Machine summary:
The Arab narrative already quoted gives one to understand that the battle took place in the vicinity of Tours, and this is also the opinion followed by Roderic Ximenes who wrote on the authority of the Arabs", On the other hand, a majority of the French Chronicles, specially the Chronicle of the Moissac Abbey, written almost at the time the event was taking place, affirms that the battle took place near or in the suburbs of Poitiers, One can reconcile these two opinions by the supposition that the first encounter of the two armies took place at the gate of Tours, while the suburbs had already been captured by the Mussulmans, and that in the engagement which took place in the neigh- (I) Conde: Historia, Eng. Tr.
Northern Spain and those of Southern France followed the· same faith, considered themselves as having sprung from the same stock and still remembered the time when a large colony left the banks of the Ebro and settled down in Gascony1• 'Abdul Malik directed his earliest efforts against Catalonia, Aragon and Navarre; then he went right into the Languedoc, placed the towns occupied by the Mussul• mans in a state of defence, and was not slow to renew the offensive.
" According to the accounts given by some learned Mussulmans, the Prophet said that a naval war made in the service of Islam brings ten times greater merit than the war on land, and that those who were to come after him, not having the good fortune of fighting under his command, could enjoy the same advantages if they carried on their expedition in seafaring ships.