Then all the host
fled before the enemy and many died in the flight. This deadly defeat of
the Moslems, and the loss of the great leader and good cavalier
Abderrahman, took place in the hundred and fifteenth year."[72]
It would be difficult to expect from an adversary a more explicit
confession of having been thoroughly vanquished than the Arabs here
accord to the Europeans. The points on which their narrative differs
from those of the Christians--as to how many days the conflict lasted,
whether the assailed city was actually rescued or not, and the like--are
of little moment compared with the admitted great fact that there was a
decisive trial of strength between Frank and Saracen, in which the
former conquered. The enduring importance of the battle of Tours in the
eyes of the Moslems is attested not only by the expressions of "the
deadly battle" and "the disgraceful overthrow" which their writers
constantly employ when referring to it, but also by the fact that no
more serious attempts at conquest beyond the Pyrenees were made by the
Saracens.
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