Islamic Conquests in Aquitaine
Wali al-Qasim ibn Yusuf al-Fihri had begun planning his next conquest immediately after his Italian campaign. Even though his brothers had earlier warned against an invasion of Aquitaine, events in the bordering kingdom had made it an attractive target. Peace had reigned between the kingdoms of Neustria and Aquitaine after the Frankish civil war, despite
Pippin’s annoyance at the substance of Aquitanian assistance.
King Hunald of Aquitaine died in 763 CE and was succeeded by his son
Waifar, who continued amicable relations with both Neustria and al-Andalus. In 768 CE
Pippin died while on a punitive raid against the Bretons, and was succeeded by his son
Charles. The new Neustrian king had a different perspective on foreign policy from his father however; he believed that the Frankish empire should be reunited under the Carolingian dynasty. With that goal in mind he raised an army and invaded Aquitaine in late 769 CE. Early on in the war
King Waifar was killed in battle, allegedly by
King Charles himself, leading to
Waifar’s son
Hunald taking the throne. The Neustrian army settled in for a siege of Poitiers while the Aquitanians were still reeling from the loss of their king and their early defeats.
It was at that point the Andalusians had just finished their conquest of Italia.
Al-Qasim ibn Yusuf al-Fihri looked at the situation in Aquitaine and realised that now was the best time to strike. Andalusian court chroniclers later justified the conquest by pointing out that in the confusion Aquitaine had not renewed the non-aggression treaty and therefore had passed from the
Dar al-Sulh to the
Dar al-Harb. The governor gathered some of the army involved in the Italian campaign, but raised the majority of troops from northern al-Andalus. He planned a two-pronged attack on Aquitaine: one army would capture Iruna and secure the pass over the western Pyrenees, while the other army would seize Tolosa [Toulouse]. The second army faced little resistance during its march into Aquitaine, as
King Hunald was gathering his disparate forces at Bordeaux. The siege of Iruna however proceeded less smoothly. Though the local Basque garrison were not especially loyal to Aquitanian rule, they did prize their independence. The city of Tolosa fell to the Andalusian conquerors in a timely fashion but
al-Qasim ibn Yusuf, who was in command of the army in Aquitaine, was hesitant to advance further along the Garonne River without the western pass secured. During this delay the Neustrians had taken Poitiers and advanced toward the Gironde estuary. In order to break the siege of Iruna the Andalusian commander,
Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Fihri, offered the defenders a deal in which they would be exempt from all taxes in return for allowing a Muslim garrison in the town. The defenders agreed, allowing the Andalusians to march with all due haste to besiege Baiona [Bayonne].
With the western pass of the Pyrenees secured,
al-Qasim ibn Yusuf marched his army to conquer Ausciorum [Auch], after which the two Andalusian armies united north of Baiona. The enlarged army then began to besiege the town of Aginnum [Agen] to secure a beachhead on the opposite bank of the Garonne. Meanwhile the Neustrians had stationed their army at Ascumbas [Saint-Emilion] which was within striking distance of Bordeaux. Rather than wait to be besieged in Bordeaux by two hostile armies,
Hunald and the Aquitanians sallied forth towards Ascumbas and the Neustrians.
Charles’ army met
Hunald halfway and the two entered battle in 773 CE. The Neustrian army was noticeably larger while the Aquitanians were suffering from poor morale due to their early upsets; the result was a bloody defeat for the Aquitanians and their flight back to Bordeaux.
Hunald’s nightmare scenario had come to pass; just as the Neustrians began to besiege Bordeaux from the east, the Andalusians arrived from the west. Unlike his ancestor
Duke Odo, the Aquitanian king had no intention to surrender and join one side in the seemingly impossible envelopment, though this did not dissuade
Charles from appealing to their shared Christian fraternity. In the end the decision was not
Hunald’s to make, as his vassal
Duke Lupus of Vasconia ordered the city garrison to open the eastern gates and allow the Neustrians to enter.
Hunald was swiftly seized and executed on the orders of
King Charles. In an instant the Kingdom of Aquitaine ceased to exist.
Even though al-Andalus and Neustria had not been at war or engaged in hostilities with each other, both sides knew from the outset of the Andalusian invasion that such a war was near-inevitable. During the uneasy hostility-free interlude following the Neustrian conquest of Bordeaux, Frankish forces were ferried across the Gironde estuary whereupon they marched south towards the encamped Andalusian army. Berber scout cavalry had spied the ruse though, prompting
al-Qasim ibn Yusuf to order a retreat from Bordeaux. With the element of surprise gone,
Charles had no choice but to lead his army in an assault upon the retreating Andalusians. The experienced
wali had expected such a manoeuvre though and prepared a rear-guard action to hold the Neustrians while the main portion of the army moved south. Even though the rear-guard were almost entirely wiped out during the battle, they inflicted relatively significant losses upon the Neustrians. The Frankish army would have pursued the Andalusians if not for a sudden outbreak of infighting. The strife was itself an extension of Frankish dynastic politics.
Charles had brought his younger brother
Carloman on the campaign and while the young prince was a capable commander, he had not yet been appointed to any official position within the Neustrian court, nor had he been allowed to consolidate his control over the land that was nominally his inheritance from their father
Pippin. Seething at the slight against his honour,
Carloman had secretly corresponded with his cousin
King Drogo of Austrasia. The latter had only encouraged his cousin’s rebelliousness and suggested that he should claim rulership of Aquitaine during or after its conquest.
The matter came to a head after the battle outside of Bordeaux.
Carloman’s contingent had suffered the brunt of the casualties and so he demanded of his brother the Duchy of Aquitaine as a reward for his efforts.
King Charles of Neustria merely laughed at his brother’s ultimatum. Something snapped in the prince and he struck his brother, knocking him down. Onlookers were stunned into inaction as the king lay motionless.
Charles’ own shock subsided swiftly however and he retaliated against his brother; the confrontation devolved into a common fistfight until
Carloman managed to draw his dagger and stab the king. In the chaos of the moment
Carloman escaped, gathered his men, and fled south towards the Andalusians. Understandably going through a whirl of emotions, the Neustrian prince sought refuge with the Andalusian army. He offered the services of himself and his men in return for control of Aquitaine.
Al-Qasim ibn Yusuf al-Fihri was surprised at the turn of events but knew to seize an opportunity when it presented itself. The future of the war was suddenly uncertain as the apparent death of the Neustrian king would surely disrupt the Frankish campaign. Though they did not know it at the time,
Charles had survived his chest wound and was transported to Bordeaux for further treatment.
Al-Qasim ibn Yusuf decided to accept
Carloman’s offer though with the stipulation that he and his commanders converted to Islam;
Carloman was reborn as
Muhammad Qarulamun ibn Baban al-Qarula.
A later Frankish image of King Charles of Neustria, recuperating from his brother's attack [1]
Once
King Charles’ condition was stable, he was moved to Poitiers to recuperate and thus no longer personally participated in the war. Command of the Neustrian army was granted to
Count Gerard of Paris, who resolved to defend Bordeaux. With the Franks momentarily stalled, and
al-Qasim ibn Yusuf believing
Charles to be dead, the Andalusian army was divided into two. One half besieged Bordeaux from the west, while the other crossed the Garonne and besieged the city from the east. By the end of 774 CE the Andalusians on the west bank of the Garonne had breached the city gates and subjected the city to a vicious sacking. Frankish reinforcements from the north arrived too late to relieve the city’s defenders but they manage to surprise the eastern Andalusian army, inflicting severe casualties before withdrawing back across the Dordogne River. The war was becoming rather costly for al-Andalus; administrators in Qurtuba informed
al-Qasim ibn Yusuf’s brothers of the depleting treasury, while Asturian raids were growing bolder. The
wali and
Muhammad Qarulamun ibn Baban, the former growing into the role of a mentor to the young Frankish prince, were keen to continue fighting the war however. The Andalusian army crossed the Dordogne and attacked the nearby Neustrian army commanded by
Lupus of Gascony; the result was indecisive yet both sides suffered a staggering number of casualties. Following the battle
al-Qasim’s brothers rounded on him and demanded an end to the war. By this time, news had reached the Andalusians that
King Charles was in fact not only still alive but also raising a new army to march south. The governor relented in the face of his brothers’ intervention and dispatched a diplomatic delegation to Poitiers in 775 CE.
Territorially speaking, the peace negotiations were smooth: the Kingdom of Neustria annexed the territory north of the Dordogne, while the
wilaya of al-Andalus took the territory to the south including Bordeaux. The difficulties arose surrounding the person of
Muhammad Qarulamun ibn Baban al-Qarula, formerly prince
Carloman of Neustria. The Neustrian negotiators demanded that he be returned so that he could face justice for treason and attempted fratricide. The Andalusians argued that as a Muslim governor, the prince was subject only to the authority of
Caliph al-Rashid and his
qadi al-qudat (chief judge). The two sides appeared to be intractable until the Andalusian negotiators remembered the concept of weregild from
Carloman the Elder’s time in Qurtuba.[2] The Neustrians were surprised but receptive to the offer. They wanted more though:
Qarulamun was to renounce his rights to all of the Frankish lands (Neustria and Austrasia) and was banished from the Kingdom of Neustria. The Andalusian negotiators agreed. The treaty was composed and signed, and peace established between the two states. Once news of the peace was confirmed,
al-Qasim ibn Yusuf al-Fihri tasked his brother
Muhammad with overseeing the construction of a new garrison town in the newly-conquered territory.
Muhammad ibn Yusuf chose a site just to the east of Bordeaux between the Dordogne and the Garonne,[3] and planned the districts for the soldiers and their families to be based on ethnicity: Arab, Berber,
muwalladun, and Christian Frankish. In addition to these there were districts for local artisans, merchants, outfitters, and the various other camp followers that attach themselves to armies. The name of the new town was Rabat al-Faranj to emphasise its frontier nature.
In Baghdad the news of the conquests in Aquitaine caused great celebration for many in the populace. For some in the administration however, it only exacerbated the precariousness of an ongoing situation which could potentially lead to disaster: the growing hegemony of the Fihrids in the west.
Caliph al-Rashid decided to deal with the problem now rather than letting it fester and risk splitting the caliphate. To this end the
khalifah mustered a large expeditionary force of Khurasani Iranians, and Arabs from Iraq and al-Sham. Command of the expedition was granted to
Harthama ibn A’yan, an Iranian long-term ally of the caliph, who was to reorganise the conquered Italian territories as the new province of Ruma al-Gharbiya and establish himself as the new
wali. The expedition departed from the port of Akka in 776 CE and travelled to Melita for resupply. From there the fleet sailed to the port servicing Luca [Lucca] and the army disembarked.
Harthama ibn A’yan then dispatched messengers to Qurtuba and
al-Qasim ibn Yusuf al-Fihri, who was at Rabat al-Faranj, informing them of the caliph’s new directives. Without waiting for a reply, the expedition marched to Ravenna and convinced the garrison to allow them entry.
Harthama ibn A’yan decreed the city to be the new seat of government in Ruma al-Gharbiya and changed its official name to Rabina. His first act was to replace the Lombard administrators with the Romans [Byzantines] who had been barred from power following the Lombard conquest. No further changes were made to the province’s internal administration, besides notifying the multitude of governors that their taxes were from then on to be paid to Rabina rather than Qurtuba. The Fihrids were in no state to respond: the treasury was nearly empty, and their available manpower was in no fit state to fight another war. Unsurprisingly
al-Qasim ibn Yusuf desired to fight back against the Abbasid “invasion”, but once again his brothers forcefully counselled him to accept the situation.
[1] The OTL image is actually Charles Martel.
[2] Carloman the former king of Austrasia, brother to Pippin, uncle to Charlemagne, and in later years a pampered prisoner in Qurtuba. He is dead by this point. Weregild was a fine in Germanic law to be paid in the case of injury or death of a person. OTL it was phased out by the High Medieval period, but ITTL with a weakened Christian Europe and the notion of Christendom barely in existence, weregild is likely to survive for much longer.
[3] Approximately in the area of OTL Saint-Quentin-de-Baron.
