constantinople from the west while Persian troops looked greedily at the great city from Chalcedon, just across the Bosporus. Within the walls the emperor Heraclius was directing the defence, which saved the city, and may already have been planning the great campaigns of 624-8 which were to take him and his army far behind the Persian lines to strike at the heart of the Sasanian Empire. Meanwhile, in distant Arabia, the Prophet Muhammad was struggling to defend his base at Medina against the forces of Mecca, and it is unlikely that anyone in the Byzantine or Persian military knew anything of his new movement or his claims to be the prophet of God.
In the same summer a small merchant ship was making its way up the west coast of Asia Minor. As it passed through the narrow and often stormy channel that nowadays separates the Greek islands of Kos and Kalymnos from the Turkish mainland, it struck an underwater reef by the little outcrop known as Yassi Adi (‘Flat Island’).
1
Whether because the crew did not know of the reef or because the small boat was trying to shelter from the fierce Meltemi winds, the ship sank in 30 metres of water. She must have gone down quickly because they did not have time to remove the gold and copper coins they had put in a locker for safe-keeping or the kitchen utensils from the galley. Unless they were strong swimmers who could make the 50 metres to the shore, they perished with their vessel.
1
Whether because the crew did not know of the reef or because the small boat was trying to shelter from the fierce Meltemi winds, the ship sank in 30 metres of water. She must have gone down quickly because they did not have time to remove the gold and copper coins they had put in a locker for safe-keeping or the kitchen utensils from the galley. Unless they were strong swimmers who could make the 50 metres to the shore, they perished with their vessel.
The Yassi Adi wreck is of key importance in our understanding of Mediterranean shipping at the end of antiquity. From 1961 to 1964 it was the subject of a major underwater excavation which recovered a vast amount of information about the ship and its cargo. It was not a large boat, just under 21 metres long with a capacity of about 60 tons. It was a cargo ship, laden with some 900 large amphorae, which were probably filled with wine. The sailors intended to travel in some comfort, for there was an elaborate, tiled galley towards the stern, well equipped with cooking utensils and fine tableware.
It has been speculated that the ill-fated vessel belonged to a church and was being used to transport supplies to the Byzantine army, but the truth is that we do not know who was sailing it or why. The ship, dating as it does from the years immediately before the beginning of the Muslim conquests, tells us much about the coastal trade of the eastern Mediterranean in the last years of antiquity. The waters through which it sailed were stormy and dangerous, to be sure, but they were largely free from piracy and hostile attack, as they had been for the long centuries when the waters of the Mediterranean were the Byzantine ‘Mare Nostrum’. Within two decades all that was to change and the peaceful waters of the Levant were to become the theatre for a fierce and destructive naval confrontation.
2
2
There was a tradition of seafaring among the Arabs. In pre-Islamic times, Arabs did put to sea and the Koran (30: 46) tells the faithful that God sent the winds ‘so that the ship may sail at His command and so that you many seek of His bounty’, and that ‘It is He who makes the ship sail on the sea so that you may seek of His bounty’ (17: 66). These and other references make it clear that some Arabs at least were used to making trading voyages.
3
There was also a tradition of distrust of the sea among the early Muslims. The caliph Umar in particular is said to have been deeply suspicious of the sea, holding it to be a danger for the Muslims. This caution was short lived. One of the most astonishing aspects of the early Muslim conquests was the speed with which the Muslims, or more exactly fleets under Muslim command, were able to challenge the well-established naval power of the Byzantine Empire. In part this was forced on them by the need to defend the coasts of Syria and Egypt against raids by the Byzantine navy, which retained its capacity to mount seaborne assaults on the coastal towns throughout the first three Islamic centuries. If the Byzantines were allowed unchallenged command of the sea, no one along the coasts of Syria, Palestine or Egypt could be considered safe.
3
There was also a tradition of distrust of the sea among the early Muslims. The caliph Umar in particular is said to have been deeply suspicious of the sea, holding it to be a danger for the Muslims. This caution was short lived. One of the most astonishing aspects of the early Muslim conquests was the speed with which the Muslims, or more exactly fleets under Muslim command, were able to challenge the well-established naval power of the Byzantine Empire. In part this was forced on them by the need to defend the coasts of Syria and Egypt against raids by the Byzantine navy, which retained its capacity to mount seaborne assaults on the coastal towns throughout the first three Islamic centuries. If the Byzantines were allowed unchallenged command of the sea, no one along the coasts of Syria, Palestine or Egypt could be considered safe.
The Muslims soon began to see the possibility of using ships for offensive purposes as well. The island of Cyprus, lying as it does only 100 kilometres from the coast of Syria, was an obvious target.
4
In 649 the governor of Syria, Mu
c
āwiya, later to be the first Umayyad caliph, sent a naval expedition against the island. Interestingly the date of the invasion is confirmed by a Greek inscription commemorating the restoration of a basilica at Soli, which had been damaged by the raid, by Bishop John in 655.
5
This is an almost unique contemporary reference to destruction and rebuilding at the time of the first Muslim conquests.
4
In 649 the governor of Syria, Mu
c
āwiya, later to be the first Umayyad caliph, sent a naval expedition against the island. Interestingly the date of the invasion is confirmed by a Greek inscription commemorating the restoration of a basilica at Soli, which had been damaged by the raid, by Bishop John in 655.
5
This is an almost unique contemporary reference to destruction and rebuilding at the time of the first Muslim conquests.
According to the tradition preserved in the Muslim sources,
6
Umar had refused to allow Mu
c
āwiya to venture on the sea, but his successor, Uthmān, gave his permission with the curious provision that Mu
c
āwiya should take his wife with him, presumably to encourage him not to take unnecessary risks. He, and a number of other prominent Muslims, were duly accompanied by their women. After this first successful raid, the people of Cyprus were obliged to pay an annual tribute to the Muslims. They already paid a tribute to the Byzantines, so the island came under a sort of joint rule, both sides receiving some money but neither maintaining a permanent garrison. In 654 Mu
c
āwiya invaded again because, the Muslims claimed, the Cypriots had offered ships to help the Byzantines against them, so breaking the terms of the treaty. The Muslim fleet is said to have consisted of 500 ships and carried a force of 12,000 regular soldiers (that is, men whose names were entered in the
dīwān
). At that time Mu
c
āwiya is reported to have erected mosques and built a new city on the island in which he settled men from Ba
c
albak as a garrison and gave them salaries. This Muslim outpost lasted until Mu
c
āwiya’s son Yazīd withdrew the men and demolished the city, presumably because he did not consider that it was worth the expense of paying the garrison.
6
Umar had refused to allow Mu
c
āwiya to venture on the sea, but his successor, Uthmān, gave his permission with the curious provision that Mu
c
āwiya should take his wife with him, presumably to encourage him not to take unnecessary risks. He, and a number of other prominent Muslims, were duly accompanied by their women. After this first successful raid, the people of Cyprus were obliged to pay an annual tribute to the Muslims. They already paid a tribute to the Byzantines, so the island came under a sort of joint rule, both sides receiving some money but neither maintaining a permanent garrison. In 654 Mu
c
āwiya invaded again because, the Muslims claimed, the Cypriots had offered ships to help the Byzantines against them, so breaking the terms of the treaty. The Muslim fleet is said to have consisted of 500 ships and carried a force of 12,000 regular soldiers (that is, men whose names were entered in the
dīwān
). At that time Mu
c
āwiya is reported to have erected mosques and built a new city on the island in which he settled men from Ba
c
albak as a garrison and gave them salaries. This Muslim outpost lasted until Mu
c
āwiya’s son Yazīd withdrew the men and demolished the city, presumably because he did not consider that it was worth the expense of paying the garrison.
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