Good account of the campaign but dryily written

books:


	• Poitiers AD 732: Charles Martel turns the Islamic tide (Campaign) David Nicolle Osprey Publishing, 2008 - 96 pages average customer review:based on 3 reviews view larger image
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Well-Written Look at a Controversial Battle

In Osprey's Campaign No. 190, veteran medieval historian David Nicolle tackles the controversial Battle of Poitiers (also known as Tours) in 732, where Charles Martel defeated a Muslim invasion of France. Traditionally, the battle was viewed as a `decisive engagement' that stopped the Muslim conquest of France (and the rest of Europe) in its tracks. However, the historical impact of the battle has now became fairly controversial, with one group of historians arguing that Poitiers (Tours) was decisive and the other that it was a battle of no great significance for a variety of reasons. To his credit, Nicolle does inform the reader about the broad outlines of these historiographical debates, although perhaps not airing as much evidence as say, the Wikipedia article on the same subject. As a battle narrative, readers familiar with Nicolle's style should know what to expect: nuance, not detail, as well as an erudite insight into the cultural and political milieu that generated the conflict rather than tactical descriptions. Nicolle is also very good in pointing out differences between 8th Century armies from later medieval armies, since many histories of this period have tended to frame it in later terms (e.g. emphasis on cavalry shock action) Overall, Poitiers is a decent history of an important but not well-covered battle, with some very good supporting maps, that provides a useful introduction to this phase of European warfare.

Poitiers begins with a 10-page introduction that sets the scene prior to the campaign, describing the Muslim conquest of Spain and the conflict between Merovingian France and the Aquitaine (southern France - independent kingdom at the time). The author also discusses the internal frictions in the Muslim camp between Arabs and Berbers brought over from North Africa (but used as second-class levy troops). The section on opposing commanders is short and focuses on the three main opponents: Charles Martel (Merovingian), Prince Eudes (Aquitane) and Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi (the Muslim commander). Although the section on opposing armies is 11 pages long, it doesn't pack much detail. While you can't expect a detailed order of battle for a pre-Medieval army, the author here does not even attempt to guess at the size or composition of either army. A simple description such as `the Frankish army was strong in shock infantry' or the `Muslim army was strong in archery units' might have been helpful for the reader to assess the relative power of each opponent, although it is apparent that much of that information is just not available. The section on opposing plans is brief and operates on the premise (hypothesis) that the Muslim incursion into Aquitaine was a raid-in-force, not a full-scale invasion. Christian plans were defensive.

The author then launches into the campaign, with a description of the Muslim attack on Aquitaine in June 732, which resulted in the defeat of Prince Eudes and the capture of Bordeaux. Eudes retreated north to seek help from his erstwhile foe Charles Martel, while Muslim forces ravaged southern France. Once Aquitaine was devastated, the Muslims moved northward against the next target: France. This part of the volume, detailing the pre-battle maneuvers is quite good and provides interesting insight into operational level warfare in this era. The battle narrative per se is about 19 pages long and covers the united forces of Charles Martel and Eudes blocking the Muslim advance near Tours and then mounting a successful attack upon their camp, which kills their commander. The final sections detail the Muslim retreat to Spain and Charles Martel turning to internal affairs. Graphically, the volume is supported by six 2-D maps and two 3-D BEV tactical maps, as well as three nice battle scenes by Graham Turner. Perhaps the only real downside in this volume are the photographs, many of which are just awful - pictures of defaced wall paintings or damaged sculptures (is it human?) - used to represent period uniforms/weapons. I realize the difficulty in obtaining photos for this period, but Osprey could stock volumes covering this era with more artwork to fill in gaps. Using sub-standard images just detracts from the volume.

The author's narrative is well-written and cogent, but it may not be convincing. At times, the author appears to be an apologist for Muslim aggression, claiming the campaign was not an invasion but merely a raid. Apparently, rape, pillage and plunder is considered less an act of invasion rather than full-scale invasion. First, the raid hypothesis is damaged by the number of cities and towns - including Bordeaux, the capital of Aquitaine - that fell in the opening moves. Usually raids don't capture major cities. Second, the amount of area that was ravaged by Muslim forces in just two months indicates a fairly large force, which is reinforced by the fact that they weren't afraid to push deep into hostile territory. Normally raiding forces want to get in and get out, but the Muslim Army seemed content to stay on hostile territory until it was defeated. The information available suggests that the defeat of Aquitaine was seen by the Muslims as a preliminary move to a larger campaign, and had Charles Martel not intervened, the undefeated Muslim army would have been able to winter in Bordeaux in preparation for a renewed campaign in the next spring. Thus, without the Muslim defeat, it is fairly likely that the Muslim armies would have kept a base on the French side of the Pyrenees and picked up the next year where they left off. While Nicolle is correct that Muslim-Christian warfare did continue on this border for decades to come, he passes the opportunity to note that without a Christian victory at Tours, the situation may have been very different in the coming years.

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Charlemagne against all odds

Though many books are written about this battle, this all the same differs from other researches by a new sight at events of that period. David Nicolle also considers the disputable moments of campaign and analyzes the points of view of different historians. The balanced approach allows to look at events of those days a little differently.

The author starts with brief introduction on islamic conquests, which is quite interesting. Then follows the chronology of main events and analysis of an alignment of forces, their negative and positive sides. The description of the campaign and aftermath is rather dull, I think, but informative. I was impressed by a bibliography with prolific books included. As for me, the Graham Turner paintings are 3+. Overall, the very solid book on subject.

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Good account of the campaign but dryily written

Poitiers AD 732 is another pretty decent title from Osprey Campaign series written by David Nicolle. The book follows the typical Osprey Campaign series format where the background information is given, leaders are discussed, armies are discussed and then you get into the heart of the campaign followed up by the aftermath. Its pretty standard stuff and this book does a good job. The research done in this book is pretty good and I have no real complaint about it.

But to be honest, David Nicolle is not my favorite Osprey author because he write so dry. His narrative really lack the element that make it an interesting read. The narrative often sounds like listening to your professor drone on as he talked to the blackboard for 45 minutes without stopping. It may be just me but in all his books, he writes without much passion or vigor.

The book take the position that Poitiers may be important but it was grossly over-hyped by past historians. The Islamic conquests were already ebbing by this time and it wasn't an actual invasion forces that Charles Martel defeated but a very large raiding force who quickly gave up their goods and retreated when they were defeated.

Despite of the dry narrative, I found the book to be pretty interesting overall since I am not all that familiar with the subject matter. The maps, drawings and photos all proves to be well done and helpful in spicing up the narrative. The book comes well recommended to anyone who got an interesting into this time period and since it is under 100 pages, it is well worth reading for information and insights to this campaign.

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Poitiers AD 732