Saracens landed on the coast below the Massif des Maures in the year 889. The Written by Robert W. Lebling of IllustratedSaracens by Norman MacDonald St. Tropez NDER COVER OF DARKNESS, THEY BEACHED THEIR SMALL, LATEEN-RIGGED SAILING VESSEL ON THE ROCKY SHORE AND BEGAN THE SLOW, SILENT CLIMB to the manor house on the hill. Storm clouds shrouded the moon, darkening the coastal Mediterranean landscape; sporadic rain and gusting winds concealed the sailors’ approach. UThey were 20 men, armed with daggers and short swords, and clad in the fighting tunics of al-Andalus—Islamic Spain. They climbed carefully, avoiding the bram bles that covered the slopes to their left and right. A few lights still burned in the manor house. The Provençal nobleman and his household had finished the last meal of the day.A fter listening to the songs of a visiting 32 Saudi Aramco World 25482araD6R2.indd 32 8/25/09 12:40 PM trouba dour, the residents of the manor educated, pious man who lacked polit ical are silent, the Europeans left records of the house were preparing to sleep. But it would skills, struggled desper ately to maintain his original incur sion and its aftershocks, and not be long before the evening serenity of realm, but by 912 the amirate had virtual ly from them we can reconstruct the story. that coastal villa would be shattered. disintegrated, and ‘Abd Allah controlled lit- One of the most detailed accounts comes This was the opening act in an 85-year tle beyond the walls of his capital, Córdo ba. from Liudprand of Cremona, a 10th- drama played out along the coast of Provence In that year, he was succeeded by his tal- century Ital ian cleric and diplomat. He in the ninth and 10th centu ries of our era. ented grandson ‘Abd al-Rahman III, who was de scribed the 20 men who carried out the This little-known but significant Provence operation as “Saracen projection of Arab military power pirates”; they would have viewed into the land of the Franks was the themselves as special forces of second of its kind in less than the caliphate. Their personal three centuries. The first, identities are lost to history. E. launched almost two centuries Lévi-Provençal, perhaps the before, is the one most of us know greatest western historian of about. Conducted from al-Andalus al-Andalus, believed such crews by an army on horseback, it was were often a mix of Arabs, Ber- thwart ed by Eudes of Aquitaine at bers, muwalladun and even Toulouse in 721 and by Charles Christians. They may have acted Martel at Poitiers in 732. under specific orders from the The second projection, over- Umayyad government at looked by most of our history Córdoba; it is also possible they books, began as a small-scale mili- operated with greater freedom tary operation along the beautiful and flexibility under the Muslim stretch of coastline now known as equivalent of a letter of marque, the French Riviera. Frankish with official authority to raid chroniclers, in unabashedly one- Franki sh lands. Whatever the sided and hostile accounts, sought case, Liudprand confirms to dismiss the operation as a their role as an instrument of “pirate raid.” It may have appeared Andalusi foreign policy when he so to some at the time. But the pas- Abd al-Rahman III informs us that the base they sage of time and subsequent eventually estab lished in south- events proved these chroniclers ern France operated under the wrong. Pirate raids are normally protec tion of ‘Abd al-Rahman III isolated, sporadic events. The operation on destined to become one of the great est lead- and in fact paid tribute to him. the Provençal coast, as we shall see, revealed ers in the history of Islamic Spain. Over the The Saracens, as Andalusis and other itself eventually to be an integral part of the com ing years, ‘Abd al-Rahman would Arab Muslims were known in those days, foreign policy of the Umayyad caliphate in end the rebel lions, establish a caliphate were quite sensibly attracted to the Spain. The “raid” unfolded into something much more ambitious, giving the forces of al-Andalus, for the better part of a cen- tury, effec tive control of the coastal plain linking France and Italy and of the mountain passes into Switzerland— Arab chroniclers wrote little about these events, some of Europe’s most vital trade and communication routes. which perhaps paled alongside the Arab chroniclers of the period— that is, those whose works have come challenges the Umayyad dynasty then faced down to us—have little to say about on the Iberian Peninsula. Saracens St. Tropez this unique occurrence on the Pro- vençal coast. Perhaps they did not regard it as sufficiently important, compared with the momentous events then taking place to the south- west, in the Iberian Peninsula. in al-Andalus and preside over a “golden Provence region, whose natural beauty and At that time, the Umayyad dynasty of al- age” of prosperity that saw Córdoba become fertility were enhanced by the fact that no Andalus, which had ruled Spain for scarcely the leading intellectual and political center kingdom or empire currently ruled it. The a century, was being challenged from all of Europe. Mediterranean coast from Marseilles to direc tions. Revolts were under way in scores All this occurred while Andalusi forces, Italy, with its rocky head lands and lush, of Span ish cities, some led by Arabs, some building on a minor beachhead in Provence, wooded coves, studded with palm trees and by North African Berbers, and others by were gradually extending their control into brilliantly colored flowers, must have been muwallad un, or Muslims of Spanish stock. neighboring areas of France, northern Italy as alluring to Muslim adventurers of the The Umayyad amir ‘Abd Allah, an and even Switzerland. But if Arab historians ninth century as it is to travelers today. September/October 2009 33 25482araD6R2.indd 33 8/25/09 12:41 PM Indeed, the 17th-century Arab historian few decades before in response to the Norse the mountain ridge known as the Massif des al-Maqqari related with some amusement raids that also struck the coasts of Maures. Some say the ridge takes its name the folk belief of an earlier age that the al-Andalus. from the invading Arabs, who were also Franks would be barred from Paradise The 20 Saracens set sail from a Spanish known as Moors; others claim it derives because they had already been blessed by port or island, apparently intent on a mili- from a Proven çal cor ruption of the Greek their Creator with a paradise on earth: tary target in the east. Whether the Gulf of word amauros, meaning “dark” or “gloomy”— fertile lands abounding in fig, ches tnut and St. Tropez was their primary target cannot an apt descrip tion of the mountain’s thick pistachio trees, forests of cork amid other oak and chestnut. natural Before sun- bounties. rise, the Andalu- The Sara- sis stormed and cens estab- captured the lished their manor house beachhead on and secured the the coast of sur rounding Provence in area. When about 889, at a dawn finally time of great broke, they could confusion and see, from the misery. Just 30 heights of the years earlier, massif, towering France’s south- Alpine peaks to ern coast had the north, unde- been plun- fended but dered and thickly forested pillaged by slopes below and Norse pirates. the broad blue Entire towns expanse of the had been Mediterranean leveled and to the south. many local Berbers from The Saracens in habitants decided to hold put to the mountainous North Africa their position. sword. Duke were probably employed in the Andalusi alpine forces. They began Boso of Lyons, building stone a usur per fortifi ca tions on related by the surround ing marriage to Franc e’s ruling Caroling ian be said for certain. According to Liudprand, heights. As further defense against Frankish dynasty, took advantage of the chaos and, stormy weather forced them to retreat into at tack, Liudprand says, the Arabs encour- with the support of local counts and bishops, the gulf, where they beached the craft with- aged the growth of particularly fierce bram- set up his own breakaway kingdom in Pro- out being spotted. The gulf opens toward ble bushes that proliferated in the area, vence in 879. The Carolingian kings could the east; the present-day fishing port of “even taller and thicker than before, so that not evict him. When Boso died in 887, his son and heir, Louis, was too young to rule effective ly; local lords and princes began asserting their inde- pendence and challenging one anoth er. The Carolingian empire was splitting into western and eastern In 911, the bishop of Narbonne was reportedly Frankish kingdoms. There was no central author ity along the southern unable to return to France because the Saracens French coast, and Pro vence was ripe for the plucking. controlled all the passes in the Alps. Saracen naval forces and corsairs struck often along these shores. Just as in later centuries British pri vateers— pirates—often worked hand-in-glove with St. Tropez, fashionable vacation spot the Royal Navy, so Andalusi corsairs plied of artists, film stars and the well-to-do, is sit- now if anyone stumbled against a branch it the west ern Mediterranean in the sympa- uated on the southern shore. The Saracens ran him through like a sharp sword.” Only thetic shadow of a large Saracen naval fleet, landed north west of there and, drawn by the “one very narrow path” offered access to the built up by the Umayyad government only a torch lights of the manor house, headed up Saracens’ fortifi cations.