Editing Battle of Tours (section)

== Victory for Charles Martel ==
[[File:Charles Martel at Battle of Tours, Great Chronicles of France (27686528435).jpg|thumb|300x300px|Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours, depicted in the ''[[Grandes Chroniques de France]]'']]

===Umayyad retreat and second invasion===
The Umayyad army retreated south over the [[Pyrenees]].<ref>Scott, John C. {{Google books|5CyXBHYGaDIC|Battle of Tours}}</ref> Charles continued to expand south in subsequent years. After the death of Odo (c. 735), who had reluctantly acknowledged Charles' [[suzerainty]] in 719, Charles wished to unite Odo's duchy to himself and went there to elicit the proper [[Homage (feudal)|homage]] of the Aquitanians. But the nobility proclaimed Hunald, Odo's son, as the duke, and Charles recognized his legitimacy when the Umayyads entered [[Provence]] as part of an alliance with Duke [[Maurontus]] the next year.<ref>Fouracre, 2000, p. 96.</ref>

Hunald, who originally resisted acknowledging Charles as an overlord, soon had little choice. He acknowledged Charles as his overlord, albeit not for long, and Charles confirmed his duchy.

====Umayyad invasion (735–39)====
In 735, [[Uqba ibn al-Hajjaj]], the new governor of al-Andalus, invaded Gaul. [[Antonio Santosuosso]] and other historians detail how he advanced into France to avenge the defeat at Tours and to spread Islam. According to Santosuosso, Uqba ibn al-Hajjaj converted about 2,000 Christians he had captured over his career. In the last major attempt at an invasion of Gaul through Iberia, a sizable expedition was assembled at [[Zaragoza|Saragossa]] and entered what is now French territory in 735, crossed the River Rhone, and captured and looted [[Arles]]. From there, he struck into the heart of Provence, ending with the capture of [[Avignon]], despite strong resistance.<ref name="Santosuosso2004p126">{{Harvnb|Santosuosso|2004|p=126}}</ref>

Uqba ibn al-Hajjaj's forces remained in Septimania and part of Provence for four years, carrying raids to Lyons, Burgundy, and Piedmont. Charles Martel invaded Septimania in two campaigns in 736 and 739, but was forced back again to Frankish territory under his control. Alessandro Santosuosso strongly argues that the second (Umayyad) expedition was probably more dangerous than the first. The second expedition's failure{{Specify|reason=Loose assertion lacking in detail|date=December 2021}} put an end to any serious Muslim expedition across the [[Pyrenees]], although raids continued. Plans for further large-scale attempts were hindered by internal turmoil in the Umayyad lands which often made enemies out of their own kind.<ref name="Santosuosso2004p126" />

===Advance to Narbonne===
Despite the defeat at Tours, the Umayyads remained in control of parts of [[Septimania]] for another 27 years, though they could not expand further. The treaties reached earlier with the local population stood firm and were further consolidated in 734 when the governor of Narbonne, [[Yusuf ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri]], concluded agreements with several towns on common defense arrangements against the encroachments of Charles Martel, who had systematically brought the south to heel as he extended his domains. He conquered Umayyad fortresses and destroyed their garrisons at the [[Siege of Avignon (737)|Siege of Avignon]] and the [[Siege of Nîmes]].<ref>Riche, Pierre (1993). The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe. University of Pennsylvania Press, p. 45.</ref>

The army attempting to relieve Narbonne met Charles in open battle at the [[Battle of the River Berre]] and was destroyed. However, Charles failed in his attempt to take Narbonne at the [[Siege of Narbonne (737)|Siege of Narbonne]] in 737, when the city was jointly defended by its Muslim Arab and Berber, and its Christian [[Visigoths|Visigothic]] citizens.{{Citation needed|date=July 2022}}

===Carolingian dynasty===
{{Main|Francia|Carolingian Empire|Pepin the Short|Charlemagne}}

Reluctant to tie down his army for a siege that could last years, and believing he could not afford the losses of an all-out frontal assault such as he had used at [[Arles]], Charles was content to isolate the few remaining invaders in [[Narbonne]] and [[Septimania]]. The threat of invasion was diminished after the Umayyad defeat at Narbonne, and the unified [[Caliphate]] would collapse into [[civil war]] in 750 at the [[Battle of the Zab]].

It was left to Charles' son, [[Pepin the Short]], to force Narbonne's surrender in 759, thus bringing it into the Frankish domains. The [[Umayyad dynasty]] was expelled, driven back to Al-Andalus where [[Abd al-Rahman I]] established an emirate in Córdoba in opposition to the [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid]] caliph in [[Baghdad]].

In the northeast of Spain, the Frankish emperors established the [[Marca Hispanica]] across the [[Pyrenees]] in part of what today is [[Catalonia]], reconquering [[Girona]] in 785 and [[Barcelona]] in 801. This formed a buffer zone against Muslim lands across the [[Pyrenees]]. Historian J.M. Roberts said in 1993 of the Carolingian dynasty:

{{blockquote|text=It produced Charles Martel, the soldier who turned the Arabs back at Tours, and the supporter of [[Saint Boniface]] the Evangelizer of Germany. This is a considerable double mark to have left on the history of Europe.<ref name=Roberts>Roberts, J.M. ''The New History of the World''</ref>}}

Before the Battle of Tours, stirrups may have been unknown in the west. [[Lynn Townsend White Jr.]] argues that the adoption of the stirrup for cavalry was the direct cause of the development of feudalism in the Frankish realm by Charles Martel and his heirs.<ref>{{harvnb|White|1962|pages=1–38}}. However White denied the importance of Tours in Charles Martel's reforms, both because they began the year before the battle (White accepted 733 as the battle year) and because [[Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz y Menduiña|Claudio Sanchez-Albornoz]] "has shown that even twenty years after Martel's death the Spanish Muslims used cavalry only in small numbers" (p. 12).</ref>