the web of their treason; and for this purpose a messenger was sent by
them to Tarik, informing him how Roderic, who had been a mere menial and
servant to their father, had, after his death, usurped the throne; that
the princes had by no means relinquished their rights, and that they
implored protection and security for themselves. They offered to desert,
and pass over to Tarik with the troops under their command, on condition
that the Arab general would, after subduing the whole of Andalusia,
secure to them all their father's possessions, amounting to three
thousand valuable and chosen farms, the same that received after this
the name of _Safaya-l-moluk_, "the royal portion." This offer Tarik
accepted; and, having agreed to the conditions, on the next day the sons
of Wittiza deserted the ranks of the Gothic army in the midst of battle,
and passed over to Tarik, this being, no doubt, one of the principal
causes of the conquest.
Roderic arrived on the banks of the Guadalete with a formidable army,
which most historians compute at one hundred thousand cavalry; although
Ibnu Khaldun makes it amount to forty thousand men only. Roderic brought
all his treasures and military stores in carts: he himself came in a
litter placed between two mules, having over his head an awning richly
set with pearls, rubies, and emeralds. On the approach of this
formidable host the Moslems did not lose courage, but prepared to meet
their adversary. Tarik assembled his men, comforted them by his words,
and after rendering the due praises to the Almighty God, and returning
thanks for what had already been accomplished, proceeded to implore his
mighty help for the future. He then encouraged the Moslems, and kindled
their enthusiasm with the following address:
"Whither can you fly?--the enemy is in your front, the sea at your back.
By Allah! there is no salvation for you but in your courage and
perseverance. Consider your situation: here you are on this island, like
so many orphans cast upon the world; you will soon be met by a powerful
enemy, surrounding you on all sides like the infuriated billows of a
tempestuous sea, and sending against you his countless warriors, drowned
in steel, and provided with every store and description of arms. What
can you oppose to them? You have no other weapons than your swords, no
provisions but those that you may snatch from the hands of your enemies;
you must therefore attack them immediately, or otherwise your wants will
increase; the gales of victory may no longer blow in your favor, and
perchance the fear that lurks in the hearts of your enemies may be
changed into indomitable courage.
"Banish all fear from your hearts, trust that victory shall be ours, and
that the barbarian king will not be able to withstand the shock of our
arms. Here he comes to make us the master of his cities and castles, and
to deliver into our hands his countless treasures; and if you only seize
the opportunity now presented, it may perhaps be the means of your
becoming the owners of them, besides saving yourselves from certain
death. Do not think that I impose upon you a task from which I shrink
myself, or that I try to conceal from you the dangers attending this our
expedition. No; you have certainly a great deal to encounter, but know
that if you only suffer for a while, you will reap in the end an
abundant harvest of pleasures and enjoyments. And do not imagine that
while I speak to you I mean not to act as I speak; for as my interest in
this affair is greater, so will my behavior on this occasion surpass
yours. You must have heard numerous accounts of this island, you must
know how the Grecian maidens, as handsome as houris, their necks
glittering with innumerable pearls and jewels, their bodies clothed with
tunics of costly silks, sprinkled with gold, are waiting your arrival,
reclining on soft couches in the sumptuous palaces of crowned lords and
princes.
"You know well that the caliph Abdu-l-Malek Ibnu-l-walid has chosen you,
like so many heroes, from among the brave; you know that the great lords
of this island are willing to make you their sons and brethren by
marriage, if you only rush on like so many brave men to the fight, and
behave like true champions and valiant knights; you know that the
recompenses of God await you if you are prepared to uphold his words,
and proclaim his religion in this island; and, lastly, that all the
spoil shall be yours, and of such Moslems as may be with you.
"Bear in mind that God Almighty will select, according to this promise,
those that distinguish themselves most among you, and grant them due
reward, both in this world and in the future; and know likewise that I
shall be the first to set you the example, and to put in practice what I
recommend you to do; for it is my intention, on the meeting of the two
hosts, to attack the Christian tyrant Roderic, and kill him with my own
hand, if God be pleased. When you see me bearing against him, charge
along with me; if I kill him, the victory is ours; if I am killed before
I reach him, do not trouble yourselves about me, but fight as if I were
still alive and among you, and follow up my purpose; for the moment they
see their King fall, these barbarians are sure to disperse. If, however,
I should be killed, after inflicting death upon their King, appoint a
man from among you who unites both courage and experience and may
command you in this emergency and follow up the success. If you attend
to my instructions, we are sure of the victory."
When Tarik had thus addressed his soldiers and exhorted them to fight
with courage and to face the dangers of war with a stout heart--when he
had thus recommended them to make a simultaneous attack upon Roderic's
men, and promised them abundant reward if they routed their
enemies--their countenances were suddenly expanded with joy their hopes
were strengthened, the gales of victory began to blow on their side, and
they all unanimously answered him: "We are ready to follow thee, O
Tarik! We shall all, to one man, stand by thee and fight for thee; nor
could we avoid it were we otherwise disposed--victory is our only hope
of salvation."
After this Tarik mounted his horse, and his men did the same; and they
all passed that night in constant watch for fear of the enemy. On the
following morning, when day dawned, both armies prepared for battle;
each general formed his cavalry and his infantry, and, the signal being
given, the armies met with a shock, similar to that of two mountains
dashing against each other.
King Roderic came, borne on a throne, and having over his head an awning
of variegated silk to guard him from the rays of the sun, surrounded by
warriors, cased in bright steel, with fluttering pennons and a profusion
of banners and standards.
Tarik's men were differently arrayed; their breasts were covered with
mail armor; they wore white turbans on their heads, the Arabian bow
slung across their backs, their swords suspended in their girdles, and
their long spears firmly grasped in their hands.
They say that when the two armies were advancing upon each other, and
the eyes of Roderic fell upon the men in the first ranks, he was
horror-stricken, and was heard to exclaim: "By the faith of the Messiah!
These are the very men I saw painted on the scroll found in the mansion
of science at Toledo;" and from that moment fear entered his heart; and
when Tarik perceived Roderic, he said to his followers, "This is the
King of the Christians," and he charged with his men, the warriors who
surrounded Roderic being on all sides scattered and dispersed; seeing
which, Tarik plunged into the ranks of the enemy until he reached the
King, and wounded him with his sword on the head and killed him on his
throne; and when Rodericks men saw their King fall, and his bodyguard
dispersed, the rout became general, and victory remained with the
Moslems.
The rout of the Christians was complete, for instead of rallying on one
spot, they fled in all directions, and, their panic being communicated
to their countrymen, cities opened their gates, and castles surrendered
without resistance.
The preceding account we have borrowed from a writer of great note, but
we deem it necessary to warn the readers that the assertion that Roderic
died by the hands of Tarik has been contradicted by several historians,
since his body, although diligently sought on the field of battle, could
nowhere be found.
We shall proceed to recount in detail that memorable battle, when
Almighty God was pleased to put King Roderic's army to flight and grant
the Moslems a most complete victory. Several authors who have described
at large this famous engagement state that Tarik encamped near Roderic,
toward the middle of the month of Ramadan of the year 92 (September,
A.D. 711), and although there is some difference as to the dates, all
agree that the battle was fought on the banks of the Guadalete. They say
also that while both armies were encamped in front of each other, the
barbarian King, wishing to ascertain the exact amount of Tarik's forces,
sent one of his men, whose valor and strength he knew, and in whose
fidelity he placed unbounded confidence, with instructions to penetrate
into Tarik's camp, and bring him an account of their number, arms,
accoutrements, and vessels.
The Christian proceeded to execute his commission, and reached a small
elevation, whence he had a commanding view of the whole camp. However,
he had not remained long in his place of observation before he was
discovered by some Moslems, who pursued him; but the Christian fled
before them, and escaped through the swiftness of his horse.
Arrived at the Christian camp, he addressed Roderic in the following
words: "These people, O King! are the same that thou sawest painted on
the scroll of the enchanted palace. Beware of them! for the greatest
part of them have bound themselves by oath to reach thee or die in the
attempt; they have set fire to their vessels, to destroy their last hope
of escape; they are encamped along the sea-shore, determined to die or
to vanquish, for they know well that there is not in this country a
place whither they can fly." On hearing this account, King Roderic was
much disheartened, and he trembled with fear. However, the two armies
engaged near the lake or gulf; they fought resolutely on both sides till
the right and left wings of Roderic's army, under the command of the
sons of Wittiza, gave way. The centre, in which Roderic was, still held
firm for a while, and made the fate of the battle uncertain for some
time; they fled at last, and Roderic before them. From that moment the
rout became general, and the Moslems followed with ardor the pursuit of
the scattered bands, inflicting death wherever they went.
Roderic disappeared in the midst of the battle, and no certain
intelligence was afterward received of him. It is true that some Moslems
found his favorite steed, a milk-white horse, bearing a saddle of gold,
sparkling with rubies, plunged in the mud of the river, as also one of
his sandals, adorned with rubies and emeralds, but the other was never
found; nor was Roderic, although diligently searched for, ever
discovered either dead or alive, a circumstance which led the Moslems to
believe that he perished in the stream, the weight of his armor
preventing him from struggling against the current, and he was drowned;
but God only knows what became of him.
According to Ar-razi, the contest began on Sunday, two days before the
end of Ramadan, and continued till Sunday, the 5th of Shawal; namely,
eight whole days; at the end of which God Almighty was pleased to put
the idolaters to flight, and grant the victory to the Moslems; and he
adds that so great was the number of the Goths who perished in the
battle that for a long time after the victory the bones of the slain
were to be seen covering the field of action.
They say also that the spoil found by the Moslems in the camp of the
Christians surpassed all computation, for the princes and great men of
the Goths who had fallen were distinguished by the rings of gold they
wore on their fingers, those of an inferior class by similar ornaments
of silver, while those of the slaves were made of brass. Tarik collected
all the spoil and divided it into five shares or portions, when, after
deducting one-fifth, he distributed the rest among nine thousand
Moslems, besides the slaves and followers.
When the people on the other side of the straits heard of this success
of Tarik, and of the plentiful spoils he had acquired, they flocked to
him from all quarters, and crossed the sea on every vessel or bark they
could lay hold of. Tank's army being so considerably reinforced, the
Christians were obliged to shut themselves up in their castles and
fortresses, and, quitting the flat country, betake themselves to their
mountains.
BATTLE OF TOURS
A.D. 732
SIR EDWARD SHEPHERD CREASY
When the Saracens had completed the conquest of Spain and all that
country was wholly under their dominion, they determined to extend
their authority over the neighboring country of the Franks.
Having crossed the Pyrenees they met with but slight opposition and
soon succeeded in making themselves masters of Southern France,
thereby furthering and encouraging their boastful ambition to
conquer and Islamize the whole world.
Already had Africa, Asia Minor, and Eastern Europe acknowledged
their rule, and the final subjugation of all Christendom by the
Mahometan sword seemed certain and imminent.
Their long and uninterrupted career of success had fed their
arrogance and filled them with a proud confidence in the
invincibility of their arms, and their farther advance into the
heart of Europe seemed, in the eyes of Christian and pagan alike,
to be the irresistible march of destiny.
The Saracen host had not penetrated far into the Frankish territory
when they encountered "a lion in the path," in the person of
Charles (or Karl), the great palace-mayor--so called, but who was
in reality the _defacto_ sovereign of the Frankish kingdoms.
To Charles, famous for his military skill and prestige, came the
recently defeated Eudes, the count of Aquitaine, and the remnant of
his force, craving his protection and leadership against the
advancing Saracen horde.
Charles' signal victory over the Saracen invaders proved to be the
turning-point in the Moslem career of conquest. The question
whether the _Koran_ or the Bible, the Crescent or the Cross,
Mahomet or Christ, should rule Europe and the western world was
decided forever upon the bloody field of Tours.
The broad tract of champaign country which intervenes between the cities
of Poitiers and Tours is principally composed of a succession of rich
pasture lands, which are traversed and fertilized by the Cher, the
Creuse, the Vienne, the Claine, the Indre, and other tributaries of the
river Loire. Here and there the ground swells into picturesque
eminences, and occasionally a belt of forest land, a brown heath, or a
clustering series of vineyards breaks the monotony of the widespread
meadows; but the general character of the land is that of a grassy
plain, and it seems naturally adapted for the evolutions of numerous
armies, especially of those vast bodies of cavalry which principally
decided the fate of nations during the centuries that followed the
downfall of Rome and preceded the consolidation of the modern European
powers.
This region has been signalized by more than one memorable conflict; but
it is principally interesting to the historian by having been the scene
of the great victory won by Charles Martel over the Saracens, A.D. 732,
which gave a decisive check to the career of Arab conquest in Western
Europe, rescued Christendom from Islam, preserved the relics of ancient
and the germs of modern civilization, and reëstablished the old
superiority of the Indo-European over the Semitic family of mankind.
Sismondi and Michelet have underrated the enduring interest of this
great Appeal of Battle between the champions of the Crescent and the
Cross. But, if French writers have slighted the exploits of their
national hero, the Saracenic trophies of Charles Martel have had full
justice done to them by English and German historians. Gibbon devotes
several pages of his great work[69] to the narrative of the battle of
Tours, and to the consideration of the consequences which probably would
have resulted if Abderrahman's enterprise had not been crushed by the
Frankish chief. Schlegel speaks of this "mighty victory" in terms of
fervent gratitude, and tells how "the arm of Charles Martel saved and
delivered the Christian nations of the West from the deadly grasp of
all-destroying Islam"; and Ranke points out, as "one of the most
important epochs in the history of the world, the commencement of the
eighth century, when on the one side Mahometanism threatened to
overspread Italy and Gaul, and on the other the ancient idolatry of
Saxony and Friesland once more forced its way across the Rhine. In this
peril of Christian institutions, a youthful prince of Germanic race,
Charles (or Karl) Martel, arose as their champion, maintained them with
all the energy which the necessity for self-defence calls forth, and
finally extended them into new regions."
Arnold ranks the victory of Charles Martel even higher than the victory
of Arminius, "among those signal deliverances which have affected for
centuries the happiness of mankind." In fact, the more we test its
importance, the higher we shall be led to estimate it; and, though all
authentic details which we possess of its circumstances and its heroes
are but meagre, we can trace enough of its general character to make us
watch with deep interest this encounter between the rival conquerors of
the decaying Roman Empire. That old classic world, the history of which
occupies so large a portion of our early studies, lay, in the eighth
century of our era, utterly exanimate and overthrown. On the north the
German, on the south the Arab, was rending away its provinces. At last
the spoilers encountered one another, each striving for the full mastery
of the prey. Their conflict brought back upon the memory of Gibbon the
old Homeric simile, where the strife of Hector and Patroclus over the
dead body of Cebriones is compared to the combat of two lions, that in
their hate and hunger fight together on the mountain tops over the
carcass of a slaughtered stag; and the reluctant yielding of the Saracen
power to the superior might of the northern warriors might not inaptly
recall those other lines of the same book of the _Iliad_, where the
downfall of Patroclus beneath Hector is likened to the forced yielding
of the panting and exhausted wild boar, that had long and furiously
fought with a superior beast of prey for the possession of the scanty
fountain among the rocks at which each burned to drink.
Although three centuries had passed away since the Germanic conquerors
of Rome had crossed the Rhine, never to repass that frontier stream, no
settled system of institutions or government, no amalgamation of the
various races into one people, no uniformity of language or habits had
been established in the country at the time when Charles Martel was
called to repel the menacing tide of Saracenic invasion from the south.
Gaul was not yet France. In that, as in other provinces of the Roman
Empire of the West, the dominion of the Cæsars had been shattered as
early as the fifth century, and barbaric kingdoms and principalities had
promptly arisen on the ruins of the Roman power. But few of these had
any permanency, and none of them consolidated the rest, or any
considerable number of the rest, into one coherent and organized civil
and political society.
The great bulk of the population still consisted of the conquered
provincials, that is to say, of Romanized Celts, of a Gallic race which
had long been under the dominion of the Cæsars, and had acquired,
together with no slight infusion of Roman blood, the language, the
literature, the laws, and the civilization of Latium. Among these, and
dominant over them, roved or dwelt the German victors; some retaining
nearly all the rude independence of their primitive national character,
others softened and disciplined by the aspect and contact of the manners
and institutions of civilized life; for it is to be borne in mind that
the Roman Empire in the West was not crushed by any sudden avalanche of
barbaric invasion. The German conquerors came across the Rhine, not in
enormous hosts, but in bands of a few thousand warriors at a time. The
conquest of a province was the result of an infinite series of partial
local invasions, carried on by little armies of this description. The
victorious warriors either retired with their booty or fixed themselves
in the invaded district, taking care to keep sufficiently concentrated
for military purposes, and ever ready for some fresh foray, either
against a rival Teutonic band or some hitherto unassailed city of the
provincials.
Gradually, however, the conquerors acquired a desire for permanent
landed possessions. They lost somewhat of the restless thirst for
novelty and adventure which had first made them throng beneath the
banner of the boldest captains of their tribe, and leave their native
forests for a roving military life on the left bank of the Rhine. They
were converted to the Christian faith, and gave up with their old creed
much of the coarse ferocity which must have been fostered in the spirits
of the ancient warriors of the North by a mythology which promised, as
the reward of the brave on earth, an eternal cycle of fighting and
drunkenness in heaven.
But, although their conversion and other civilizing influences operated
powerfully upon the Germans in Gaul, and although the Franks--who were
originally a confederation of the Teutonic tribes that dwelt between the
Rhine, the Maine, and the Weser--established a decisive superiority over
the other conquerors of the province, as well as over the conquered
provincials, the country long remained a chaos of uncombined and
shifting elements. The early princes of the Merovingian dynasty were
generally occupied in wars against other princes of their house,
occasioned by the frequent subdivisions of the Frank monarchy; and the
ablest and best of them had found all their energies tasked to the
utmost to defend the barrier of the Rhine against the pagan Germans who
strove to pass that river and gather their share of the spoils of the
Empire.
The conquests which the Saracens effected over the southern and eastern
provinces of Rome were far more rapid than those achieved by the Germans
in the North, and the new organizations of society which the Moslems
introduced were summarily and uniformly enforced. Exactly a century
passed between the death of Mahomet and the date of the battle of Tours.
During that century the followers of the prophet had torn away half the
Roman Empire; and besides their conquests over Persia, the Saracens had
overrun Syria, Egypt, Africa, and Spain, in an unchecked and apparently
irresistible career of victory. Nor, at the commencement of the eighth
century of our era, was the Mahometan world divided against itself, as
it subsequently became. All these vast regions obeyed the Caliph;
throughout them all, from the Pyrenees to the Oxus, the name of Mahomet
was invoked in prayer and the _Koran_ revered as the book of the law.
It was under one of their ablest and most renowned commanders, with a
veteran army, and with every apparent advantage of time, place, and
circumstance, that the Arabs made their great effort at the conquest of
Europe north of the Pyrenees. The victorious Moslem soldiery in Spain,
"A countless multitude,
Syrian, Moor, Saracen, Greek renegade,
Persian, and Copt, and Tartar, in one bond
Of erring faith conjoined--strong in the youth
And heat of zeal--a dreadful brotherhood,"
were eager for the plunder of more Christian cities and shrines, and
full of fanatic confidence in the invincibility of their arms.
"Nor were the chiefs
Of victory less assured, by long success
Elate, and proud of that o'erwhelming strength
Which, surely they believed, as it had rolled
Thus far unchecked, would roll victorious on,
Till, like the Orient, the subjected West
Should bow in reverence at Mahomet's name;
And pilgrims from remotest arctic shores
Tread with religious feet the burning sands
Of Araby and Mecca's stony soil."
--_Southey's Roderick_,