THE MUSLIM CONQUEST AND LOSS OF SPAIN 83Charles’s army of Franks may have been of a similar size to that of the
Moors—some estimate that each side may have fielded 50,000 men. The
Moors would certainly have contained a large contingent of the famous
Berber light cavalry, and Charles’s army would almost certainly have been
the solid Frankish infantry, probably supported by a few mounted retain-
ers. Certainly Charles formed his men into a solid block and advanced
toward the enemy camp. Abd er-Rahman led his troops in a headlong
charge against the Frankish host, but the lighter horsemen could not break
the deep ranks of foot soldiers. Sometime, probably toward the end of the
first day, the valiant emir fell at the head of his men, and the spirit of the
Muslim host was crushed. During the night they made off with such of
the treasure as would not slow their flight. In the morning, the Frankish
pursuit overtook the stragglers and regained much of the loot. Christian
casualties are said to have been about 1,500, and that of the Moors about
7,500.
With the Moorish army defeated, the Franks began a steady process
of recapturing the cities they’d lost, and about 741, when the citizens of
Narbonne revolted and killed their Moorish masters, the last vestige of
the Muslim invasion of France vanished. Modern Muslim history suggests
that the Battle of Tours was an unimportant event—merely a raid repulsed.
In the West it is viewed as one of the decisive battles of history. Probably
it was both. Abd er-Rahman was not out to conquer the Franks on that
day, but it was typical of Arab conquests that after a successful raid had
defeated the local forces, a garrison would be installed in some important
place, and before long the Saracens would control a province by default.
Tours convinced the Muslims that the Franks could not be easily defeated
and thus ended the threat of both raid and invasion.
Within the Iberian Peninsula matters were less than completely peace-
ful. The Moors never subdued some parts of the peninsula, and from these
dark corners the resistance stiffened as the local nobles came together,
first in mutual defense, and eventually in counterattack. Even without the
reconquest, Spain would have not been a peaceful place, as the Moors
themselves were disunified and constant struggles erupted between the
Moorish warlords.
At age thirty-two, Emir Abd er-Rahman II (912–61) attempted to bring
some stability to Moorish Spain. His first move was to bring Cordoba
under control. A rebellion was crushed in 928 with the death of the leading
rebel. Abd er-Rahman II proceeded to subdue the mutinous cities of Se-
ville, Algeciras, Sidonia, and Carmona. By 929 he had expanded his emir-
ate into a caliphate with himself as caliph. From there he turned against
the Christian kingdom of Leon, under King Ordono II. Ordono had taken