Eight more decades of presence (890 - 973)
The Massif des Maures: The return of the Moors
The years 880 and 890 mark a turning point in the Muslim strategy. Muslims came from Alicante and settled near Saint-Tropez in the Freinet area (today's cantons of Grimaud and Saint-Tropez) and from there spread throughout the Alps. This "stronghold" has never been found; it is not proven to this day that this "contingent" was permanent: it may have been a question of temporary, one-off operations and occupations.
Muslims may have given name to the neighboring village of Ramatuelle; Évariste Lévi-Provençal, who is not a toponymist, derives the toponym Ramatuelle from the Arabic Rahmat-ûllah (or Rahmatu-Allah) "divine mercy", [3] but not to the Massif des Maures, nor to the Maurienne, where part of the Muslim community settled in the Arc valley, [4] [5] "The name Maurienne does not find its origin in the word "Maure", relating to the incursions of the tenth century Saracens. Mentioned by Gregory of Tours in the 6th century, it is rather a derivative of the Latin Malus Rivus, bad stream, which evolved into mau riou/rien. Indeed, the river Arc is known for its floods. [6] "
One of the most deadly raids took place in Upper Provence and in the Apt region in 896. For almost a century, they lived in the country, looting and ransoming it.
In 923, the Muslims, who had landed in the Massif des Maures, were unable to take Marseille, but they did devastate the Abbey of St Victor. The bishop of Marseille left the city to take refuge in Arles. [7] Several alliances and misalliances with local princes followed, until the final break with the viscounts of Marseille.
In 929, the Emirate of Cordoba became the Caliphate of Cordoba.
During the nights of the 21st to the 22nd of August 973, the Moors took Maïeul, the abbot of Cluny, prisoner at the Châtelard bridge, near Orsières in Valais. The Moors thought that by kidnapping him, they could obtain an important ransom. Since 921, the Muslim bands, coming from Provence, had taken control of many important passages in the western Alps (other sourcesclaim that the Franks had installed them there to block the Lombards) including the Mont-Joux pass that the abbot had just crossed before being recognized and taken. The monks of Provence succeeded in collecting the requested ransom. Keeping their word, the Saracens freed their hostage.
In September, William and Rotbold, sons of Count Boson II, rallied all the nobility of Provence, but also of Viennois and Nice. At the head of the Provençal host reinforced by the troops of Ardouin, Count of Turin, they tracked down the Moors whom they crushed during the Battle of Tourtour in 973, then drove them out of their fortified bases in Provence. [8] The precise site of the battle remains unknown.
Birth of the aristocracy of Provence
This military campaign against the Muslims, conducted without Conrad's troops, in fact masked a bringing to heel of Provence, of the local aristocracy and of the urban and peasant communities which had always refused feudal mutation and countal power until then. It allowed William to obtain the suzerainty of Provence and with the royal consent, to control the tax system of Provence.
William distributed the reconquered lands to his vassals, such as the territory of Hyères which he attributed to the lords of Fos. He arbitrated disputes and thus created the feudal system of Provence. [9] With Isarn, bishop of Grenoble, he undertook the mission to repopulate the Dauphiné and authorized an Italian count named Ugo Blavia to settle near Fréjus at the beginning of the 970s in order to cultivate the land.
Various Muslim raids still reached the French coast, notably the islands of Lérins in 1003, 1047, 1107 and 1197. [10] The last Muslim incursion into Corsica (by the Emir Abu Hosein Mogehid) took place in 1014. The Caliphate of Cordoba broke up in 1031 into several small emirates, the taifas, which were completed by the Reconquista in 1492.
