The Battle of Tours (Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt ’Em) For several days, the horse-mounted soldiers of both armies engaged in a series of skirmishes. Finally, on what was probably a Saturday afternoon, the Arabs attacked the main body of Frankish foot soldiers. These infantrymen must have presented a fearsome sight. Their main weapon was a single-edged, straight, pointed sword called a scramasax that was carried in a scabbard hung from the waist. Some may have also carried a short-handled, double-bladed throwing ax, a weapon that was falling out of favor by that time. Many of them had shields and a few may have even worn a helmet. They didn’t bother to cut their hair, which hung down past their shoulders in a matted mass, and wore clothing that ofttimes featured animal skins. The Arab horseman was typically armed with a scimitar, a curved single-edged sword used for slashing. They wore robes and generally looked like what we are used to seeing in movies like Lawrence of Arabia. These horsemen repeatedly charged the Franks, but as a means of defense the Franks adopted the formation of a hollow square so that they faced out on all sides. Swinging their scramasaxes, they cut down Arabs left and right, including Abd-al-Rahman himself. The melee lasted until the sun went down, whereby the survivors of both armies returned to their respective camps for the night. When dawn broke on Sunday, the Franks were in arms, awaiting the expected Arab attack, but there were no horsemen to be found. Charles suspected a trap but it soon became apparent that, under cover of darkness, the Arabs had retreated to the south. The Battle of Tours was the high water mark of the Arab invasion of Europe. Although the Arabs would continue their raids into Frankish territory, they would never again assemble as large an attacking force nor would they again penetrate as far north. More importantly, at no time would they again attempt to increase the boundaries of the areas under their permanent control and it would not be long before the Franks would begin to push them back. Although it took hundreds of years, they were finally driven out of France and Spain and back into Africa. Charles added ‘Martel’ [the Hammer] to his name and is known today as one of the saviors of Europe. Unfortunately for the Europeans and the rest of us, Charles may have saved the world from something better. Too Bad We’re Not Speaking Arabic Now, suppose the Arabs had been successful and continued to advance into Europe, bringing knowledge and culture with them? For one thing, today’s world would probably contain more mosques and fewer churches and this article would probably be written in Arab script rather than Latin letters. Maybe that’s not terribly significant, but if Arab knowledge were transferred to Europe beginning in the ’700s it might have proved momentous. Would the Renaissance have begun 200 years earlier? Since gifted people seem to inhabit all time periods, it is reasonable to assume that science and its attendant technology would have proceeded to develop at the same pace regardless of when it started, making modern society significantly more advanced.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 11:34:46 +0000
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