The Battle of Tours

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 January 2014

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Battle of Tours. In 732 a large Arab army invaded Gaul from northern Spain, and travelled as far north as Poitiers. There they were defeated by Charles Martel, whose Frankish and Burgundian forces repelled the invaders. The result confirmed the regional supremacy of Charles, who went on to establish a strong Frankish dynasty. The Battle of Tours was the last major incursion of Muslim armies into northern Europe; some historians, including Edward Gibbon, have seen it as the decisive moment that determined that the continent would remain Christian.

With:

Hugh Kennedy Professor of Arabic at SOAS, University of London

Rosamond McKitterick Professor of Medieval History at the University of Cambridge

Matthew Innes Vice-Master and Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London.

Transcript

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0:45.9	the program. Hello in the first half of the 8th century an army from Arab Spain
0:51.9	invaded Gaul and reached as far north as Poitiers in
0:54.8	central France. Someone near there they were met by forces commanded by the
0:58.7	Frankish leader Charles Martel, the Arabs lost the ensuing battle and retreated, never to return.
1:05.5	We don't know precisely when this battle took place, although it generally believed that it
1:09.2	happened sometime in 732.
1:11.6	Even its location is a mystery, and while some historians call it the Battle of Tuer, to others it's known as the Battle of Poitiers.
1:18.0	The 18th century historian Edward Gibbon believed this battle between Christians and Muslims as one of the turning points of European history.
1:25.0	He suggested that if the Franks had lost, the Arab armies would have taken over the entire continent.
1:30.0	Perhaps he wrote,
1:31.0	the interpretation of the Quran would now be taught in the schools of
1:34.2	Oxford and her pulpitts might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth
1:39.6	of the revelation of Bahamet.
1:42.1	But it was the battle, but really such a watershed and what effect
	...

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