This memorable battle, of which we possess no details, saved France from the yoke of the Arabs, and effectually arrested their spreading dominion.
Once again, subsequent to this reverse, the Moors attempted to penetrate into France, and { 43} succeeded in seizing upon Avignon; but Charles Martel defeated them anew, retook the captured city, drove them from Narbonne, and deprived them forever of the hope with which they had so often flattered themselves.
After the death of Abderamus, Spain was torn by dissensions between the two governors[14] named successively by the Caliph. A third pretender arrived from Africa. A fourth added himself to the list;[15] factions multiplied; the different parties often had recourse to arms; chiefs were assassinated, cities taken, and provinces ravaged.
The details of these events are variously related by different historians, but possess little interest in the narrations of any.
These civil wars lasted nearly twenty years. The Christians, who had retired into Asturia, profited by them to the utmost. Alphonso I., the son-in-law and successor of Pelagius, imitated the career of that hero. He seized upon a part of Galicia and Leon, repulsed the Mussulman troops who were sent to oppose him, and rendered himself master of several towns.
The Moors, occupied by their domestic { 44} quarrels, neglected to arrest the progress of Alphonso, and from that time the growth of a miniature kingdom commenced, whose interests were inimical to those of the Saracens in Spain.
After many crimes and combats, a certain _Joseph_ had succeeded in triumphing over his different rivals, and was at last reigning supreme in Cordova, when there occurred a memorable event in the East, which was destined greatly to affect the condition of Spain.
From that period, A.D. 749, Heg. 134, commences the second epoch of the empire of the Moors of Spain, which makes it necessary to revert briefly to the history of the Eastern caliphs.
[1] The _Sabaei_, according to the best ancient authorities, were the inhabitants of the extensive Arabian kingdom of _Saba_.--_Translator_.
[2] The term Moors, according to Bochart, comes from a Hebrew word, _Mahuran_, which signifies Western.
[3] It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader that these _Children of the Desert_ are supposed to be the lineal descendants of Ishmael, the wandering, outcast son of the patriarch Abraham and the much-abused Hagar.--_Translator_.