82 ISLAM AT WAR
The overall leader of the Visigoths was King Roderick. The Muslim forces
were an estimated 12,000 men. The battle lasted several days, and at least
one severe assault by Tarik’s forces was repulsed. What might have been
can only be imagined, for Count Julian took his contingent over to the
Muslim side, and Roderick’s army disintegrated. Roderick fled the battle-
field and drowned while attempting to cross the Guadalquivir.
With the Christian king dead, Count Julian convinced Abu Zora Tarik
to advance north and seize Toledo before its defenses could be organized.
When Musa, Tarik’s overlord, arrived with reinforcements, he was furious
with Tarik, but it was difficult to argue with success. By 718 the Muslim
army had completely subjugated Spain, pushing the surviving Spanish
Christian and Visigothic lords into the mountains of the north and west.
Musa returned to Damascus, loaded with booty and accompanied by 3,000
beautiful Spanish virgins for Caliph al-Walid’s harem.
With the richest parts of the peninsula under their control, the Moors
looked across the Pyrenees. Between 718 and 732 the Muslim army in
Spain found employment by raiding north into what is today France. At
the time the French kingdom had not yet solidified, and the collection of
disorganized states was exceptionally tempting. The Franks, however,
would not make it easy for the Muslims to raid with impunity. Their first
major invasion in 721 captured Narbonne, which the Moors used as a base
for further raids. When Al-Semah captured Narbonne in 721 he had every
male inhabitant killed and the women and children sold into slavery. From
there he pushed west to Toulouse and was killed in battle against Eudo,
duke of Aquitaine.
Command of the army fell to Abd er-Rahman, who withdrew his forces
back to Spain, though he maintained the garrison in Narbonne. A new
Muslim army came in 724 under Ambissa, which captured Carcassone
and Nıˆmes, sacking monasteries and churches along the way. The Muslims
pushed their armies up the Rhone, plundering Lyon, Mac ̧on, Chaˆlons,
Beaune, and Dijon.
One of the most significant battles in history would follow as Abd er-
Rahman’s army moved once again over the Pyrenees in 732. The storied
wealth of the Basilica of St. Martin in Tours had caught the attention of
the Moors. In October 732, however, somewhere between the modern
cities of Tours and Poitiers, the Muslim army encountered the Christian
army under Charles Martel. The Moors had been besieging Tours, but
when they learned that the combined armies of Charles Martel and Eudo
were striking at their lines of communication, they broke the siege and
turned south in an effort to cover the retreat of the train of booty. Charles
pressed the Moorish retreat as hard as he could and forced Abd er-Rahman
to fight a major battle somewhere near Cenon, on the Vienne River.