A New Balance of Power
The costly peace with the Al-Gallians [Islamic France] obtained at the Treaty of Strasbourg, however, did not buy the respite that Arnulf craved. Hoping to root out treachery in his own house, the Frankish King favoured the sons of his second marriage to Judith of Franconia rather than that of his first. This led to his murder in 905. His brother Louis ambitious to increase his own power seized control of Arnulf’s lands through one of his disinherited sons (Pippin III) from the dead king’s first marriage. Although it seemed at first that Louis would renew the war in Burgundy, the Frankish King soon found himself confronted with more pressing internal enemies. His decision to merely imprison the widow Judith at Cologne had dire consequences, for she escaped and sought to rally Louis’s enemies. The man she chose to lead the uprising was John (the former king of Burgundy) who, fearing that Louis would soon gain all of Francia, gathered an army and (aided by Bavaria) rebelled. While Louis took up residence in Austrasia (deposing of the infant Pippin and proclaiming himself King), he made his son Charles King of Neustria. With his position in the west thus secured, Louis marched east where he and John cut bloody trails through the Rhineland.
With his father in the West and open war with Bavaria, Charles found himself vulnerable to the Armorica-Muslim alliance in the south. Therefore, and (according to the Annals of the Kingdom of the Franks)despite the wishes of his father, the King of Neustria concluded peace with his enemies. The Al-Gallian leader of the Muslims, Ibn-el-Ahmar eagerly embraced peace and attempted to establish a secure border with the Franks. The death of Arnulf was a severe blow for the ‘Celtic’ Christens, who seemed to have lost interest in St. Ethelbertdream of a ‘Christian War against Islam’. In exile at Innsbruck, St. William of Verdun wrote his Chronicle of Kings about the events depicted above: his was a tale of woe and opportunity lost.
In light of his victories and (probably more importantly) in light of the continuing Frankish threat, Ibn-el-Ahmar was elected Emir of Al-Gallia by the walis of Islamic France in 907. The Emir of Al-Avrup, powerless to prevent this appointment, was forced to concede to it although he maintained that “the Red Man” was still his subordinate.For his part, Ibn-el-Ahmar never declared his own autonomy from the Emir in Córdoba, but did claim hereditary rights to his office and from then on Al-Gallia was an independent sovereign kingdom controlled by his family.
The new Emir of Al-Gallia, reorganized the tax system and increased his power by supporting the local elites and the trading class. One of Ibn-el-Ahmar main allies in creating his new emirate were the Norse.Although some have converted to Islam, many are still pagan something that the both menfind unproblematic although the more pious imams of their realms find this closeness with the al-majus (“fire-worshippers" a derogatory reference to their perceived paganism) immoral. In fact their unpopularity makes them ideal candidates for military recruitment (as they would not be able to usurp their masters) and many Norse spend a considerable amount of time in the Islamic armies.Over the preceding years, he settled large numbers of allied Norse at Tours, Angers and Nantes to strengthen Muslim authority in central France. Many of the Norse were former pirates and brigands who had infested the Loire Valley but after the War were quickly integrated into the administrative system of the Al-Gallians (and their allies the Armoricans) under the strong leadership of Ibn-el-Ahmar.
But the Red Man was not the only one forging independent domains in Al-Avrup: in Al-Italiya (Islamic Italy) the Governor of al-Kahira, on the Gulf of Genoa, Abdallahwas sending an emissary to the Caliphate of Abbasids to request his lands be recognised as a separate emirate. But while Ibn-el-Ahmar basked in the summer of his success, Abdallah faced a more uncertain future. Although Milan had fallen in the long wars with the Lombards, and his predecessors had extended their rule as far as Umbria and the very gates of Rome, the situation was still grim. Venetia was controlled by Venice (backed by the Byzantium and their allies the Bavarians), and was an ever present threat. In Apulia and southern Italia, the Islamic emirates of the mid 9th century had collapsed, re-conquered by the re-invigorated Byzantine Empire. Without outside aid Abdallah (and his ally the Governor of Florentia on the Arno River) faced a troubled future.
But trouble abounded everywhere, and in 909 Muhammad II the Emir of Al-Avrup receives startling news: the Aghlabid Emir, Ziyadat Allah III, had fled North Africa. The people responsible were the followers of the Ismailite mission led by Abu ‘Abd Allah, a faction claiming to represent the true Caliph, a Caliph who claims to descend from Fatima (daughter of the Prophet). The Fatimid conquest was extremely rapid, and the Berber tribes flocked to their banner. Soon all of North Africa was consumed and the Caliph’s army had advanced through Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria, winning control of a large share of the Maghreb. The Fatimid Caliphate represents more than a merely military challenge to the lords of Al-Avrup. The Shi’ite Fatimids of Ifriqiya had put an end to the myth of a united Dâr al‑islâm under the rule of the Caliphs of Baghdad. What philosophers had been saying for over a century now, suddenly became reality for all to see: the Abbasid Caliphate was decadent, weak and morally bankrupt. The rise of the Fatimids was but the final nail in the coffin of Abbasid de-legitimacy in the West.