Battle of Poitiers (Battle of Tours) – First Islamic Wave – Year 732

The Battle of Tours (October 10, 732), also called the Battle of Poitiers and in Arabic: ”ma‘arakat Balâ ṭ ash-Shuhadâ ’) Battle of Court of The Martyrs, was fought in an area between the cities of Poitiers and Tours, near the village of Moussais-la-Bataille (modern Vouneuil-sur-Vienne) about 20km north of Poitiers. The location of the battle was close to the border between the Frankish realm and then-independent Aquitaine. The battle pitted Frankish and Burgundian forces under Austrasian Mayor of the Palace Charles Martel against an army of the Umayyad Caliphate led by ‘Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, Governor-general of al-Andalus. The Franks were victorious, ‘Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi was killed, and Charles subsequently extended his authority in the south. Ninth-century chroniclers, who interpreted the outcome of the battle as divine judgment in his favour, gave Charles the nickname Martellus (" The Hammer"). Details of the battle, including its exact location and the exact number of combatants, cannot be determined from accounts that have survived. Notably, the Frankish troops won the battle without cavalry.

As later chroniclers praised Charles Martel as the champion of Christianity, pre-20th century historians began to characterise this battle as being the decisive turning point in the struggle against Islam, a struggle which preserved Christianity as the religion of Europe. " Most of the 18th and 19th century historians, like Gibbon, saw Poitiers (Tours), as a landmark battle that marked the high tide of the Muslim advance into Europe." Leopold von Ranke felt that " Poitiers was the turning point of one of the most important epochs in the history of the world."

While modern historians are divided and there is considerable disagreement as to whether or not the victory was responsible — as Gibbon and his generation of historians claimed, and which is echoed by many modern historians — for saving Christianity and halting the conquest of Europe by Islam, there is little dispute that the battle helped lay the foundations of the Carolingian Empire and Frankish domination of Europe for the next century. " The establishment of Frankish power in western Europe shaped that continent's destiny and the Battle of Tours confirmed that power."