Editing Charles Martel (section)

== Aquitaine and the Battle of Tours in 732 ==
{{Main|Battle of Tours}}
In 731, after defeating the Saxons, Charles turned his attention to the rival southern realm of Aquitaine, and crossed the Loire, breaking the treaty with Duke Odo. The Franks ransacked Aquitaine twice, and captured [[Bourges]], although Odo retook it. The ''Continuations of Fredegar'' allege that Odo called on assistance from the recently established emirate of al-Andalus, but there had been Arab raids into Aquitaine from the 720s onwards. Indeed, the anonymous [[Chronicle of 754]] records a victory for Odo in 721 at the [[Battle of Toulouse (721)|Battle of Toulouse]], while the ''[[Liber Pontificalis]]'' records that Odo had killed 375,000 Saracens.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Age of Charles Martel|last=Fouracre|first=Paul|date=2000|publisher=Longman|isbn=0582064759|location=Harlow, England|pages=84–5|oclc=43634337}}</ref> It is more likely that this invasion or raid took place in revenge for Odo's support for a rebel Berber leader named [[Munuza|Munnuza]].

Whatever the precise circumstances were, it is clear that an army under the leadership of [[Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd Allah al-Ghafiqi|Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi]] headed north, and after some minor engagements marched on the wealthy city of Tours. According to British medieval historian [[Paul Fouracre]], "Their campaign should perhaps be interpreted as a long-distance raid rather than the beginning of a war".<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Age of Charles Martel|last=Fouracre|first=Paul|date=2000|publisher=Longman|isbn=0582064759|location=Harlow, England|pages=88|oclc=43634337}}</ref> They were, however, defeated by the army of Charles at the [[Battle of Tours]] (known in France as the Battle of Poitiers), at a location between the French cities of [[Tours]] and [[Poitiers]], in a victory described by the ''Continuations of Fredegar''. According to the historian [[Bernard Bachrach]], the Arab army, mostly mounted, failed to break through the Frankish infantry.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bachrach |first=Bernard S. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/43095805 |title=Early Carolingian warfare : prelude to empire |date=2001 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=0-8122-3533-9 |location=Philadelphia |pages=170–178 |oclc=43095805}}</ref> News of this battle spread, and may be recorded in Bede's [[Ecclesiastical History of the English People|''Ecclesiastical History'']] (Book V, ch. 23). However, it is not given prominence in Arabic sources from the period.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Christys|first=Ann|title=Sons of Ishmael, Turn Back!|year=2019|chapter-url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/9781316941072%23CN-bp-20/type/book_part|series=East and West in the Early Middle Ages|pages=318–328|editor-last=Esders|editor-first=Stefan|edition=1|publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/9781316941072.021|isbn=9781316941072|access-date=2019-05-07|editor2-last=Fox|editor2-first=Yaniv|editor3-last=Hen|editor3-first=Yitzhak|editor4-last=Sarti|editor4-first=Laury|chapter='Sons of Ishmael, Turn Back!'|s2cid=166413345 }}</ref>

Despite his victory, Charles did not gain full control of Aquitaine, and Odo remained duke until 735.