The Battle of the River Garonne, also known as the Battle of Bordeaux,Matthew Bennett ''The Hutchinson Dictionary of Ancient & Medieval Warfare'' 1579581161 1998 p319 "In 732 a large army of (70,000-80,000) men led by Abd ar-Rahman defeated the Aquitainians under Duke Eudo at the Battle of Bordeaux" was fought in 732 between an

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...

army led by Abdul Rahman Al-Ghafiqi, governor of

Al-Andalus Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the M ...

, and Aquitanian forces led by Duke

Odo of Aquitaine Odo the Great (also called ''Eudes'' or ''Eudo'') (died 735–740), was the Duke of Aquitaine by 700. His territory included Vasconia in the south-west of Gaul and the Duchy of Aquitaine (at that point located north-east of the river Garonne), a ...

Background

At the beginning of his governorship of

in 730 Abdul Rahman was opposed by a local Berber commander called Uthman ibn Naissa (Othman Ibn Abi Nes'ah Manuza; Othman-ben-Abou-Nessa; aka Munuza) whose stronghold was the town of Cerritania ( Cerdanya, possibly the fortress of Llívia) in the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...

. Munuza, hearing of the oppression of Berbers in North Africa, had made a truce with Odo, and detach from Cordovan central rule. Some accounts claim that Odo promised his daughter Lampade to Munuza in a marriage alliance.Ellis, 1913. Odo was busy trying to fend off Charles Martel's thrust on the northern fringes of Aquitaine, so preventing the duke from assisting his southern ally. Munuza's death immediately preceded Abdul Rahman's expedition, which crossed the Pyrenees at their west end, through Navarre and rampaged its way through Gascony with great speed, first ravaging Auch, and moving on all the way to

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...

. The city was captured by storm, the commander of the garrison being killed in the battle.

Battle

Following the victory at Bordeaux, Abdul Rahman engaged Odo's forces on the

Garonne The Garonne (, also , ; Occitan, Catalan, Basque, and es, Garona, ; la, Garumna or ) is a river of southwest France and northern Spain. It flows from the central Spanish Pyrenees to the Gironde estuary at the French port of Bordeaux – ...

, or possibly at the

Dordogne Dordogne ( , or ; ; oc, Dordonha ) is a large rural department in Southwestern France, with its prefecture in Périgueux. Located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region roughly half-way between the Loire Valley and the Pyrenees, it is name ...

, in his march northward. Abdul Rahman's army numbered 70,000 to 80,000 men who defeated Odo, according to Benett. However, such huge figures on the tradition of medieval chronicles have been questioned, since the expedition was an unusually large raid against the Aquitanian duke Odo (Lewis, A.R.; Collins, R.). The defeat was comprehensive and most of Odo's forces were wiped out or ran in disarray, after which the Umayyads looted the rich monasteries of northern Aquitaine before resuming their march towards Tours, a town said to be holding abundant wealth and treasures.

Aftermath

This plundering gave Odo enough time to re-organise his Aquitanian troops and according to chronicles notified Charles of the impending danger to the Frankish kingdom. The Frankish leader took notice, accepted Odo's formal submission and Odo joined Charles's army to form its left wing. The Umayyad armies were finally defeated by forces (size of the two armies is debated by modern historians) led by

Charles Martel Charles Martel ( – 22 October 741) was a Frankish political and military leader who, as Duke and Prince of the Franks and Mayor of the Palace, was the de facto ruler of Francia from 718 until his death. He was a son of the Frankish statesm ...

at the

Battle of Tours The Battle of Tours, also called the Battle of Poitiers and, by Arab sources, the Battle of tiles of Martyrs ( ar, معركة بلاط الشهداء, Maʿrakat Balāṭ ash-Shuhadā'), was fought on 10 October 732, and was an important battle ...

that took place somewhere between Poitiers and Tours on 10 October, 732 (or 733 according to latest research). The far reaching political consequences of this defeat were Charles Martel's intervention in Aquitaine, the temporary end of Basque-Aquitanian sovereignty and Odo's formal submission to Charles, confirmed after the Battle of Tours-Poitiers.

Notes

References

*Blankinship, Khalid Yahya (1994). ''The End of the Jihad State: The Reign of Hisham Ibn 'Abd Al-Malik and the Collapse of the Umayyads''. SUNY Press. *Coppée, Henry (2002) 881 ''History of the Conquest of Spain by the Arab Moors''. Gorgias Press LLC. *Ellis, Edward Sylvester (1913). ''The Story of the Greatest Nations: A Comprehensive History, Extending from the Earliest Times to the Present, Founded on the Most Modern Authorities Including A Complete Chronology of the World and a Pronouncing Vocabulary Of Each Nation''. New York, NY: F.R. Niglutsch. {{coord, 45, 2, 29, N, 0, 36, 24, W, display=title River Garonne River Garonne 732 River Garonne 732 Islam in France

8th century in Al-Andalus 732 8th century in Francia 730s in the Umayyad Caliphate