Anybody got a link to the great turningpoint battles against the Muslims

[Alexander's Horse]

There was one in Spain against the Moors and one in Austria against the Turks

Also a site that gives a list of great turningpoint battles of history would be helpful.

thanks in advance

[KrazyHorse]

Re: Anybody got a link to the great turningpoint battles against the Muslims

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
There was one in Spain against the Moors

France, actually. The battle of Tours against Charles Martel, king of the Franks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tours

one in Austria against the Turks

Battle of Vienna, against the Hapsburgs and Poles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_vienna

edit: apparently Charles Martel was never king of the Franks. He was mayor of the palace, which was the next best thing

[Sikander]

Martel was a dynastic segue iirc.

[Vince278]

Re: Anybody got a link to the great turningpoint battles against the Muslims

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
There was one in Spain against the Moors

That would be the fall of Granada in January 1492. The Moors were driven from their last Spanish stronghold by Christian forces.

Originally posted by Sikander
Martel was a dynastic segue iirc.

He was the grandfather of Charlemagne.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

there was no king at the time I dont think. that made martel the top dog.

[Seeker]

err...Granada was essentially a mop-up battle...the 'turning point' battle in Iberia was "Las Navas de la Tolosa" (sp?) or something like that which essentially broke muslim power in the West and let Christians get back to important matters like killing each other and burning witches.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

martel, which btw means 'the hammer'

[BeBMan]

Several repulsed attacks on Constantinople in the 7/8th century are often considered as important "stop signs" for Muslim expansion in the east, similar to Martel's success (which otoh some say is overrated).

[Ecthy]

Anglo-Americans need to learn how to spell Habsburg.

[Thorgal]

The first turning point in Europa was infact The Battle of Covadonga. it was ten years before the famous battle of Tours.

The Battle of Covadonga was the first major victory by a Christian military force in Iberia following the Islamic Moors' conquest of that region in 711. Taking place about a decade later, most likely in the summer of 722, the victory at Covadonga assured the survival of a Christian stronghold in northern Iberia, and today is regarded as the beginning of the Reconquista.

Seven years after the Islamic conquest of Iberia, Pelayo, a nobleman of the country's former rulers, the Visigoths, managed to expel a provincial governor named Munuza from the district of Asturias in the northwestern part of the Iberian peninsula. He held the territory against a number of attempts to re-establish Islamic control, and soon established the Kingdom of Asturias, which became a Christian stronghold against further Islamic expansion. Pelayo was unable to keep the Muslims out in many cases, but neither could they defeat him, and as soon as they left Asturias, he would re-establish control.

Pelayo did not attempt to force the issue, and it was a Moorish defeat elsewhere that probably set the stage for Covadonga. On July 9, 721, an Islamic force that crossed the Pyrenees and invaded the Kingdom of the Franks was defeated by them in the Battle of Toulouse, in modern France. The Moors returned to the Iberian peninsula, and decided to consolidate their holdings there, before taking on the Franks again. One of the key tasks in achieving that would be to destroy Pelayo's rebel stronghold.

In the late summer of 722, a Moorish general named Alqama led his men into Pelayo's territory, and overran much of it, forcing Pelayo to retreat deep into the mountains of Asturias. Pelayo retired into a narrow valley flanked by mountains, which was easily defensible due to the impossibility of launching a broad-fronted attack. Pelayo may have had as few as 300 men with him at this point.

Alqama eventually arrived at Covadonga, and sent forward an envoy to convince Pelayo to surrender. He refused, so Alqama ordered his best troops into the valley to fight. The Asturians opened fire from the slopes of the mountains, and then at some point, Pelayo personally led some of his soldiers out into the valley. They had been hiding in a cave, unseen by the Moors. The Christian accounts of the battle claim that the slaughter among the Moors was great, while Moorish accounts describe it as a mere skirmish. Alqama himself fell in the battle, and his soldiers fled from the battlefield.

In the aftermath of Pelayo's victory, the people of the conquered villages of Asturias now emerged with their weapons, and killed hundreds of Alqama's fleeing troops. Munuza, learning of the defeat, organized another force, and gathered what was left of the survivors of Covadonga. At some later date, he confronted Pelayo and his now greatly-augmented force, near the modern town of Proaza. Again Pelayo won, and Munuza was killed in the fighting. And although the Muslims in their own histories called Pelayo and his men "thirty wild donkeys", they never again seriously challenged the independence of the Kingdom of Asturias.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Covadonga

[Sir Og]

Originally posted by BeBro
Several repulsed attacks on Constantinople in the 7/8th century are often considered as important "stop signs" for Muslim expansion in the east, similar to Martel's success (which otoh some say is overrated).

QFT

Martel is overrated. The battle at Poatiers (if I am not mistaken) is incomparable in scale to the battle for Constantinople

[Leifmk]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
there was no king at the time I dont think. that made martel the top dog.

There was a king but this was during the final decades of the Merovingian dynasty; a succession of weak monarchs had gradually delegated more and more power to the (hereditary) Mayor of the Palace -- Charles Martel, at the time.

[Darius871]

Originally posted by Sir Og


QFT

Martel is overrated. The battle at Poatiers (if I am not mistaken) is incomparable in scale to the battle for Constantinople

On the other hand Martel wasn't sitting pretty behind a wall 5 meters thick and 12 meters high, itself behind another external wall 2 meters thick and 8.5 meters high, and with impenetrable sea walls to the east. Hardly a comparable feat IMHO.

[BeBMan]

And he had no fancy Greek Fire

[Kassiopeia]

Hm, I could swear my school textbooks called the Battle of Tours the Battle of Poitiers, but turns out there was a Battle of Poitiers between France and England several centuries later. Just shows how much you should rely on textbooks.

It's also possible that the books said "the muslims were defeated at Poitiers", which I suppose is correct, but somewhat misleading in context.