Umayyad invasion of Gaul

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Umayyad invasion of Gaul
Part of early Muslim conquests and the Reconquista
1837 painting by Charles de Steuben of the Battle of Tours (732), depicting a triumphant Charles Martel (mounted) facing Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi (right).
Date 719–759 Location Southern Gaul (now France) Result Frankish victory: Permanent Umayyad retreat to Iberia Territorial changes Francia conquers Septimania
Belligerents
Umayyad Caliphate Al-Andalus	Francia Aquitaine Gascony Lombard Kingdom
Commanders and leaders
Al-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani † Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi † Yusuf ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri	Charles Martel Pepin the Short Childebrand † Odo the Great Hunald I Waiofar † Liutprand

The Umayyad invasion of Gaul occurred in two phases, in 719 and 732 AD. Although the Umayyads secured control of Septimania, their incursions beyond this into the Loire and Rhône valleys failed. By 759 Muslim forces had lost Septimania to the Christian Frankish Empire and retreated to Iberia.

The 719 Umayyad invasion of Gaul was the continuation of their conquest of the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania into the region of Septimania, the last unconquered province of the Visigothic Kingdom.^[1] After the fall of Narbonne, the capital of the Visigothic rump state, in 720, Umayyad armies composed of Arabs and Berbers turned north against Aquitaine. Their advance was stopped at the Battle of Toulouse in 721, but they sporadically raided southern Gaul as far as Avignon, Lyon and Autun.^[1]

A major Umayyad raid directed at Tours was defeated in the Battle of Tours in 732. After 732, the Franks asserted their authority in Aquitaine and Burgundy, but only in 759 did they manage to take the Mediterranean region of Septimania, due to Muslim neglect and local Gothic disaffection.^[1]

A later Muslim incursion into Gaul, in the ninth century, resulted in the establishment of Fraxinetum, a fortress in Provence that lasted for nearly a century.