Final Exam

Question: Describe the significance of the Battle of Tours.

Theses: The Battle of Tours was perhaps the turning point in history because without it, Muslim religion would of still be spreading, and would of destroyed Christian belief, therefore, leaving no Christian faith left to flourish.

Primary Source #1:

"The defeat of the Saracen invaders of Frankish lands at Tours (more properly Poitiers) in 732 A.D. was a turning point in history. It is not likely the Muslims, if victorious, would have penetrated, at least at once, far into the north, but they would surely have seized South Gaul, and thence readily have crushed the weak Christian powers of Italy. It is very unfortunate that we do not possess scientific accounts of Charles Martel's great victory, instead of the interesting but insufficient stories of the old Christian chroniclers."

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/732tours.html

Medieval Sourcebook:

Arabs, Franks, and the Battle of Tours, 732: Three Accounts

Primary Source #2:

"But such defect of discipline always is fatal to armies. So Abderrabman and his host attacked Tours to gain still more spoil, and they fought against it so fiercely that they stormed the city almost before the eyes of the army that came to save it; and the fury and the cruelty of the Moslems towards the inhabitants of the city were like the fury and cruelty of raging tigers /But it seemed as if they fled; and all the host was troubled. And while Abderrahman strove to check their tumult, and to lead them back to battle, the warriors of the Franks came around him, and he was pierced through with many spears, so that he died. Then all the host fled before the enemy, and many died in the flight. . . . "

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/arab-poitiers732.html

Medieval Sourcebook:

Anon Arab Chronicler: The Battle of Poitiers, 732

Primary Source #3

"he was by necessity compelled to confese what he had before willfully denied.

It happened that the two armies were in battle and there was great slaughter."

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/gregtours1.html

Medieval Sourcebook: Gregory of Tours:

Argument: According to source one, The battle of tours stopped the advancement of the Muslim religion, and left Christianity alone. If Christianity had been put in a battle, it was so weak, it would of be demolished, and there would, most likely, not longer be a Christian Religion. According tow sources two and three, this battle was also memorable because many men gave their lives to stop the advancement of the Muslims.