The Saracens of St. Tropez - Saudi Aramco World, Sep/Oct 2009

8/14/2019 The Saracens of St. Tropez - Saudi Aramco World, Sep/Oct 2009

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nder cover o darkness, they beached their

small, lateen-rigged sailing vessel on the

rocky shore and began the slow, silent climb u . s u u , m p; p u pp.t 20 , , f u -aui sp.

t u, p . a u u. t P u f . a

Written by Robert W. Lebling

Illustrated by Norman MacDonald


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troubadour, the residents o the manorhouse were preparing to sleep. But it wouldnot be long beore the evening serenity othat coastal villa would be shattered.

This was the opening act in an 85-yeardrama played out along the coast o Provencein the ninth and 10th centuries o our era.This little-known but signicantprojection o Arab military powerinto the land o the Franks was the

second o its kind in less thanthree centuries. The rst,launched almost two centuriesbeore, is the one most o us knowabout. Conducted rom al-Andalusby an army on horseback, it wasthwarted by Eudes o Aquitaine atToulouse in 721 and by CharlesMartel at Poitiers in 732.

The second projection, over-looked by most o our historybooks, began as a small-scale mili-tary operation along the beautiul

stretch o coastline now known asthe French Riviera. Frankishchroniclers, in unabashedly one-sided and hostile accounts, soughtto dismiss the operation as apirate raid. It may have appearedso to some at the time. But the pas-sage o time and subsequentevents proved these chroniclerswrong. Pirate raids are normallyisolated, sporadic events. The operation onthe Provenal coast, as we shall see, revealeditsel eventually to be an integral part o theoreign policy o the Umayyad caliphate inSpain. The raid unolded into somethingmuch more ambitious, giving the orces oal-Andalus, or the better part o a cen-tury, eective control o the coastalplain linking France and Italy and othe mountain passes into Switzerlandsome o Europes most vital trade andcommunication routes.

Arab chroniclers o the periodthat is, those whose works have comedown to ushave little to say aboutthis unique occurrence on the Pro-venal coast. Perhaps they did not

regard it as suciently important,compared with the momentousevents then taking place to the south-west, in the Iberian Peninsula.

At that time, the Umayyad dynasty o al-Andalus, which had ruled Spain or scarcelya century, was being challenged rom alldirections. Revolts were under way in scoreso Spanish cities, some led by Arabs, someby North Arican Berbers, and others bymuwalladun, or Muslims o Spanish stock.The Umayyad amir Abd Allah, an

educated, pious man who lacked politicalskills, struggled desperately to maintain hisrealm, but by 912 the amirate had virtuallydisintegrated, and Abd Allah controlled lit-tle beyond the walls o his capital, Crdoba.

In that year, he was succeeded by his tal-ented grandson Abd al-Rahman iii, who was

destined to become one o the greatest lead-ers in the history o Islamic Spain. Over thecoming years, Abd al-Rahman would

end the rebellions, establish a caliphate

in al-Andalus and preside over a goldenage o prosperity that saw Crdoba becomethe leading intellectual and political centero Europe.

All this occurred while Andalusi orces,building on a minor beachhead in Provence,were gradually extending their control intoneighboring areas o France, northern Italyand even Switzerland. But i Arab historians

are silent, the Europeans let records o theoriginal incursion and its atershocks, androm them we can reconstruct the story.

One o the most detailed accounts comrom Liudprand o Cremona, a 10th-century Italian cleric and diplomat. Hedescribed the 20 men who carried out the

Provence operation as Saracenpirates; they would have viewthemselves as special orces o

the caliphate. Their personalidentities are lost to history. E.Lvi-Provenal, perhaps thegreatest western historian oal-Andalus, believed such crewwere oten a mix o Arabs, Ber-bers, muwalladun and evenChristians. They may have actunder specic orders rom theUmayyad government atCrdoba; it is also possible theyoperated with greater reedomand fexibility under the Musli

equivalent o a letter o marquewith ocial authority to raidFrankish lands. Whatever thecase, Liudprand conrmstheir role as an instrument oAndalusi oreign policy when hinorms us that the base theyeventually established in southern France operated under theprotection o Abd al-Rahman

and in act paid tribute to him.The Saracens, as Andalusis and other

Arab Muslims were known in those days,

were quite sensibly attracted to the

Provence region, whose natural beauty anertility were enhanced by the act that nokingdom or empire currently ruled it. TheMediterranean coast rom Marseilles toItaly, with its rocky headlands and lush,wooded coves, studded with palm trees anbrilliantly colored fowers, must have beenas alluring to Muslim adventurers o theninth century as it is to travelers today.

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ew decades beore in response to the Norseraids that also struck the coasts oal-Andalus.

The 20 Saracens set sail rom a Spanishport or island, apparently intent on a mili-tary target in the east. Whether the Gul oSt. Tropez was their primary target cannot

be said or certain. According to Liudprand,stormy weather orced them to retreat intothe gul, where they beached the crat with-out being spotted. The gul opens towardthe east; the present-day shing port o

St. Tropez, ashionable vacation spoto artists, lm stars and the well-to-do, is sit-uated on the southern shore. The Saracenslanded northwest o there and, drawn by thetorch lights o the manor house, headed up

the mountain ridge known as the Massi desMaures. Some say the ridge takes its namerom the invading Arabs, who were alsoknown as Moors; others claim it derivesrom a Provenal corruption o the Greekword amauros, meaning dark or gloomyan apt description o the mountains thick

orests o corkoak and chestnut

Beore sun-

rise, the Andalu-sis stormed andcaptured themanor houseand secured thesurroundingarea. Whendawn nallybroke, they couldsee, rom theheights o themassi, toweringAlpine peaks to

the north, unde-ended butthickly orestedslopes below andthe broad blueexpanse o theMediterraneanto the south.

The Saracensdecided to holdtheir position.They beganbuilding stoneortications onthe surrounding

heights. As urther deense against Frankishattack, Liudprand says, the Arabs encour-aged the growth o particularly erce bram-ble bushes that prolierated in the area,even taller and thicker than beore, so that

now i anyone stumbled against a branch itran him through like a sharp sword. Onlyone very narrow path oered access to theSaracens ortications. I any one gets into

Indeed, the 17th-century Arab historianal-Maqqari related with some amusementthe olk belie o an earlier age that theFranks would be barred rom Paradisebecause they had already been blessed bytheir Creator with a paradise on earth:ertile lands abounding in g, chestnut andpistachio trees,amid othernatural

bounties.The Sara-

cens estab-lished theirbeachhead onthe coast oProvence inabout 889, at atime o greatconusion andmisery. Just 30years earlier,Frances south-

ern coast hadbeen plun-dered andpillaged byNorse pirates.Entire townshad beenleveled andmany localinhabitantsput to thesword. DukeBoso o Lyons,a usurperrelated bymarriage to Frances ruling Carolingiandynasty, took advantage o the chaos and,with the support o local counts and bishops,set up his own breakaway kingdom in Pro-vence in 879. The Carolingian kings couldnot evict him. When Boso died in 887,his son and heir, Louis, was too youngto rule eectively; local lords andprinces began asserting their inde-pendence and challenging oneanother. The Carolingian empire wassplitting into western and eastern

Frankish kingdoms. There was nocentral authority along the southernFrench coast, and Provence was ripeor the plucking.

Saracen naval orces and corsairsstruck oten along these shores. Just asin later centuries British privateerspiratesoten worked hand-in-glove withthe Royal Navy, so Andalusi corsairs pliedthe western Mediterranean in the sympa-thetic shadow o a large Saracen naval feet,built up by the Umayyad government only a

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o the aoresaid Saracens...and in companywith them proceeded to crush their neigh-bors.... The Saracens, who in themselveswere o insignifcant strength, ater crush-ing one action with the help o the other,increased their own numbers by continualreinorcements rom Spain, and soon wereattacking everywhere those whom at frstthey seemed to deend. In the ury o theironslaughts...all the neighborhood began

to tremble.European chroniclers claim that the

Saracens sacked the coastal territoryaround Fraxinet, today called the Cte desMaures, and then moved into neighboring

areas in search o targets. First, pressingeastward, they visited the county o Frjuswith fre and sword, and sacked the chietown, according to E. Lvi-Provenal. Thetown o Frjus, a major seaport ounded by

Julius Caesar in 49 bc and given the nameForum Julii, was reportedly razed but itspopulation spared.

The Andalusis drove on, hitting onetown ater another along the Cte dAzur.Eventually they looped back to the west,

conducted operations against Marseilles anAix-en-Provence, then headed up theRhne Valley and into the Alps and Pied-mont. Historians believe that North AricaBerber soldiers, experienced in mountainwarare, were probably used extensively inthe Alpine operations. By 906, Andalusiorces had seized the mountain passes o thDauphin, crossed Mont Cnis and occupithe valley o the Suse on the Piedmontese

rontier. The Saracens erected stone or-tresses in areas they conqueredin theDauphin, Savoy and Piedmontotennaming them Fraxinet, ater their base. Thname survives to this day in these areas in

various ormslike Fraissinetor Frainet.

It did not takmuch longerbeore the Saracens were able control direct

communicationbetween Francand Italy. Pil-grims bound oRome throughsuch Alpine valeys as the DoirStura and Chi-sone oten wereorced to turnback in the aceo Andalusi miitary actions. In911, the bishop Narbonne, whohad been inRome on urgenchurch busineswas reportedlyunable to returto Francebecause the Saracens controlleall the passes inthe Alps. Byabout 933, saysLvi-Provenal

light columnsvery mobile, heldat least during the summerall the country[side] ... while the bulko the Muslim orces was entrenched in thmountainous canton o Fraxinetum, in theimmediate vicinity o the sea.

Frankish historical accounts oten por-tray the Saracens as rightening andimmensely powerul. For example, 19th-century historian J. T. Reinaud, drawing onthe accounts o the period, observes: Onesaw ample evidence orthcoming or the

this entanglement, he is so impeded by thewinding brambles, and so stabbed by thesharp points o the thorns, that he fnds it atask o the greatest difculty either toadvance or to retreat, the cleric wrote in hishistory, titled Antapodosis, or Tit for Tat.

Their deenses secured, the Andalusisreconnoitered the countryside. They sentmessengers back to al-Andalus with word otheir success, praising the lands o Provence

and making light o the military ability othe local inhabitants. As a result, a new bando about 100 Andalusi fghters, certainlyincluding cavalrymen (fursan) and theirmounts, soon arrived rom Spain to bolsterthe original 20.

Many more ollowed as theAndalusis asserted their militarypresence in the area and scoredvictories over scattered Frankishopposition. Administrators andsupplies arrived rom Crdoba. Intime, the Saracen presence along

the Riviera grew to such anextent that military expeditionssometimes involved thousands otroops. The Gul o St. Tropezbecame a regular port o call orAndalusi naval and cargo ships inthe western Mediterranean.

The Saracens called their baseFraxinet (in Arabic, Farakhsha-nit), ater the local village o Frax-inetum, named in Roman timesor the ash trees (fraxini) thencommon in surrounding orests.Today, this village survives as La-Garde-Freinet, a picturesque,unspoiled settlement tucked amidorests o cork oak and chestnutsome 400 meters (1300') up in theMassi des Maures, between theArgens Plain and the Gul o St.Tropez. About a hal-hours hikeup rom the village are the ruinso a stone ortress said to be theone built by the original 20 Sara-cens. Other high points in thearea were also ortifed by theAndalusis, but local authorities

state that nothing remains othose structures.

Gradually, local Frankish lords, seekingto take advantage o the new political andmilitary realities, sought the aid o theAndalusis in settling their private quarrels.The strategy backfred, according to Liud-prand: The people o Provence close by,swayed by envy and mutual jealousy, beganto cut one anothers throats, plunder eachothers substance, and do every sort o con-ceivable mischie.... They called in the help

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ot-repeated saying that one Muslim wasenough to put a thousand [Franks] to ight.This is a strange claim to make about a mot-ley band o pirates, as the Frankish histori-ans oten described them. The claim makesmuch more sense i the Saracens were inact not pirates but rather a large and well-organized military orce under the com-mand o a government. As or earing theAndalusis, those who eared them most

were doubtless the clergy o Provenal, whostood to lose their power base i local popula-tions turned to Islam, as had happenedin al-Andalus.

Not all Provenals eared the Andalusiso Fraxinet, however. Some ormed allianceswith them. There are...reasons to believe

that a number o Christians madecommon cause with the

Muslims and took part in their attacks,Reinaud notes in his Invasions des Sarrazinsen France, et de FranceenSavoie, en Pimont eten Suisse. I the villagers and townsolk oProvence and neighboring regions eared the

Saracens as much as contemporary chroni-clers claim, they somehow managed none-theless to cooperate with them in a widerange o social, economic and artistic felds.

The Arabs o Fraxinet were not simplywarriors; careul reading o the chroniclesreveals that many Andalusi colonists settledpeaceully in the villages o Provence. Theytaught the Franks how to make corks orbottles by stripping the bark every sevenyears rom the cork oaks that prolierate inthe orests o the Massi des Maures. Today,

the cork industry is the areas chie localenterprise. The Saracens also showed theProvenals how to produce pine tar romthe resin o the maritime pine, and to usethe product or caulking boats. Reinaudbelieves the Umayyads o Crdoba kept anaval eet permanently based in the Gul oSt. Tropez, in part to acilitate communica-tions throughout the western Mediterra-nean. The tar o Fraxinet would have been

used by those sailors. Today in France, pinetar is calledgoudron, a word derived romthe Arabic qitran, with the same meaning.

The Saracens also taught the villagersmedical skills and introduced both ceramictiles and the tambourine to the area, andReinaud believes the Arab colony at Fraxi-net had a considerable inuence on thedevelopment o local agriculture. SomeFrench scholars believe the Saracens oFraxinet introduced the cultivation o

buckwheat, a grain that has two names inmodern French, bl noir(black wheat) andbl sarrasin (Saracen wheat). Furthermore,strong similarities have been noted betweenthe poetry o the Provenal troubadours and

that o Andalusi poets, but this particularcase o cross-ertilization may have occurredeven earlier than the Arab settlemento Provence.

We know little o the individuals whodirected or took part in this Arab enterprisein France. Rarely are the Saracens o Fraxi-net mentioned by name in the Europeanchronicles o this period. Liudprand tells oone Arab military commander with theLatinized name Sagittus (perhaps Said) wholed an Andalusi fghting orce rom Fraxinet

to Acqui, some 50 kilometers (30 mi)northwest o Genoa. But about all welearn o Sagittus is that he died in bat-tle at Acqui in about 935.

A leader o Fraxinet itsel, Nasr ibnAhmad, is mentioned in the Muqtabiso Ibn Hayyan o Crdoba, the greatesthistorian o medieval Spain. Accord-

ing to that 11th-century chronicle, Abdal-Rahman iiimade peace in 939-940 with anumber o Frankish rulers and sent copieso the peace treaty to Nasr ibn Ahmad,described as qaid, or commander, o Farakh

shanit, as well as to the Arab governorso the Balearic Islands and the seaports oal-Andalusall o them subject to theUmayyad caliphate. Nothing else is revealedabout the Fraxinet commander.

The frst serious Frankish eort to expelthe Saracens rom Fraxinet was made byHugh o Arles, king o Italy, in about 931.Hugh, seeking control o Provence orhimsel, enlisted the aid o Byzantinewarships on loan rom his brother-in-lawLeo Porphyrogenitus, emperor o



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Constantinople. The warships, hurlingGreek re, attacked and destroyed anAndalusi feet in the Gul o St. Tropez.Meanwhile, in a coordinated land assault,Hughs army besieged the ortress at Fraxi-net and succeeded in breaching its deenses.The Saracen deenders were orced to with-draw to neighboring heights. But just whenthe end o the Andalusi colony in southernFrance seemed inevitable, local politicsintervened.

Hugh received word that his rivalBranger, then in Germany, was planning a

return to France in a bid to capture thethrone. The king, desperate or allies, sentthe Greek feet back to Constantinople andormed a hasty alliance with the Saracens hehad just sought to expel. He signed a treatyconceding control o Fraxinet and otherareas to the Andalusis and stipulating thatArab orces should occupy the Alpineheightsrom Mont Genvre Pass in thewest to the Septimer Pass in the eastandblock any attempt by Branger to cross intoFrance. Liudprand, ever hostile to the

Saracens, was outraged byHughs actions; in the midst ohis chronicles, the historianchides the king: How strange,indeed, is the manner inwhich thou deendest thydominions!

Ater seizing the GreatSt. Bernard and other keyAlpine passes, the Andalusiorces spread out into the sur-rounding valleys. Grenobleand the lush valley o the

Graisivaudun were capturedin about 945.

About 10 years later, Otto i,king o Germany and laterHoly Roman Emperor, per-haps earing the Saracenswould score successes in hisown realm, sent an envoy tothe caliph at Crdoba, Abdal-Rahman iii, urging an end tomilitary operations in the Alpsby the Andalusis o Fraxinet.

In the early to mid-960s, the Saracebegan a slow but steady withdrawalrom the Alpine regions. To someextent this was due to growing Frank-ish military pressure, and perhaps tothe diplomatic initiatives o Ottoi. Buone modern scholar, Middle East spe-cialist Manred W. Wenner, suggeststhe withdrawal may have beenprompted by a oreign-policy change

Crdoba. Abd al-Rahman iiidied in 96and was succeeded by his son Hakama peaceul man who did not share hisathers enthusiasm or military opera-tions in southern France and the Alpinregions. Wenner believes Hakam mayhave withheld permission or rein-orcements to leave or Fraxinetumrom Spanish ports, making it increaingly dicult or the colony to maintaa military presence in the Alps.

By 965, the Andalusis had evacu-ated Grenoble and the valley o the

Graisivaudun under continuing pres-sure by the troops o various Frankishnobles. The ertile armlands and properous villages they relinquished werdivided up among the Frankish orceswho replaced them, in proportion toeach soldiers valor and service.According to Reinaud, writing in abo1836, even today such amilies o Dauphin as the Aynards and Montaynardtrace the turn o their ortune to thisstruggle with the Muslims.


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stronghold, and the Franks laid siege tothe ortress. The Andalusis, realizing theirate was sealed, abandoned the castle in thedark o night and ed into the surroundingwoods. Many were either killed or capturedby Count Williams orces, according to con-temporary accounts, and those who laid

down their arms were spared. It is said thatthe Frankish army also spared the lives othose Andalusi colonists living peaceully inneighboring villages.

Fraxinet had served as the administra-tive capital o all Saracensettlements in France,northern Italy and Swit-zerland, and its castle isbelieved to have held vastquantities o treasure. Allthe booty rom Count Wil-liams conquest was said to

have been distributedamong his ofcers andmen. His second-in-com-mand, Gibelin deGrimaldi o Genoaanancestor o Prince Ranieriii, who ruled present-dayMonaco until 2005received the area wherethe hillside village o Gri-maud stands today, over-looking the port o St.Tropez. Ruins o Grimal-dis eudal castle, built in

the Saracen style, stillcrown the village.

Thus ended the Arabcolonization o southernFrance. Andalusis madelater attempts to establishootholds along that coast:They conducted militaryoperations at Antibes in1003, at Narbonne andMaguelone in 1019 and inthe Lrins Islands o

As late as 972, the Saracens still con-trolled the Great St. Bernard Pass. In thatyear, they detained a party o travelers thatincluded a political opponent, the amedFrankish cleric Maiolus, abbot o Cluny,who was traveling through the pass on hisreturn rom Rome. Maiolus and his largeentourage were eventually released, but theincident provoked outrage throughout theFrankish realms and sparked urther

eorts to dislodge the Fraxinet colony andits satellites.

Shortly ater 972, the Saracens weredriven rom the heights around the GreatSt. Bernard. One o the leaders o the oppos-ing orces in this hard-ought battle wasBernard o Menthone, or whom the moun-tain pass was later named. (Its name at thetime was Mons Jovis, Latin or Mount

Jupitera term the Arabs o that era incor-porated into their name or the entireAlpine region, Jabal Munjaws.) Bernard, ocourse, later ounded the well-known hos-

pice or travelers in the heights o the GreatSt. Bernard that exists to this day. Somescholars believe the Maiolus incident ur-nished the impetus or building that reuge.Bernards name, incidentally, was also givento the celebrateddogs trained thereto rescue travelerstrapped in the win-ter snows.

Along the Riv-iera itsel, local lordsgradually overcametheir dierencesand, in about 975,

joined orces withCount William oArles, later marquiso Provence, in a bidto consolidate all osouthern Franceunder his rule. Wil-liam was a popularleader, and man-aged to persuadewarriors romProvence, the lower

Dauphin and thecounty o Nice to

join his causeagainst theSaracens.

The Andalusis,realizing the seri-ousness o thethreat beingmounted againstthem, consolidatedtheir orces at

Fraxinet andcame down rom

their mountainous resort

in serried ranks, as Reinaud says, toencounter the Frankish orces at Tourtour,near Draguignan, about 33 kilometers(20 mi) northwest o Fraxinet. The Saracenswere driven back to their mountain



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Canadian ree-lance artist Norman

MacDonald, a requent contributor

to Saudi Aramco World, used

parchment paper and drew with

twigs rather than brushes or a

medieval eect in his illustrations.

Related articles rom past issues can be ound on our Web site, www.saudiaramcoworld.

com. Click on indexes, then on the cover o the issue indicated below.

Battle o Toulouse: M/A 93 Crdoba caliphate: J/F 93, S/O 03

Greek re: J/F 95

Quotations rom Reinaud are taken rom the English translation o his work, Muslim

Colonies in France, Northern Italy & Switzerland, translated by Haroon Khan Sherwan

and published in Lahore in 1955 by Sh. Muhammad Ashra. Excerpts rom the Antapodosisare

rom The Works of Liudprand of Cremona, translated by F. A. Wright and published in London in

1930 by George Routledge & Sons, Ltd.

Cannes in 1047. But never again were theorces o al-Andalus able to repeat the stun-ning success o Fraxinet.

The mountainous regions o inlandProvence are dotted with hundreds o oldortied hill villages, like Grimaud, whosevery existence is a reminder o the Saracenperiod. These villages were rst built orprotection against Saracen raids and laterserved to protect the Frankish villagers rom

marauders o their own aith. The peasantslived within their walls, venturing out towork their elds by day. By the 19th century,however, with the establishment o durable

peace and order, peasants began leaving thehill villages and moving down into the val-leys. Today, some o these villages lie whollyor partially abandoned, but many are beingrestored, their old stone structures convertedinto weekend or summer homes or theafuent or housing small colonies o artistsand cratsmen. Old mines and remnants oorges at Tende in the Maritime Alps north-east o Monaco and at La Ferrire, near

Barcelonnette, have been identied as siteswhere Saracens extracted iron ore andmanuactured weapons.

Another surviving echo o the Fraxinetperiod is the old round towers

erected or deense and aswatch posts not only by theSaracens but also by localtownsolk. The Frankishtowers mimic the style oArab ones. Ruins o whatare called Saracentowers are ound all along

the coast, as well as innearby Alpine valleys.

These are the remain-ing physical traces o theArabs o Fraxinet: courseso cut stone, jutting romthe underbrush, asragmentary and mysteri-ous as the tale that under-lies them. Beyond this, theSaracens o St. Tropez andtheir cohorts live on as parto the olk memory oProvence, remembered assoldiers, merchants andagents o change in a darkand troubled era.

711 Arabs enter Spain.

717 Al-Hurrs army enters France.

721 Al-Samhs orces routed

at Toulouse.

728 Andalusi feet raids Lrins Islando Cannes.

732 Abd al-Rahman al-Ghaqis orce

lose Battle o Tours and Poitiers.

759 Franks recapture Narbonne.

827 Andalusis launch naval raid on O

in Brittany.

831 Andalusis launch naval attack on

Marseilles; sail up estuary o

the Rhne.

848 Arles in Saracen hands.

869 Andalusis raid Provence and con

struct a harbor in the Camargue.

889 Twenty Andalusis sail up the Gul

o St. Tropez and ound a colony

Fraxinet (Farakhshanit).

906 Andalusis cross the deles o the

Dauphin and Mont Cnis.

908 Andalusis occupy the valley o

the Suse.

911 Andalusis hold the Alpine passes

920 Abd al-Rahman, uncle o Abd a

Rahman iii, amir o al-Andalus,

crosses the Pyrenees and reache

Toulouse; Marseilles, Aix, Pied-

mont attacked rom Fraxinet.

929 Fraxinet orces advance to bordeo Liguria.

931 Hugh o Arles invites Byzantine

feet to help him against the

colonists, but then makes peace

with them; Andalusis occupy

Alpine heights.

940 Andalusis occupy and colonize

Toulon.

942-952 Andalusi settlement at Nice;

Andalusi occupation o Grenoble

Andalusi ortresses in Piedmont:

Fressineto and Fenestrelle.

965 Andalusis evacuate Grenoble.

970 Evacuation o Savoy by Andalusi

973 French town o Gap evacuated b

Andalusis; Battle o Tourtour and

Andalusi evacuation o most

o Provence.

975 Andalusi evacuation o Fraxinet.

1003 Andalusis attack Antibes.

1019 Andalusis attempt to recapture

Narbonne; Maguelone attacked

by Andalusis.

1047 Andalusi raid on Lrins Islands.

September/October 2009 3

Robert W. Lebling (lebling@yahoo.

com), ormer assistant editor o

Aramco World, is a sta writer and

communication specialist or Saudi

Aramco in Dhahran. He is author o

the orthcoming Jinn: Legends of the Fire

Spirits From Arabia to Zanzibar.

Documents

The Saracens of St. Tropez - Saudi Aramco World, Sep/Oct 2009