522. Warlords of the West: A Clash of Ice and Fire (Part 3)

210.525 - 242.082 Tom Holland

But we're now in the early 8th century and Charles will be known from the following century onwards as Charles Martel, the Hammer. So a tremendous name for a guy who has a very mailed fist. The Saracens are an army in the service of the Umayyad Caliphate. So that is the first great Arab empire, the first great empire of Islam. And this is why Gibbon is casting it as a peculiarly decisive clash