...Historians would later call the Battle of Tours one of the twenty most significant battles in the history of the western world. To put this victory into perspective, consider this: when the Prophet Muhammad died in the year 632, he had conquered most of the city-states of Saudi Arabia but never left the Saudi desert. His successors, notably the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs, burst out of the Arabian Peninsula and conquered an empire more than twice the size of that of Alexander the Great. Within exactly one hundred years of the Prophets death, the Muslims had destroyed the Persian Empire, which consisted of todays Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait and Afghanistan: then they sacked and took possession of Jerusalem and much of the Levant from the Byzantine Christians. The Muslim hordes then turned west and swept across North Africa like a wind driven prairie fire. They crushed Coptic Christian Egypt and killed or enslaved the entire orthodox priesthood. Then they marched through modern day Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Niger, Mauritania and Morocco and laid waste to the centuries-old Christian city-states and the Berber tribesmen alike. The armies of Islam crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into Spain by the year 711. They annihilated the Visogoth Spaniards and overtook nearly the entire Iberian Peninsula and then marched into the heart of France by the year 732. Had Charles the Hammers army not been successful at Tours, much of feudal Europe might have fallen subject to the dictates of Islam. However, after Tours, the Muslims did not attack Western Europe again until modern times and even now they do not strike by conventional means. The vast majority of heroes of this tumultuous crossroads in history do not have statues erected in city centers in Europe nor do they have Wikipedia articles on the Internet. The men who dropped the hammer in France in the late summer of 732 Anno Domini were farmers, soldiers, blacksmiths and clergymen who risked all and gave all to defend their territories and the Christian way of life. Many did not even want to fight or kill but did so as the conditions demanded it. There can be no doubt that soldiering and strategies played a great role in this incredible battle; however, it was the unending hope and faith in Jesus Christ held by ordinary men 1300 years ago that truly made the difference in overcoming the impossible -- just as it does today. Excerpt from Unchained! Tales of Overcoming the Impossible Through Faith and Action - M. Francis Schmidt - 2012
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 12:48:55 +0000