The Umayyad invasion of the West

hello everyone today we talk about the umayyad invasion of the west we'll take it from fundamentally the broader mayat perspective to narrow it down gradually towards the west you know the invasion essentially of the southern mediterranean and then the bering peninsula and the incursions in gold right and then we will you know take it back in way to to recontextualize the thing from the maya perspective i'll bite naturally into meanwhile we will deal with other topics that either we already discussed you know for example don't know the music got kingdom it's and the franks and the carl engines organization of the umayyad armies and then other topics we will have to to discuss more you know more in-depth at other levels but this is fundamentally minimalistic type of video so trying to give context the as you know the sunni you know the the mayan caliphate basically established itself as this you know elective orthodox power in the islamic world after the clash with the shia and you know this great fracture that that exists in the islamic world still to this day and that should be contextualized actually in broader you know process of fragmentation that on the long run the world the the empire conquered by the by the arabs here we will see from the atlantic to the indus will undergo but in this early period that is period of expansion where in fact the the crisis in way could be you know absorbed by the continuous seizure of new resources to be to catalyze the internal iteration favored the establishment of properly universal empire of the caliphate under the in fact the umayyad dynasty right with seat in in damascus you know the even here we we have addressed in part to thank the the early phase of the islamic there is world medieval islam playlist that made so we discussed how and why you know the the umayyads took over and managed to do for while despite you know being fundamentally this broader frame of elective institutions with the seat in syria in damascus right last thing between fundamentally 662 to 750 and there will be so called the basic revolution that we will you know just touch superficially in the end considering the battle the talus river and the dumayat caliphate is you know moment of of dramatic change for for the arab league right you know together with the caliphate were abandoned many costumes of the time of the pneumatic times and fundamentally the court of damascus that was essentially dominate was historically semitic city but you know framing to the linistic board was dominated by the atlantic cultural traditions went grew ever more resembling to the byzantine one that in fact were was at that point especially the admired model of the same caliphate like the persian dimension that eventually will be more evident in bas at times at this point was actually compensated by probably the roman the roman influence for example islamic sources have very positive opinion traditionally of iraqis that you know they had basically voted against to to seize syria palestine egypt etc and and this couldn't be otherwise we discussed the islamic invasions at length on schwarpgr and we have seen how fundamentally the the arabs became the muslim world in its enormous diversity and complexity became actually treasure and as further spreader of hellenistic culture as we recall you know all the great libraries of the near east of egypt very far from being destroyed contrarily wise to the saint what the same islamic propaganda stated to show that the the the mills related political military leaders were fundamentally fit because they they read just the quran very far from from from that in reality took as much as they could and literally mean they they had pretty good idea of the extreme power and wealth that all these knowledge could could provide them and and we know in fact all throughout the islamic world informations that were scattered but by you know this either military conquests or of religious nations knowledge that was actually lost to the same byzantines at that point that in the west we didn't have right and that you can't find up to the far east asia brought in early medieval times by by the muslims and we're talking about something that we share actually lot about alexander's epic that is the single greatest hero in in you know muslim literature that time the same goes actually in your brain the same way it's not christian here is you know alexander surpasses also the carolingian or brutonic cycles right about chivalry etc and and much more than this but this is just for saying that much of this process happens in my end times that are actually not very well documented right the same islamic civilization is to you know to set it its ground its tradition just think about even the artists and all you know this was still very fluid dimension and in in fact during maya times there was the creation of muslim art and literature that were very close actually to the eclectic tradition of byzantine culture which entailed for example certain laxity in the same matters of the islamic fate for example the prohibition of representing animatic beings that had been particularly rigorous was largely bypassed in the umayyad iconic tradition and under the umayyads islam spread towards east up to the hindu kush the arrow lake talking about kabul summer camp while in the west were subjugated all north western africa the the maghrib magrib and the same baron penis like excluding let's say the the northernmost part of it and we will be talking about this today at length after that syrian palestine had been conquered by the arabs between 633 and in egypt between 639 and 646. the syrian and egyptian sailors had embraced the the new fate or they had however put themselves at the service of the followers of the prophet right in 649 chief destined to the caliphate the governor of syria muhammad abu sufyan was cousin of the caliph man and future founder of the same umayyad california dynasty attacked cyprus in 652 there was also some you know modest raid in sicily island that still at this point was in the area dominated by constantinople in three years later the battle of the mass this major novel battle not far from the coasts of ligue marked the crisis of the eastern roman talistocracy right and in this battle was defeated the same bazillios constance the second that despite the fact that he was at the head of fleet of 500 ships the break of the roman thalassocracy in the mediterranean is one of the most important turning points in early medieval history because up to that point the muslim had fundamentally remained land power and you know culturally speaking they wouldn't change much right but but seizing these major coastal centers with all the arsenals the crews all the you know the people who knew how to man these ships that were largely christian right you know was the the turning point in the mediterranean the the breaking of the mediterranean political unity if you want that actually did not stop in spite of the warfare that that was triggered by by the crisis at all things like trade like actually the arrival of islam boosted once again the third continental trade now that was you know passing much more speedily in much broader area encompassing several regions at this point once again in two minutes of rain we made actually videos about the source and spouts their their role what you know financially flipping the you know deep now old and absolutely unprecedentable theory according to which you know the second invasions brought to you know the the deepest crisis ever actually especially in mediterranean this seems to not have been true at all especially considering what's the you know the northern mediterranean under entering these centuries and came out with right you know which is massive novel military capability that eventually will be able to take over the same sarasota pirates piracy and you know if these peoples have been just bunch of destructors things would have gone very very differently this is really another chapter but this is just for saying how it's very difficult and we'll see it even with with gold for example how we can't really talk about properly christian versus muslim clash right also because the percy that was operating look at the eastern mediterranean as the west actually contained from both sides both christians and muslims at the same time so the world picture the counter position as you think is you know irreconcilable history is not mono factorial system and pretending it to be so it's simply not knowing anything about history in general if you think about it in this context well you know try to give check about what these cultures actually were right you know the the the the fleets that besieged constantinople 18 under islamic command were christians right there weren't slaves you know or oring you know with being whipped that they were freemen right salad free and that you know the things of the slaves both in in christian and muslim services mostly 16th century thing they're trying to hold the middle ages these people were actually peter had pretty good job for those times standards and this should make us reflect also on how and why the islamic invasions happened in the first place because telling the truth which is that the conquered regions had opened the gates to the arabs right and there is no question about it we we know it and also when there was resistance of course this was you know still countered by other elites that were the ones that eventually came to to make career in the islamic domination and started to rule from you know regional entities that fundamentally had always been something on their own right the same islamic world fragments fundamentally on the base of these pre-existing powers that fundamentally went on in different way but you know simply still ruling in their own homes right so the question here is like if you've never been acquainted to the idea you know please go check that out because this is you know massive histographical acknowledgement since generations and has nothing to do with personal opinions anymore but also you know we discussed this in the mostly you find in medieval islam playlist but units associated also to other to other videos don't remember now but it's practically how the whole thing was possible in all the infrastructures manpower labor force et cetera that that fell in the hands of of the arabs here or the are besides the leads that you know the main going factor was just islam and such where you know the the ones that rendered these this invasions you know replicable right and that's what they went on and and this could open to lots of other you know interpretations to what these invasions actually were especially in the first place and now we'll try also to to at least scratch the surface of this of this question but you know what we concentrate today on as we have established is the western route of expansion right the the arabs fundamentally secured this near eastern and partly middle eastern area including egypt and eventually they consolidated egypt and eventually they went on in the west following the coast right and there is not much you can't do mean from one side there is the sea from the other there is the desert so there is this long corridor that brought them to the ancient roman province of africa right that the arabs called ifrikkiya right that's the arab name for africa afterwards today's you know comprehended fundamentally today's tripolitania tunisia and algeria the thing varied over time because you know these were promises that romans also changed you know sometimes they bore the name in areas that pre-existed you know that in the past were narrower but anyway and the fukiya had been invaded by the muslims in 647 but it's only since 663 that the byzantine and especially berber resistance began to fade right the arabs distinguished in the area that they were conquering now three let's say social ethnical elements the room which is term that we have met several times that indicated principally the in fact the romans right from the greek romani the byzantines but that on the african literal north of the circles could not indicate if if anything you know people of latin origin if not language right we must understand historically speaking the northern shores of the mediterranean have been always more dramatically populated and and and enriched that you know to to allah you know any kind of reverse this sense the romans had colonized at this you know north africa the people spoke latin there that there was an important properly you know even ethnically speaking european element mixed with local barbers and and this reality was also especially in tunisia what was you know basically the most fertile area where in fact the the conservative the the africa was one of the most dramatically romanized provinces by the time the islamic conquest like it was one place where blade antique culture fundamentally survived right there hadn't been major destructions operated the vandals didn't do anything like that contrary wise you know what the official propaganda of the empire said because it were aryan's fundamental erratics africa was rich was place that provided very important land you know power base to eventually we'll see certain power such as for example the aguila beads etc and it was an important stopping point in meter rain and that's where most of the cyrus and invasions actually came from right from reality that was much closer to europe and almost like part of europe fundamentally up to you know look up to even the end of colonialism had been densely populated by european communities and this was the reality since the ancient world all throughout the middle ages modern age right and so all true bioid is this phenomenon and the the passage here is important because the the the muslims at this point have are overlapping to with the the great sedentary civilizations they encounter on their march right so in way they they take the same place of the romans in the area and they distinguished in fact the the these these people from the bear bear that in in arab is basically remains the same name in latin it's barbers right yeah so the barbers eventually the barbarians will be known up to look at the early modern age right but even within roman africa the muslims that came to to rule the that society distinguished between the the roma and the african that were basically the christianized locals right so africa still had you know this large like kind latifund system of course drastically resized because you know the govern the last government byzantine government and africa hadn't been you know very very happy right there had been certain of course frictions and and revolts etc but the delayed antique world was fundamentally still there right in spite of all its its transformations and and outside of this world in the desert seminar deserting areas there were all these other tribes that effectively even after the islamic conquest they they they'd actually converted to to islam but they never assimilated to the arabs and this opened very interesting dynamics because there were actually certain kingdoms around the the you know the this mayan controlled africa that still were entities that eventually even for history for example of muslim spain will have an important dimension right these peoples also provided troops for the same islamic invasion of iberia and if you we look westwards towards the atlas we see if you don't think about the almost or they are morality you know this is properly you know berber populations that you know had barely anything to do with the other besides the elites that they technically were under and that you know were reinvaded in waves at the bering peninsula for centuries to come so this is important because we see actually the creation of new connections between the this the broader caliphate the universal empire and this other you know local powers that yeah they accept the fact they entered in the islamic corporate but still they they have their own degree of autonomy they come to in fact interfere that local base were talking about before whereas you know the the universality of the caliphate was distributed would disgregate on the long run and and both the the arabs and the barbers were unwilling to to see life let's be honest so even in here for for the west here we don't really talk about it because maybe we discussed it in the sarasota history videos but it's really the contribution of the local mostly romanized sailors that that that made the real contribution like it it had been for the syrians and the egyptians right that in fact were however deported in part were resettled by the muslims in the euphrate to exactly you know perform the same functions they had you know in in their homeland so skilled you know seamen and that could build the you know ships and you know plan the the all the the naval operations the transports the the logistics so actually quite specialized personnel that was with strategic patients settled in africa to boost on once again the potential this land protrudes towards the the central mediterranean close to italy would have in fact in in the following times and this is in fact the the area of north africa egypt excluded that could provide in fact as we've seen before the the the greatest power to to cyrus and push in later times right prober and it was obviously maritime oriented but it was mostly part of this broader mediterranean civilization that had existed since since millennia and not much of the interland that remained fundamentally detached from these urban centers from the romanized and islamicized areas event and already since 665 the muslims had conquered the byzantine naval base of barcelo in tsurinaya in 670 was founded the city of cairo right that assumed the name from the term that in arab actually indicates military camp right so even here we find the strategic vision of creating you know functional infrastructure for continuing the expansions and since 780 solid muslim port was organized in tunis that also stored you know with carthage et cetera was main main maritime center where in fact about 100 egyptian families were experts in the art of novel constructions were settled and in five years all north africa up to what for the arabs was the the far west you know the aldma grab al aqsa that is fundamentally morocco was in the hands of the conquerors while it was undergoing that the the very difficult process of islamization and averabilization of the barbers that was definitely attempted and it was probably at the end of july 711 that this large muslim fleet at the command of the berber tariq zihad right took land in spain in the bay of ultra series you know what the gibraltar strait takes name from is literally in our bell el tariq which means the mountain of tariq and he bears the name of the conqueror and in 710 the bay had already been raided so basically this this was also planned intention and the arab berber forces that invaded spain amounted up to 10 000 men right and most of them were actually north african troops right so this is interesting because it already shows you here where were the arabs who would you know what was the you know forced deaths decor the level of coercion that the arab conquerors could enforce on the local on the wall north africa given their own damage base almost don't exist but even cleaner was the capability of you know bringing together all these groups that said you know under these commanders under these you know broader system this broken empire that is expanding towards the west we can't push towards this rich lands the muslims defeated the visigothic king roderick on the road between al jazeera's and goddess right this the battle of godale was you know basically the the end of the visigothic the unity of division kingdom and actually had always been strained we made video on the visigoths and in general we summed up the the reality of this kingdom that had very loose central authority the kings on the long run you know at the beginning it was actually force to be reckoned with but you know the the local nobility had managed to to to take over and through the councils of toledo's the you know this you know main ecclesiastical council that actually represented the interests of the same mobility that you know made up the same bishops and to to to stamp the royal power that didn't exceed much like many miles out of toledo the capital it was mostly this could define in anachronistic terms as the the castilian reality you know settled in the center of spain the south had been byzantine for long time and you know eventually had to gradually absorbed by the visigoths that was the richest air which would actually be the same in maya the caliphate would take root and but you know it was surrounded by this french that especially in the north that never you know gave up the resistance of to the busy girls right and also the abravale was you know intensely romanized air they wanted to financially drive away from this push and but especially the visigothic kingdom was undergoing privatization that is not very different actually from the one of the marvingen kingdom and that was transforming something you know very chaotic probably very rattling something more orderly but on you know with weak public authority and and this together with you know that is not to say that physicals were weak themselves you know it was just public authority it wasn't mean the the franks conquered half of europe without barely any public authority just with military force the visigothic kingdom at this point was probably re reactivating but it was very divided internally and the defeat of galilee has been you know explained in in in various ways right actually because of the also of the following speed of the islamic advance in saints bay which is is very difficult territory to to mostly to control maybe not to invade proper but to maintain on the long run and fundamentally the muslims will face but the same problems of the divisive kingdom but with very different political institutional base right after the battle the muslims ceased cordoba in 713 they they captured the same toledo at the capital aragon right the evolve was conquered the following year and before 720 also catalonia and and septimania that is today's fundamentally long document in southwestern france right so across the pyrenees was was was occupied so the this is interesting because by the way that there was still part of the visigothic kingdom that as you know was originally founded in aquitaine right the baron part was an appendix eventually you know because of engine expansionism the physicals refocused on spain they re-expanded from there centered their power in the peninsula but you know this southern stripe you know on the mediterranean coast of of of goal had remained under consistent physical influence fundamentally the muslims took that their own their own place even in there so it was very swift advance and this rapidity of what the arabs now came to call al angelous that they had learned to to call like this in africa while we were still thought to as the land of the vandals that had eventually mean they had been in in southern spain in fact to before eventually passing in in in tunisia was such that in order to explain you know that there is been lot of different factors that all together can actually give an efficacious explanation as you know in parts it's been assumed for example the role of the jewish populations like spain since late roman times very consistent jewish community and they were very in interpreter minded people they they they had us they were especially you know you know scattered along the probably the the south eastern coast of spain so they were much into novel maritime trade right so they these were the areas that also the byzantines had held for for longer time and the visigothic legislation was very harsh against the jews that were oppressed probably the worst way compared to other areas in western europe very similar along the byzantine lines which is that the visigoths were fundamentally trying to imitate but that also had probably been more you know local interest to enforce in general the jewish communities instead prospered under the islamic domination were basically before the italians in for the revival of medieval intercontinental trade from the mediterranean were the first community and they they played actually an important role of connection with of spain with with with africa you know also with the indian oaths and so on then there is another element of the physical kingdom hannah that had always remained part of the french which were the old aryans right the the the religious dissidents that you know had been converted forcefully by the visigothic monarchy to the roman christianism but that thought otherwise because of the you know older ethnic beliefs of the of the physical people of course you know with conviction of paganism etc burning under the ashes right and also but also probably more likely given especially the defeat of god letter where roderick was was abandoned fundamentally on the field by by some of the troops that you know this gothic faction was opposed in fact to to the king in this specific instance but you know the the the ease apparently he's in which did the visigothic kingdom crumbled and didn't put up much of resistance after all is to you know to be attributed to to reality was actually pretty unstable on its own not in completely dysfunctional sense but still in way that could undermine its base and after having occupied narpon in southern gold the muslims showed up in front of tolos that was basically the major center south western france has been the previous visigothic capital back in the day now it was part of you know the the broader power of the aquitainian dukes that were framed with the under the you know the merv engine at this point yes namely mayor of engine but you know the car engines were gradually taken over and the they also conquered nim and carcassonne in 725 so basically they they pushed you know they consolidated this mostly this area closer to the pyrenees and pushed further west in the improvements right so southern gold right was now from you know with the entire provence and the drone base were think at least theater of the reaction right if they didn't control it fully you know they they were easily permeable to their rates right otong was set on fire 725 and or according to others in 731 but this was very important blow to especially the franks because their own ballet was as you know one of the major highways of international trade right connected essentially france with italy and was one of the major veins for you know for trade flow and and riches are talking about you know important products can come from from far away where actually the same muslims you know exported from so by infiltrating these areas they counted on monopolizing also the the european trade traffics now the match has been speculated like what were the muslims up to technically and you know what they hope to do some say that the the idea now the muslims were actually obsessed with constitution rightfully so with constantinople like their main goal was to basically take it and these are the same years of of the fader of constantinople so this incursions have been seen even as possible western route to reach constitutional which ideally speaking about the geographical notions of that time was you know even put forward at least as an id naturally the situation is is much more complicated and we can't say naturally what the the broader picture really was because these incursions weren't now the the major omaya push anymore right you know they were part of the same of the same trivially incredibly rabid and incredibly quick islamic advance in in the baron peninsula but now you know they were starting to bog down and most of these raids started coming from the the frontier areas of the same mayat power in the baron peninsula that as we'll see in while wasn't completely conquered so these people's work came from from zaragoza from these entities that will remain always on the frontier even of their conquista etc and the other major player in the area at this point was this resurgent frankish power right the from spain to septimania this so this area of southern goal as we've seen where the the frankish namely dominated at the beginning of the sixth century because technically you know these were lands they they had except from you know probably septima it was still visigothic also here namely this this where areas of frontier nor the physicals not the franks had ever actually controlled fully these heirs they had as monarchies at least you know local communities were yeah they were fundamentally part of the same they were intensely romanized areas first of all so there were also communities that were had important contacts with with italy with constantinople they they they saw themselves even as reasonably as autonomous they didn't like central power very very much right they often rebelled to central power especially the in the visigothic kingdom and the franks were as we have seen reviving very gradually after they had been split for for generations essentially in four different kingdoms in the north and at least centered more towards the north and we will we won't be digressing on frankish history but you know more or less what we're talking about if not there is an entire playlist dedicated to it and we can say that at this point even since the beginning of the sixth century where the franks had defeated the physicals at boujee and they had seized aquitaine too down this major chalk effect with coastal plains of the the atlantic watershed right from the loire to the pyrenees right so an important chunk right were yeah namely brought under the control of the marvinjan dynasty and these were areas that were you know at least the atlantic watershed wasn't particularly romanized per se it was mostly the the mediterranean watershed to be romanized and the the atlantic one was dominated by the dukes of aquitaine that had reached this point of consistent power extending even across the pyrenees towards the south but generally speaking the political and social institutional and social structures were you know were weak right where floyd right and this is also why the the muslims managed you know with certain considered expeditions to to break through to have such an easy game in in in the in the region there weren't enough think about the times here we're talking about the the beginning of the eighth century so europe is quite slowly starting to revert that trend of contraction that had characterized the previous centuries right so there aren't many resources to be spent but especially in in southern gold there isn't much of the same there isn't really institutionalized power there isn't this is broader periphery of the frankish world even if ethnically speaking these are different peoples they are as we've seen our italians they're burgundians they they still manage their their own business but formally under the the frankish domination therefore these are normally the best ways in which great powers come to clash right even for with proxy war that as we will see will will be dominant for centuries in the area but the the world picture is also related to the ecclesiastical policy of europe this time rome had gained great importance over time especially in this broader connection with the with the franks right this there is this axis between then eventually rome and and the frankish monarchy that was many ways the continuation of the frankish roman alliance in imperial times right and that had to do especially these are the the times of iconoclasm so the the popes are struggling against the the byzantines that are confiscating or their lands in southern italy and there is great coming closer of the franks and rome and the bishop of rome gregory ii that was actually very you know very careful about how the situation was changed mean imagine you know after centuries of relative stabilization sees this you know power coming out of the blue literally and you know taking over all the system and starting to push into goal right here the umayyads are really as we'll see now really trying to to see if there is potential breakthrough mean it would have not been you know strange in their view to to manage to break through whatever you know that they found along the way it was really matter of you know seizing all the fortresses and controlling the surrounding counterside as long as it worked they would keep doing that their push had you know slowly already found some uniquely some resistance some contrast right in spain wasn't over yet in this area of you know of gold the yeah there was some backlash of sort but still the you know their power was vigorous and public policy at this point was very very important for for same spain because the aforementioned councils of toledo we made bit about them we will have to come back actually in this topic because they are one of the single most important ecclesiological chapters of or in early medieval history and they you know the physicals had basically created right on their own what would be eventually known as the mods arabic one also because of you know the survival of christianity under umayyad rule in spain that had competed against rome for the you know control actually over western with the west and western christian pull right in pre-karlingen times as as we will see that this all the you know in two generations the essentially the pope will crown well maybe not two or three but you know already the trend now actually probably would crown properly the carolingians as kings of of of the franks right over the you know put in an end to marvel engine rule formally right and in three generations they will crown the carolingians emperors of the of the romans so you understand here how close eventually the just the the christian homogenization of of europe will will come to thanks to the roman church and and imperial effort to to to standardize right education and so on but so actually the islamic invasion of spain had disintegrated of course all these physical ecclesiastical institutions and relegated the christians of spain mostly either under the control or towards the north and actually this northerners had sold help from rome right that said okay we will be helping you together with the franks we will you know send you you know eight and so on but you will have to accept the roman right and give up the malta arabic one and this is very fascinating because actually they agreed but still naturally much of mozarella especially under the same umayyads that point not much in the christian north went on so the the pope actually had great interest now to control the situation not just because italy could be next theoretically and we know you know how fundamentally the same the same empire mean the roman empire in southern italy was now you know as we've seen in contrast with the papacy but eventually you know sicily will be lost at some point the syracuse will swarm even in the southern part of the peninsula so the same basilicas of saint peter and saint paul will be ravaged during the carolingian domination in the kingdom of italy and and this will come you know next in different context because actually what we know is the source and properly as we were saying before was something different from this bigger you know regional power of omaya spain will start consolidating at this point they were you know different realities that were naturally you know on the same page at many levels but they they were still you know operating differently and at this point we are in the first stage of the advance so nobody knows what how the thing will go the franks are threatened themselves and at least further expansion and having this you know now stable presence in goal which is is still possible reality right so the franks and the pope are very you know very close and at this point and they they care very much to the firstborn sons of the church that were the franks according to his wars and he encouraged at this point autumn duke of aquitaine that was one of the greatest rulers actually in western europe at the time it was as we've seen formerly you know under the the merv injuries however that he was on in front line that point because the muslims were swarming in his own territory tour exist in 721 against the muslims in front of tolos right and at by title of eulogy he sent also some textiles that had served as culver for the altar of saint peter and these were you know cut cut in in fragments and swallowed literally by the christian warriors you know in para sacramental function before going to war and think about even where the aids at the beginning of the eighth century goal right so this is situation like these people were barely christianized we we know that the carolingian clergy didn't even know how to to read latin that they basically you know reinvented the world texts because they did the meaning because they had literally no idea of what it meant so paganism still you know it didn't if it didn't burn under the ashes but was still you know for momentous in the way so we we don't have to be so surprised by that this fight and this is the same is true actually from the muslim side right and in the meanwhile as we have seen the saracen conquest of the baron peninsula was not had not been totaled right this is mostly territorial reality right spain is freaking huge like if you take the bearing peninsula all together it's larger than france it's like this massive plateau crossed by some major rivers you know all these fortified centers in in the north you have the disparities of the pyrenees and of the cantabrian mountains and that's exactly the areas that you know areas were fundamentally still barbaric in nature mean these lands would have been under half of millennium and roman domination basically not much have changed right they were still always on the fringe this is partly of the celtic fringe of europe telling the truth because these areas were cultly bearing back in they had actually lot of contact lot in common with places with brittany and even the british isles and ireland you know whales did this there had been this you know that there is an iberian influence in in the british isles historically speaking from an ethnical point of view and they had always been out there on their own right the visigoths as we have seen have never been able to to put them under control that they they had created sort of militarized frontiers properly you know fortress fortresses and you know other strongholds to try to counter the continuous rates by the way these people's in turn launched into the iberian heartland from the north and this is where you know some outbacks of christian resistance against the muslim domination actually spread right and consider here that like there is not proper border like you can't say you know the the year like the umayyad domination begins and here stops right the the the idea is whoever exists can beat it and there was point in which theoretically wally bear in peninsula was brought under the muslims but still these communities resisted swords his word in hand and there was lot of interesting cultural blending in the process because as we've seen these people were not busy gods but there were also many physicals who took refuge in these areas pelagius for example was god himself organized in the astorias in 720 principality that basically 20 years later would have transformed into in fact the kingdom of the story is most famous that is basically the the the base of the future castiglione right you know and that would place its capital in city of new foundation of vietnam where being founded in 760 right and the basque numbers people that had vote instead against these gods didn't join they they knew how maintained their their own independence even in the situation and and therefore between during let's say the third fourth decade of the ninth century was formed was organized between the galicians the cantabrians and the historians with the support of handful of visigothic warriors that had taken refuge to them this small principality of navarre that would have become actually kingdom as you know one century roughly one century later and from the asturias navarre and northern aragon would have eventually started backed in fact by the the franks and or the frankish world at that point and the pavel helped the christian reconquista right and this all naturally there would be lot to talk about this but it's important to stress that the the mayan power concentrated mostly in the south of spain it was by far the richest more advanced more urbanized they created properly state like something like the byzantine one like with you know with real estate bureaucracy permanent army right it wasn't easy to cover as wall but you know that was properly civilization last in germanic europe didn't have anything like this was rather developing alongside the vassalatic beneficiary system and yet by the 8th century that we have not yet finished to discuss it had produced this major military power mostly military power as matter of fact of that was expressed by the the carolingian power but the carolingian conquest re-expansion in the same frankish world and out of it eventually in this case coping with with an external threat right that would have eventually even entered the same space benchmark carolingian times and eventually fragmented again but leaving europe with this particular peculiar political and social system that gave on the long ground greater first that what the actually the the same islamic tradition of essentially roman style legacy did not right we made video comparing the carolingian and the basic empires and we have seen how on the long run actually europe managed to to three actually the the the currently vastly beneficiary system reshaped europe from from the bases in many ways and on the long run this thing eventually exploded right in terms of growth of production etc whereas the islamic world by the end of the 11th century underwent fundamentally crisis that was also exploited by the same europeans figured about the crusades or etcetera so now this is complicated not pertinent to today's topic but it's food for thought on on how you know that the we are still like the beginning of eighth century we're still in time suspensed between you know roman and don't know to say feudal times you know way and and you can't see actually the the presence of both either as as dying system or as or as respectively but it's obvious that talking about the maya invasion of the west we have to discuss the battle of poiti whatever you want to call it like and of 730 so we never actually made video about the battle forties so at some point we'll have to deal with it more more in detail and we have discussed it in some other video on puzzle but never you know expressing much of broader judgment now as you know probably you know the battle has or two preferred at least in english historiography it's called as parallel to but has assumed this dramatic significance in western historiography now it's been really dimensioned for reasons that many people interpret the way they like this is the point i'm trying to make in the sense that the importance of poitiers is being probably overly emphasized and downsized you know excessively or over time like the it's difficult in perspective especially when considering the islamic invasions of europe and you know looking at political parallelisms or you know whatever people like to to weaponize history for you know there is always this embarrassment of saying you know what what is that you know are we really talking about history or are we making political propaganda so on schwerpent try to to offer you know obviously not much of moderate balance but actually trying to be an objective judgment on the thing so fundamentally to make it simple today we we recognize the it's geographically the the concrete mean the objective value of the battle 28 but still would say in popular culture the the opinion swings between two extremes like the first one is saying okay the battle 48 was it basically halted it prevented the the islamic invasion of europe now this is historically not real right this is not factual reality right that thing would have not happened even if the muslims had won party and in on the other side you find say was just skirmish right he was not you know kind of secondary battle that has eventually been exalted by the you know the the nationalistic historiography and it's not important that's not historical reality either right and the the reality stays in the middle and it mostly has these two meanings right you know first of all what is what are you talking about you know what it is you know the the master of palace of the merving kingdom of australia australia charles martel defeated the this the muslim army right in 732 or as others say actually in 733 and bringing to to the myth that we have roughly sketched in here and from one side we must give that of course the battle was objectively very important right it was really major engagement for those time standards it had important strategic consequences it basically prevented aquitaine to be brought under muslim rule to you know to the creation probably of another local you know potentate like the one that had been formed in sara gaza for example and even if this is kind of debatable right it was these expeditions were had the the character of major raids overall and even if they maybe didn't aim properly at the settlement in some areas that of course were aimed at maintaining certain strongholds causing infrastructural damage to system that you know by the eight center didn't have much waste to recover on the long run and hopefully to meet an open ground the you know major enemy forces and crushing them therefore you know opening you know far and wide to further expansion and you know destruction in in this context that at that point would have become of essentially frontier the battle objectively would have not led at all to the islamization of europe had been won by buddy mahaslips but probably would have created big fracture in gold would have you know compromised the stability of substantial area you know especially of nail straight from the metal it was just next door to accutane through the lower valley and it could have created more difficulties to the carolingians that time to consolidate power to to form an effective response but objectively the franks at that point we're undergoing from the from the probably the frankish earthland you know re systematization of of the of the kingdom and to basically reestablish it on on sounded basis and with this large ever larger political military client tales that are the same ones that were you know fielded the frankish army at above 48 and that defeated the muslims the battle is tactically interesting is actually actually shows the the importance of both cavalry and infantry at that time the franks have very strong both very strong arms in that regard and proving you know that this this impetus of of cavalry was transforming rarely in greater shock power in this you know ice literal ice wall as it described by the sources of of the infantrymen that withstood the did the islamic attacks and that actually you know were complimented by the same muslims like the muslims were you know admirers if you want of both the romans and the franks they acknowledged the the capacity of these peoples and they they realized of course who they were dealing with so also for them it wasn't actually easy to even take up the challenge and say you know now we we go there and we will have it easy we'll conquer all of god no it does something never crossed their mind but eventually they knew the difference that it could make to to defeat carolinian army on the field and to you know in order to to consolidate their positions to hopefully you know re-establish now this the spanish-based power in equity right from now under muslim rule and on the other hand of course the battle had probably you know less importance than other events than we can't think of the arab seizure of constantinople between 717 and 718 was repelled by leo iii desiring and it was by far much more important about party right that is to say it's not about but it was not was unimportant right but there's no comparison can you imagine what would have happened had the the muslims conquered constantinople right even in there probably europe would have not been conquered by the muslims but it means you know the collapse of in terms of sheer you know political consequences all over europe it will change the issue of the world forever in way the ballot but he could simply could not right and also the battle of crinos in 740 right that is basically another party right and that's prevented now the the muslims to launch further attacks of constantinople and you know just it stabilized fundamentally the the the anatolian frontier of the empire against the muslims on the other side so those were two major clashes that were more you know as or more important surely constantino but more important about what he nobody cares about guess why because you know the byzantine history has been you know broke you know from aside generally speaking at least in the time in which the bowel 48 was being overly emphasized there is another aspect though that aside from the from the importance of the battle footage itself shows you how you know relative its you know outcome could have been in terms of broader strategical you know consequences because aside from the myth we have we have to keep in mind very significant events that happened even after right such as the the one of the barbar chieftain munoz or muzura that basically settled across the the eastern pyrenees in certain and married daughter of the duke aldo of aquitay right so one of the major christian champions of goal actually married his own daughter to to muslim and that was you know literally settled now next door to him and before he was defeated however in by the emir of cordoba to whom he had rebelled which already shows you by the way here we are in the same years basically it was three years before puerte and what does this mean well it means that the caliphate of cordoba was already established as such and already this brother frontier within the same caliphate was fragment right because already these guys in the north were actually the ones that launched the attacks in in goal were now essentially creating principalities on their own compared to the muslim group right there was already this impetus they you know the the visigothic kingdom had been conquered you know not even 20 years before but the the situation was already fragment right and in fact the caliphate of korvo always had difficulties even to control directly right terms as centralized power the you know this other principalities especially of the northeast there's another example too in southern call of the duke of provence mohant that in 734 literally opened the gates of avignon to the muslims right the reality is and we have addressed it in in the series in history videos that actually even if the frank's one of poitier in 732 the muslim presence in southern france ended only in the 11th century right there were different ways because actually in carolinian times the franks managed to secure this especially the septimanian corridor like with the creation of the of the spanish mark in the south so that it was like bottle neck to you know of the pyrenees that was safeguarded and you know the the mark of barcelona and all the servers that remain christian as christian bulwark against the the the umayyad power but the source and as you know actually settled in southern france and they even you know came to rule in the area in many christian powers their cities mostly actually were better off with them than with under the carol engine so by the way we're disgracing so actually as we were saying before it was literally you know muslim rule in in southern gold up to the 11th century and always trending by the way as far as germany like the rhine valley was raided raided by the saracens the month was rated the the other areas of gold also had but even in here what's the point basically you know the fame of quarter has overshadowed the immediately subsequent years that showed that the muslim rates in gold bueno kept going on right without any way actually bringing to any systematic or definitive territorial conquest of the muslims across the pyrenees right that is important because exactly what it might have brought that to happen but in by avignon as we have seen was occupied afla was sacked and so you know the the the entire provence was raided in 737 burgundy was reached right and here we are entering central europe financially and there was an enormous quantity of slaves that was raided and brought deducted to spain and charles martel that had defeated the muslims had to resume his campaigns actually in the south of gold between 736 and 739 but the whole situation there was extremely complicated because as we've seen certain local communities were you know actually even acting together with the muslims because they were you know framed now even aside from the sheer participation to the right et cetera but they were entering now even broader trade system that stretched from you know from from in fact from the atlantic to central asia and they were starting to to see the benefits of the thing the the the very south of gull probably the coastal area that was was very far objectively from the frankish earthland right there was always there was no way even to fundamentally control the sea from there the waterways now were would be used as you know this is for the end of the century the same vikings and northwest start causing mess in that regard so this transversal alliances this broader game based on betrayal fundamentally was the norm in in in the region was dramatically fragment right the sovereign goal was not like northern france where more or less were these major sceneries or at least land bases of power you know these were all you know more urbanized areas that followed you know the line of along the line of the previous roman city districts and were fundamentally more like city-states right there were certain of course rural lords and so on so but it was like more fragmented reality right paradoxically the vasatic beneficiary system gave for time more more glowing resistance than than this other reality and it helped actually saying frank's to to win and in battles like poitiers rain fielding this pretty consistent armies of trained professionals now that there is something that the rest of europe wasn't like quite seeing now no other power than europe had let's say lot in germanic europe let's say better had this you know this professional mounted elite it was starting to fight basically every single year of their lives and becoming true professional force so if we look at southern goal we can't even talk about things like the franks against insulin right because they were doing basically whatever the freak they want there wherever they were right the muslims with their raids were part of struggle for power was very complex they had to do much of the also with the autonomistic instances of these southern gallic powers compared against the franks and only several decades later it would have been possible in the let's say shared memory fed especially by some you know ethical you know conditioning to attribute religious motives to it but let's be honest about this this was just about getting freaking lot of money from fragmented rally where there was no central rule and therefore as always this starts happening right so this is the the the general picture with which would leave you with talking about the the islamic invasion of gold because the the situation was really that messed up that you you start you stop seeing what you saw for example with the with the the islamic invasion of spain but that was already something that relatively detached from the from the major caliphate right you know that with the basic revolution fundamentally the umayyads will remain in spain as separate state as proper caliphate on their own and you you can already start seeing that process of fragmentation of the cow effect that that we're talking about at the beginning in in the eastern world consider going back on the on the maya perspective just to conclude you have to think that this areas were let's say we can say peripheral but they were properly also in the you know islamic cultural radar the end of the interesting or controllable world right and in part where right you know in by 717 the arabs had found themselves once again like 40 years before under the walls of constantinople rapid the the first siege actually happened shortly you know after the conquest of the syrian palestine and in 1717 as we have seen the besieged city again under the command of maslama it was the brother of the same umayyad caliph and we have seen how the basilious leo iii had repulsed them actually with difficulty also thanks to the so-called liquid fire you know this you know projectiles constituted by containers of terracotta or glass filled with nafta and therefore inflammable so-called greek fires we came to know it and but broadly speaking from from the eastern side of the islamic world in the first 15 years of the 8th century there had been major expansion the governor the islamic order of mesopotamia holly jag had subdued the carved mints right he crossed the oxus the the amudaria river and occupied bukhara and samarkand would become some of the major trade centers of the islamic world throughout all the middle ages right and they reached actually belo system right so we're up to pakistan right all this area that is had been part of actually the persian empire that had crumbled at nineveh against the roman push they had disintegrated but fundamentally would reabsorb also islamic culture and give it back so much of persian elements especially during basic times as we were saying before that at that pacific took it over once again and the persian empire this is the point had for centuries captain check the the romans and dissolved just like snow under the sun right and and therefore the the islamic invasions now expanded in territory that became extremely complicated but once again easy to push through at the beginning so much in fact that the muslims reached up to the river palace where in 751 now under you know tabases became theater of victory of islam against the imperial chinese tang army right that was the really defeated and out loud quite importantly the definition of first of all it basically you know gave the vote was vote there and you know which side had to you know belong to the other of of of this broader region where all the silk road basically passed so that was the major interest for the area and it brought to the partition therefore of the altai area but also so this muslim consolidation of the other side whereas the area might have been overrun if not by the chinese but at least by other populations that you know had the muslims being defeated at this house river would have probably taken over you know or re-expanding another power of the emerged from the air and of course they would emerge over time but under muslim culture so this is the limit of islamic expansion 28 732 constantinople 717-18 akronos 740 and even the victory the muslim victory of of of talos brought the islamic you know expansion to halt like it was territorial dimension now was fundamentally fixed the the islamic push was halt right and it would halt itself like it's bit like it would happen for the same carolingian empire as it would happen for other powers like this thing could not overly expand and therefore we have to read also in events as the battle of 40 and in the following you know events the definitely not like deterministically like the you know simply the face of something had to stop anyway right at that point but definitely situation that had already slowed down before right and might have been revived had of course like all these battles had been in europe had been won by the muslims but and pro 2 to further expansion but quite difficultly the system might have held for long because fundamentally saint caliphate began to crumble from the within and we have seen it even before potti we have seen it even before constantine we've seen it in the history of islam the first days first generation so actually leave you with with like few evaluation overall but you know promise we'll come back on the topic because the the topic is is naturally very important but also it has to take in consideration the the local realities if you don't speak of them you can't fundamentally think the thing in all its shades and it's real damage so that you can't think that don't know hadn't the frank's defeated the the muslims are 48 don't know you know scandinavia would have been muslim like the next generation no no it would have not happened right there was all you know even even if slow rudimentary system that you know in frank in central europe in italy in with the byzantine empire with you know other realities in don't know in the balkans in for not talking about the broader outskirts think about britain think about scandinavia think about the slavic more broadly meant would have probably you know absorbed the thing would have you know stamped it and of course it would have been much more difficult than how things eventually went to to to get rid of the islamic presence in the air but still the picture would have not been so dramatic right not even if vienna had fallen 1683 you would have found the ultimates on on the tapes right but this is the point right every system has its limits we're not talking about you know absolute physical realities that can stretch from from continent to another without consequences look at what happened at the caliphate in few generations so you'll see what would have happened in your you know where another as well so and and this we could talk about this perspective also culturally speaking like how christian or however how something else compared to the rest of the world europe was starting to feel at that time is also controversial because you know that you know actually in pre-carl indian times europe was very diverse was still like loosely feeling maybe in broader latin kind of roman you know christian perspective was starting to feel something like okay we are we are systematically maybe we can start having common systems of some sort but you know the the the ties were fairly loose and it took an empirical carol engine one that might have easily even in there not not reached the same levels we think just you know had carlomen not died his brother might have not risen to you know even the imperial title we've completely been completely different history but once again it's you know the reality stands in in the middle in many ways and the importance is getting the quantitative aspect right which which is difficult because we don't have it historically speaking mean we have it broadly you know if you realize more or less what these things were in the essentials but that's exactly the point this is not you know racist or things like that you know you have consistent friction and resistance happening for whichever vote you make right the resources are not infinite the whole system will count to to exhaust itself to crumble without without consistent you know re you know re reformulation at least of its own basis and and and the muslim world was largely product of we can say of an anachronistic model but something that in in some century would start feeding its its own age right compared to what said the europeans now were gradually just putting in motion in the in the frankish world broadly meant it would be expanded to fundamentally yeah mean today's france central northern italy western germany and bit of northeastern spain but that eventually will will show to have its own winning formula on the long run so this is whatever another direction and will not will stop it here but just consider the the problems fundamental of interpretation anyway for now just hope that you enjoyed this video if you did please share it otherwise leave like or subscribe to my channel if you are interested in my upcoming contents and for now thank you hartley for listening to me wish you nice time and see you next time bye