Battle of Tour In the year 711, forces of the Muslim world crossed the straights of Gibraltar which separated Africa from Europe, and invaded the Visigothic kingdom which resided in the Iberian Peninsula, modern day Spain. In less than a decade the Muslim forces conquered the peninsula and were soon sending raiders across the Pyrenees into France. After using a rebellion in northern Spain as a pretext, Adb-er Rahman, then invaded the Frankish realm. In response, the Frankish leader, Charles, led a force of Franks to stop the Muslims and met the invaders near the city of Poitiers. In the battle that followed, Charles defeated the Muslim forces, killed their leader Adb-er Rahman, and sent the Muslims back across the Pyrenees mountains into Spain. As a result of the battle, Charles earned the name "Martel," meaning "hammer," stopped the Muslim conquest of Europe and saved the Christian world.

The Battle of Tour actually began when the Duke of Aquitaine, Odo, a semi-independent ruler in southern France allied, in 730, with a Muslim leader who ruled an area in northern Spain. But when that local Muslim ruler, Uthman ibn Naissa, rebelled against Adb-er Rahman, the overlord of all Muslim Spain, Adb-er Rahman punished Uthman by invading his territory. He then, in 732, continued his attack against the Duke of Aquitaine who immediately called on Charles for aid. Charles, leader of the Franks, answered...

The spot he chose was near the city of Tours along the river Loire where he formed up his men in large defensive blocks of men, called phalanxes, and waited for the Muslims to attack. Adb-er Rahman, leader of a force estimated at somewhere between 60,000 and 400,000 men, comprised of a large percentage of heavy cavalry equipped with the newly introduced stirrups, assembled his army and waited. Although there are several chronicles on both the Christian and Muslim sides which describe the battle, the exact numbers involved are very difficult to ascertain. Therefore, most historians assume that the real numbers involved were closer to the lower range. For six days "the two great hosts of the two languages and the two creeds were set in array against each other." (Creasy, 2003, Chapter 7)
The two armies stood for six days while neither wanted to attack. The Franks, with their large numbers of infantry, needed to fight on the defensive, while the Muslims, with their large numbers of cavalry "wanted the Franks to come out into the open." ("Battle of Tours") However, winter was approaching and Adb-er Rahman's supply lines were stretched, and his army was already weighted down with plunder, so he decided he could not wait any…