The battle of Tours was a footnote to Muslim historians, not a turning point.
Evidence
Western history and myth have portrayed the victory of Charles Martel over the Saracens at the battle of Tours et Poitiers in 732 as the turning-point in the struggle between Christendom and Islam, the decisive battle which halted and repelled the Muslim advance and ensured the survival of Christian Europe. This battle receives at most only minor notice in Muslim writings. This was not because they were concealing a defeatâclassical Muslim historians are often remarkably honest in recording defeats as well as victoriesâbut because of a different, and, in the longer and broader perspective of history, more accurate perception. â Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 659
Categorization
- SEED: Article angle: whose history wins â how the same battle can be a world-historical turning point for one civilization and a border skirmish for the other.
- QUESTION: Worth chasing: what exactly was the âmore accurate perceptionâ Muslims held that made Tours unimportant to them â was it about the frontierâs true balance of power?