Siege of Narbonne (737)

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Siege of Narbonne
Part of the Islamic invasion of Gaul
Date737
Location
Narbonne, France [1]
43°11′03″N3°0′11″E / 43.18417°N 3.00306°E / 43.18417; 3.00306
Result

Frankish Christian military success against the Umayyad Caliphate [6]
Politically inconclusive [7]

Contents

Belligerents
White flag 3 to 2.svg Umayyad Caliphate Oriflamme of Charlemagne.png Kingdom of Francia
Commanders and leaders
White flag 3 to 2.svg Yusuf al-Fihri [2]
White flag 3 to 2.svg Uqba ibn al-Hajjaj [5] 		Oriflamme of Charlemagne.png Charles Martel [12]
France location map-Regions and departements-2016.svg
Red pog.svg
Siege of Narbonne
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Location within France

The siege of Narbonne was fought in 737 between the Arab and Berber Muslim forces of Yusuf ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri, Arab Umayyad Muslim governor of Septimania on behalf of al-Andalus, and the Frankish Christian army led by the Carolingian duke Charles Martel. [13]

Background

The region of Septimania, in southern Gaul, was the last unconquered province of the Visigothic Kingdom. [14] The incursion into Septimania was motivated by the need to secure their territorial gains in Iberia. [14] Arab and Berber Muslim forces began to campaign in Septimania in 719. [14]

The region of Septimania was invaded by al-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani, wāli (governor-general) of al-Andalus, [15] in 719, and subsequently occupied by the Arab and Berber Muslim forces in 720. [2] [4] The region was renamed Arbūnah and turned into a military base for future operations by the Andalusian military commanders. [16]

By 721, al-Samh was reinforced and ready to lay siege to Toulouse, a possession that would open up the bordering region of Aquitaine to him on the same terms as Septimania. But his plans were thwarted in the disastrous battle of Toulouse in 721; the Aquitanian Christian army led by Odo the Great, Duke of Aquitaine defeated the Umayyad Muslim army and achieved a decisive and significant victory. [17] The surviving Umayyad forces drove away from Aquitaine with immense losses, in which al-Samh was so seriously wounded that he soon died at Narbonne. [9]

Arab and Berber Muslim forces, soundly based in the stronghold of Narbonne and easily resupplied by sea, struck in the 720s, conquering Carcassonne on the north-western fringes of Septimania (725) and penetrating and raiding other cities. In 731, the Berber lord of the region of Cerdagne, Uthman ibn Naissa, called Munuza by the Franks, was an ally of the Duke of Aquitaine Odo the Great after he revolted against the Emirate of Córdoba, but the rebel lord was killed by the Arab Umayyad commander Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd Allah al-Ghafiqi.

Battle

Following the successful military campaigns of the Carolingian duke Charles Martel at the battle of Poitiers in 732 and the siege of Avignon in 737, [1] he went on to attack the city of Narbonne, [18] but the local nobility of Gothic and Gallo-Roman stock had concluded different military and political arrangements with the Arab Umayyad governor due to their fear of the expanding Frankish realm. [5]

However, when the Umayyads sent reinforcements from Muslim-ruled Iberia, the Frankish Christian army intercepted a sizeable group of Arab-Berber Muslim troops led by Uqba ibn al-Hajjaj [5] along the banks of the River Berre (located in the present-day Department of Aude) and achieved a decisive and significant victory against the Umayyad invaders, [19] after which the Frankish army marched on Nîmes. [20]

In the aftermath of their resounding victory against the relieving Arab-Berber Muslim forces, [21] the Frankish Christian army pursued the fleeing Arab-Berber Muslim troops into the nearby sea-lagoons, "taking much booty and many prisoners". [22] Martel's forces then devastated the principal Umayyad settlements of Septimania, as the Frankish army marched on Agde, Béziers, Maguelonne, and Nîmes. [23]

Retreat

The Frankish Mayor of the Palace Charles Martel may have been able to take Narbonne had he been willing to commit his army and full resources for an indefinite siege, but he was not willing or able to do so. [3] Probably he found that Hunald I, Duke of Aquitaine, was threatening his line of communication with the north. Meanwhile Maurontius, Duke of Provence, from his unconquered city of Marseille, raised a revolt against him from the rear. [25] The Frankish king may have considered accomplished his primary goals by destroying the Arab Muslim armies in Septimania, and leaving the remaining Arab and Berber garrison confined within the city of Narbonne. [2]

A second Frankish expedition was led later in 739 to expel the inconvenient count Maurontius, who couldn't expect this time Andalusian relief, from Marseille and regain control of Provence. [1] According to Paul the Deacon's historical treatise Historia Langobardorum (787–796), the Arabs retreated when they learned that Martel had formed an alliance with the Lombards. [22]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Riché, Pierre (1993). "The Rise of the Carolingians". The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe. Translated by Allen, Michael Idomir. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press in collaboration with the French Ministry of Culture. pp. 45–46. ISBN   9780812213423.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Deanesly, Margaret (2019). "The Later Merovingians". A History of Early Medieval Europe: From 476–911. Routledge Library Editions: The Medieval World (1st ed.). London and New York City: Routledge. pp. 244–245. ISBN   9780367184582.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Verbruggen, J. F. (2005). "The Role of the Cavalry in Medieval Warfare". In Rogers, Clifford J.; Bachrach, Bernard S. (eds.). The Journal of Medieval Military History: Volume III. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press. pp. 55–56. doi:10.7722/j.ctt81qwd.6. ISBN   9781846154058. After 734 Charles Martel advanced against the nobles in Burgundy and placed the region of Marseilles under the authority of his counts. [...] Charles marched afterwards to Narbonne and besieged it. Then an army of Saracens came to relieve Narbonne. Charles marched against them and defeated them along the banks of the Berre. Charles still devastated the area around Nîmes, Agde, and Béziers, but an uprising in Saxony caused him to make an expedition to hold onto that land. [...] Charles Martel had subjected the whole of Gallia, again by battles, and had to besiege Avignon and Narbonne there. He did not have the time to conquer Septimania.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Collins, Roger (1998). "Italy and Spain, 773–801". Charlemagne. Buffalo, London, and Toronto: Palgrave Macmillan/University of Toronto Press. pp. 65–66. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-26924-2_4. ISBN   978-1-349-26924-2.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Collins, Roger (1995). "Conquerors Divided". The Arab Conquest of Spain: 710–797. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 92. ISBN   978-0-631-19405-7. It would be quite anachronistic that the Provençal aristocracy would or those whose primary interests lay in the south would welcome the extension into their region of the authority of the eastern Frankish Mayors of the Palace, or that a sense of Christian solidarity should mean more than the dictates of realpolitik . For that matter it was not with any sense of obligation to free formerly Christian lands from Islamic rule that Charles Martel launched a raid into western Provence in 737. He took Avignon, but clearly did not retain it, and advanced to besiege Narbonne, the centre of Arab control in the March. The Frankish chronicles record his victory over a relieving force sent by the governor ʿUqba, but their uniform silence makes it clear that despite this he failed to take the city itself.
  6. ↑ [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
  7. ↑ [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
  8. ↑ [1] [3] [5]
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Baker, Patrick S. (2013). "The Battle of the River Berre". Medieval Warfare. 3 (2). Karwansaray BV: 44–48. ISSN   2211-5129. JSTOR   48578218. After three months, Eudo the Great, Duke of Aquitaine, lifted the siege. Eudo's army decimated the Moors, killed As-Sahm and drove the survivors from Aquitaine.
  10. ↑ [1] [3] [9]
  11. ↑ [1] [3] [5]
  12. ↑ [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
  13. ↑ [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
  14. 1 2 3 Watson, William E. (2003). "Three Legacies: Charles Martel, the Crusades, and Napoleon". Tricolor and Crescent: France and the Islamic World. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publications. pp. 1–11. ISBN   9780275974701. OCLC   50322732.
  15. ↑ Christys, Ann (2002). Christians in Al-Andalus (711-1000). London: Routledge, ISBN   0-7007-1564-9, p. 28.
  16. ↑ Holt, P. M., Lambton, Ann K. S. and Lewis, Bernard (1977). The Cambridge History of Islam. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN   0-521-29135-6, p. 95.
  17. ↑ [1] [9]
  18. ↑ [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
  19. ↑ [1] [3] [5] [9]
  20. ↑ [1] [3] [5]
  21. ↑ [1] [3] [5] [9]
  22. 1 2 Fouracre, Paul (2000). The Age of Charles Martel. Harlow: Longman. p. 97. ISBN   0-582-06476-7.
  23. ↑ [1] [3] [5]
  24. ↑ Lewis, Archibald R. (1965). The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718–1050. Austin: University of Texas Press. p. 23. Retrieved June 15, 2012.
  25. ↑ [1] [24]

43°11′03″N3°00′11″E / 43.184277°N 3.003078°E / 43.184277; 3.003078

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