I would have also included the Battle of Lepanto in that list.
If the Knights Templar are truly the wealthy, secretive, thriving organization that the History Channel claims, then we might have a chance.
Ping.
El Cid, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, captured Valencia in 1094. Although he fought for the Mohammedans while in exile, he returned to fight the Mohammedans at Valencia. I saw his tomb in the Burgos Cathedral. El Cid is the national hero of Spain.
The contributions of the Byzantines should not be overlooked. Even though Islamic expansion was possible through Byzantium’s exhaustion from incessant wars with the Persians, they retained enough strength to stop the Arabs in Asia Minor. Then, for 400+ years they remained a strong bulwark against the Moslem Arabs, Saracens, Persians and Turks, all while having to watch their backs in the Balkans.
This implies that Syria, Iraq and Palestine were Arab lands, which they were not at the time.
All three were inhabited by a very mixed population, many of whom were related to Arabs (as are the Jews), but they were certainly not Arab at their core.
Hey!
If you behead your wife, rape goats and don't use toilet paper....You just might be a moslem.
Westerners seem to overlook the significance of the sieges of Constantinople in 683 and 717, which were much more significant victories by Christians over Muslims than was the Battle of Tours. Also overlooked is the Battle of Kashgar in 736, in which the Chinese defeated Arab invaders and halted the eastward advance of Islam.
It is relevant to point out that the limits of Muslim expansion reached at Tours, Vienna and Malta were to a considerable extent the consequence not so much of defeat in these battles as of shee distance.
Give the tech of the time, France was an enormous distance from the center of Muslim power in Syria/Iraq. With every mile the Muslims advanced their logistics became more difficult while that of their enemies, driven back onto their own centers of power, became easier.
Same thing was the most important single reason for the defeats of Charles XII, Napoleon and Hitler when they invaded Russia.
Amateurs talk battles, professionals study logistics.
A not inconsiderable additional factor at Tours was the coalition and freebooting nature of the Muslim invasion. When their accumulated booty, the reason they’d invaded in the first place, was threatened, soldiers began sneaking off to secure their loot, and the Muslim army fell apart.
I have heard about "Palestine".
Some say "Palestine" and some say there is no such place as "Palestine" and never has been.
Anyone know which is correct and definitive?
TIA!