Siege of Narbonne (752–759)
| Siege of Narbonne (752–759) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Islamic invasion of Gaul | |||||||||
Arab and Berber Muslim troops retreating from Narbonne after the Frankish conquest in 759. Illustration by Émile Bayard, 1880. | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
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Al-Andalus (752–56) Emirate of Córdoba (756–59) |
Kingdom of Francia Septimanian Visigoths | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Yusuf ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri (752–756) Abd al-Rahman I (756–759) |
Pepin the Short Ansemund † | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 7,000 | 29,000 | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||||
The siege of Narbonne took place in France between 752 and 759, led by the Frankish king Pepin the Short against the Umayyad stronghold defended by an garrison of Arab and Berber Muslim troops who had invaded Septimania and occupied the Visigothic Kingdom and its Gallo-Roman inhabitants since 719. The siege remained as a key battlefield in the context of the Carolingian expedition south to Provence and Septimania starting in 752.
The region of Septimania was up to that point in the hands of Andalusi military commanders and the local Visigothic and Gallo-Roman nobility, who had concluded different military and political arrangements to oppose the expanding Frankish realm. Umayyad rule collapsed by 750, and Umayyad territories in Europe were ruled autonomously by Yusuf ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri and his supporters.