Anon Arab Chronicler: The Battle of Poitiers, 732 From 711
Muslim forces crossed the Straits of Gibraltar, conquered the
Visigothic Kingdom, and in less than a decade crossed the
Pyrenees. In 732, under the command of Abd-er- rahman, they were
decisively defeated by Charles Martel and the Franks at the
Battle of Poitiers [or Tours]. This event looms much larger in
Western history than Muslim - leading to a famous passage of
purple prose by Edward Gibbon about minarets rather than spires
in Oxford if the Muslims had won. The event was notice the
Muslim world, however, and the following is from an Arab
chronicle. The Moslems smote their enemies, and passed the river
Garonne, and laid waste the country, and took captives without
number. And that army went through all places like a desolating
storm. Prosperity made those warriors insatiable. At the passage
of the river, Abderrahman overthrew the count, and the count
retired into his stronghold, but the Moslems fought against it,
and entered it by force, and slew