Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi
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Abu Said Abdul Rahman ibn Abdulhlah ibn Bishr ibn Al Sarem Al 'Aki Al Ghafiqi (? – 732), variously known as Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, Abd er Rahman, Abdderrahman, Abderame, and Abd el-Rahman (Arabic: عبد الرحمن الغافقي), led the Andalusian Muslims into battle against the forces of Charles Martel in the Battle of Tours on October 10, 732 A.D.
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[edit] Early Years
From the Yemeni tribe of Ghafiq, he relocated to Ifriqiya (now Tunisia), then to the Maghrib (now Morocco), where he became acquainted with Musa Ibn Nusair and his son Abdul Aziz, the governors of Al-Andalus.
[edit] Governor of Al Andalus
After Al Samh ibn Malik was killed at the Battle of Toulouse in 721 (102 A.H.) by the forces of Duke Odo of Aquitaine, Abdul Rahman took over the command of Eastern Andalus. He was briefly relieved of his command, when 'Anbasa ibn Suhaym Al-Kalbi was appointed in 721 (103 A.H.). After 'Anbasa was killed in battle in 726 (107 A.H.) in Gaul, several successive commanders were put in place, none of whom lasted very long.
[edit] Invasion of Gaul and Tours
In 730 (112 A.H.) the Caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik appointed Abdul Rahman as governor/commander of Al Andalus. He prepared to invade Gaul, and called for recruits from Yemen and the Levant. Many arrived, and he crossed the Pyrenees range, with an army of approximately 80,000 cavalry [1] [2]) composed primarily of Arabs and Berbers. He made his way through Gascony and Aquitaine, according to one unidentified Arab, "That army went through all places like a desolating storm." sacking and capturing the city of Bordeaux, and then defeating the army of Duke Odo of Aquitaine at the Battle of the River Garonne — where the western chroniclers state, "God alone knows the number of the slain"—[3] and Odo fled to Charles Martel, seeking help. Unlike Toulouse, where Odo had won by achieving complete surprise over the Muslim forces when he relieved the City in 721, this time his forces were forced to face the Muslim cavalry in open battle and were utterly destroyed.
However, the Frankish Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia, Charles Martel, had a core of seasoned professional infantry who had campaigned with him for many years, in addition to the levies of militia the Franks normally called up to buttress their forces, .[1] he formed an army of Gauls and Germans approximately 30,000 strong. The invading forces, having no reason to believe the Franks were anything more than one of the various barbarian tribes that had ravaged Europe after Rome's fall, failed to scout their strength in advance. They also misjudged Charles Martel, who was determined to prevent the expansion of the Caliphate over the Pyrenees into the heart of Christian Europe. This was a disastrous mistake which led to defeat of Abdul Rahman in 732 (114 A.H.) near Poitiers, south of the Loire River.[4]
Abdul Rahman was killed in this battle. One reason for the defeat of the Muslim army was their preoccupation with war booty; another was squabbles between various ethnic and tribal factions, which led to the surviving generals being unable to agree on a single commander to take the Emir's place, (he alone had a Fatwa from the Caliph, and thus absolute authority over the faithful under arms). With his death, political factions, racial and ethnic rivalries, and personality clashes arose. The varied nationalities and ethnicities present in an army drawn from all over the Caliphate, and the surviving generals, bickered among themselves, unable to agree on a commander to lead them the following day. The inability to select anyone to lead led to the wholesale withdrawal of an army that probably still could have defeated the Franks. A third reason for the defeat was that the Frankish leader had trained his men specifically to fight in an ancient Greek Phalanx to withstand the dreaded Muslim heavy cavalry, some of the world's finest, and had been allowed to pick the battlefield. Charles Martel marched his army over the mountains and avoided the old Roman roads in order to take the invaders by surprise, and to pick the battlefield, specifically, a wooded plain which would impede the cavalry's charge. Even then, only the actions of Frankish scouts gave victory to the Franks. Under orders from Martel to free slaves and cause chaos in the Muslim camp, the scouts lured a large portion of the army away from the battlefield. The Emir, exposed to the Franks while he tried to stem what seemed to be a retreat, was killed.
[edit] Aftermath
Arab historians unanimously praise Abdul Rahman as a just and able administrator and commander, and bestow on him the honor of being the best governor of Andalus. Also, he did not take sides in the ethnic and tribal divisions that plagued Andalus under other rulers. Evidence of his fairness and importance as a ruler was demonstrated in the aftermath of his death at the Battle of Tours. Without his leadership and guidance, the other commanders were unable to even agree on a commander to lead them back into battle the following morning. The effect of the death of Abdul Rahman on both Islamic and world history was profound.
His son attempted another invasion of Gaul under the Caliph's instructions in 736, this time by sea. This naval invasion landed in Narbonne in 736 and moved at once to reinforce Arles and move inland. Charles again descended on the Provençal strongholds of the Muslims. In 736, he retook Montfrin and Avignon, and Arles and Aix-en-Provence with the help of Liutprand, King of the Lombards. Nîmes, Agde, and Béziers, held by Muslims since 725, fell to him and their fortresses were destroyed. He crushed one Muslim army at Arles, as that force sallied out of the city, and then took the city itself by a direct and brutal frontal attack, and burned it to the ground to prevent its use again as a stronghold for Muslim expansion. He then moved swiftly and defeated a mighty host outside of Narbonnea at the River Berre, but failed to take the city. In five short years, he had incorporated Muslim heavy cavalry equipment and tactics into his forces, and was able to crush the invading armies, and leave the Muslim forces isolated in Narbonne, which his son Pippin would retake in 759.
Both western and eastern historians agree that had Abdul Rahman prevailed at Tours, he would probably have conquered all of Christian Europe, Martel and his Frankish Army being all that stood between Islam and Rome itself, [5] and all history would have been far different. "There were no further Muslim invasions of Frankish territory, and Charles's victory has often been regarded as decisive for world history, since it preserved western Europe from Muslim conquest and Islamization." [6]
| Preceded by Al-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani |
Governor of Al-Andalus 721–722 |
Succeeded by Anbasa ibn Suhaym Al-Kalbi |
| Preceded by Muhammed ibn Abd al-Malik al-Ashja'i |
Governor of Al-Andalus 730–732 |
Succeeded by Abd al-Malik ibn Katan al-Fihri |
[edit] References
- History of Abdul Salam Al Termanini (in Arabic)
- The New Century Book of Facts, King-Richardson Company, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1911
- A list of historical rulers in what is now Spain (in Spanish)
- "Early Andalusian Politics", by Richard Greydanus
- Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, (New York, 1974), 6:16.
- Watson, William E., "The Battle of Tours-Poitiers Revisited", Providence: Studies in Western Civilization, 2 (1993)
- Poke,The Battle of Tours, from the book Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World From Marathon to Waterloo by Sir Edward Creasy, MA
- Richard Hooker, "Civil War and the Umayyads"
- Arabs, Franks, and the Battle of Tours, 732: Three Accounts from the Internet Medieval Sourcebook
- Tours,Poiters, from "Leaders and Battles Database" online.
- Robert W. Martin, "The Battle of Tours is still felt today", from about.com
- Santosuosso, Anthony, Barbarians, Marauders, and Infidels ISBN 0-8133-9153-9
- Medieval Sourcebook: Arabs, Franks, and the Battle of Tours, 732 at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/732tours.html
- Bennett, Bradsbury, Devries, Dickie and Jestice, Fighting Tehniques of the Medieval World
- Reagan, Geoffry, The Guinness Book of Decisive Battles , Canopy Books, NY (1992) ISBN 1-55859-431-0
- Early Andalusian Politics, Richard Greydanus
- History of Abdul Salam Al Termanini (Arabic)
- The New Century Book of Facts, King-Richardson Company, Springfield, 1911
