The battle of Tours (or Poitiers) (732 C.E)

The battle of Tours (732 C.E) (also known as the battle of Poitiers) was a battle between the united forces of the Franks and the Burgundians led by Charles Martel on the one side, and the  Saracen Islamic forces (Arabs, Berbers, muslim Gauls, Goths) led by Emir Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi Abd al Rahman that had already moved forward and conquered Spain. The Franks beated the Saracen and Abdul Rahman was killed. The battle that took place between the cities of Tours and Poitiers is a watershed in European medieval history, because it put an end to the hazard in which the Western Europe was exposed due to the invasions of the Arabs.

Charles, by vanquishing the Arab troops and terminating the Arabs’ march into the heart of the western european medieval dominion, entrenched his power and was given the byname Martel, which means “the hammer”, due to the way he crushed his opponents. The particular fight is considered to be of utmost strategical importance, because it stopped the advance of the Islamists from the Iberian peninsula to the North, leading to the result that the Christian religion continued to be the dominant religion in Europe in a period when Islam was marauding the remaining grounds of the formerly powerful Roman Empire. 

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First siege of Constantinople

In 673/4 C.E., the Arabs were in the Thracian suburbs of Constantinople, but their subsequent attempts against the City took place between April and September and only by the sea. They could not besiege and attack the city from the land (Thrace).

In the final outcome of the confrontation, decisive was the role of the use of the Greek fire by the powerful Byzantine navy. The Greek fire was a substance devised by the architect Callinicus, who was a refugee from Syria and was used to burn the enemy vessels. The Arabs were forced to retreat and they suffered huge losses from storms on their way back.

Second siege of Constantinople (717 - 718 CE)

The Arabs (under the Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik and Caliph Sulayman) crossed Asia Minor and besieged Constantinople by land from Thrace (since August 717 B.C), and by sea with their fleet. Finally, they were defeated and withdrew, having suffered huge losses because of the impregnable walls of the city, the Byzantine military and naval forces, the use of the Greek Fire, the hardships and the epidemics, the harsh winter and the defects of the christian sailors that used to fight for them. Therefore, Maslama was compelled to order retreat in August 718 C.E. The remainder of the Arabian fleet was wrecked on the way back by storms. 

This terrible destruction of the arabian forces meant that they would never be able to threaten the Byzantine capital and move forward to Europe. 

The Greek Fire

Greek Fire, (also called sea fire, Median fire, war fire, liquid fire or Roman Fire) was an incendiary weapon of the Byzantine empire, that was invented in the late 7th century.

Ways in which it was used:

a) it was thrown with catapults inside clay jars filled with the liquid that smashed on the vessel and caused fires. 

b)  with crossbows.

c) inside grenades

d) the chief method of its deployment, however, was through a tube  (siphon) 

 These copper siphons were either portable (cheirosiphones) or mounted to the bow of warships, which threw the flaming liquid, under pressure, towards the enemy ships. A peculiar quality, which made the weapon even more shocking, was that it burned especially well on water. 

    The Greek fire played a major role in the repulse of the Arab troops attacking Constantinople and in several naval confrontations against the Arabs and the Rus. 

The ships on which the projection mechanism of the liquid was attached were the famous Byzantine “dromons”.