Fraxinetum
Fraxinetum or Fraxinet (Arabic: فرخشنيط, romanized: Farakhshanīt or فرخشة Farakhsha, from Latin fraxinus: "ash tree", fraxinetum: "ash forest") The Emirate of Farkhshanit is an "Arab Emirate (889-973 AD) and extended from the French coast on the Mediterranean, across the Alps, to the middle of Switzerland and Lake Constance on the border with Germany .
was the site of a fortress from the tenth century founded by Arab pirates in La Gard-Vernet, near Saint-Tropez, in Provence. Massif des Maures, the present day ("the Arabs plateau") took its name from the Arabs of Farkhshanit, who and the gate call it "Jabal al-Qulal."
Twenty of the Arabs infiltrated the Gulf of Saint-Tropez and built a principality for them in the port of “Fraxantum” (Farkhishnit) near the French city of Bruvans, in the year 889.
And [Ibn Hawqal]] records that the area was rich in agriculture and hunting in the area. And that trade seemed to be in the area of piracy.<ref>[http://www.qantara-med.org/qantara4/public/show_document.php?do_id=1380&lang=en Qantara site, especially note 4]</ref>
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With the arrival of the durations, the Arabs expanded northward into the Italian Alps and crossed it to what is now known as Switzerland, and reached the the Swiss Alpine Alps (Eastern) and Ratiat (West). The oldest record of a raid carried out by pilgrims in Switzerland was in 906 AD. It is proven from the records that they had invaded nearly half of Switzerland since the first raid in 891 - 975 CE and settled at (Gouves Mountain, then), and in the area between the city of “Khor”. Gallen and the [[Rhine] Valley] and even reached the Lake Constance border with Germany, as they burned the famous St. Moritz Monastery. The ecclesiastical records extensively describe the looting and theft that these Arab carried out against the Christian pilgrims going to Rome, and that they soon transported the looted items to the port of Fraxantum and from there to Andalusia.
Then was the great calamity of these Arabs when they raided the procession of a cleric, one of the greatest men of his time, Saint Mayulus Majolus, and he was leading a large caravan of pilgrims crossing the St. Bernard Pass, so the Arabs attacked them and took them as captives and plundered them of all their possessions. The stories abound in the dignities of Maiulus, which qualified him to become a saint at a later time. And they did not release them until they received a large ransom. The incident greatly provoked the Europeans and prompted King William I of Bruvans to march his armies to defeat the Arabs in the “[Battle of Tourtour]] demolish their fortress and expel them from Fraxinet http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/196307/alpine.islam.htm
Location
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1f/Byzantine-Arab_naval_struggle.svg/330px-Byzantine-Arab_naval_struggle.svg.png)
The fort of Fraxinetum atop the hill Mont des Maures[1] overlooking what is today the village of La Garde-Freinet had been around since the Roman era. Its name is derived from the Latin fraxinus (ash tree) and probably refers to the thick forest of ash that covers the hill. The Muslim geographers al-Iṣṭakhrī and Ibn Ḥawqal call Fraxinetum Jabal al-Qilāl ("mount of timber"). They describe the Muslim enclave as vast, covered with streams and fertile soil and taking two days to cross.[2] Ibn Ḥawqal erroneously considered it an island at the mouth of the Rhône.[3]
History
Foundation and expansion
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/2c/Istakhri%27s_map_of_the_Mediterranean.png/220px-Istakhri%27s_map_of_the_Mediterranean.png)
The Muslim occupation of Fraxinetum began around 887, according to Liudprand, when a small ship carrying about twenty Andalusī sailors landed near Saint-Tropez. The Andalusīs seized the settlement that had grown up at the foot of the hill and then took control of the fort itself. This was accessible only by a narrow path through the forest, according to both Liudprand and Ibn Ḥawqal.[2]
According to Liudprand, the settlers sent messages back to Spain and the Balearics inviting reinforcements. About 100 warriors answered the call, motivated both by religious zeal and a desire for plunder. In the first two decades of their rule, the Muslims of Fraxinetum subdued all of Provence and began raiding across the Alps in Italy. Liudprand blamed their quick success on the divisions and squabbles of the Provençals following the collapes of Carolingian authority.[3] By 906, they controlled the pass of Mont Cenis between Provence and Italy. In that year, they attacked or occupied Acqui, Oulx and Susa in Italy.[4] According to the 11th-century Chronicon Novalicense, they threatened the Abbey of Novalesa on this occasion.[3] By 911, they were in control of all the western Alpine passes, from which they could collect tolls on traders and pilgrims.[5] Between 915 and 918, they raided Embrun, Maurienne and Vienne. In 920, there were more attacks in Italy and on Marseille and Aix-en-Provence in western Provence.[4]
Between 929 and 933, the Muslims of Fraxinetum extended their control to the more easterly Alpine passes and raided the Upper Rhône Valley.[6] In 939, crossing the Alps again, they attacked the Abbey of Saint Gall and razed the Abbey of Saint-Maurice d'Agaune. Like the contemporary Vikings, the Muslim raiders target monasteries because of their wealth and lack of defences.[3]
High point
Men from Fraxinetum may have participated in the Fatimid raid on Genoa in 935. They certainly destroyed the port of Fréjus in 940, prompting a response from King Hugh of Italy. In 941 or 942, he sought an alliance with the Byzantine Empire and received a favourable response from the Emperor Romanos Lekapenos. While he attacked Fraxinetum by land, a fleet of Byzantine chelandia destroyed the Muslim ships with Greek fire.[7] At the moment when Fraxinetum on the cusp of surrender, Hugh received news that a rival for the Italian throne, Margrave Berengar of Ivrea, was preparing to invade Italy with an army of Saxons from his exile in Germany. Hugh called off the siege and made an arrangement with the Muslims. They were allowed to keep the Alpine passes, presumably in exchange for defending the Italian frontier. It is possible that Hugh's abrupt change of policy was also related to the commercial relations he opened up with the Umayyad caliphate around the same time.[8]
Hugh's decision was condemned by contemporary Christian writers. Liudprand blamed him for the death of hundreds or even thousands of Christians. In the decade of the 940s, Fraxinetum was at the apex of its power and gave shelter to a number of Christian rebels.[8] After his downfall in 962, King Adalbert of Italy took refuge in Fraxinetum.[9] In his Annals, under the year 951, Flodoard of Reims records that "the Saracens occupying the Alpine passes extract tribute from travellers to Rome, only thus allowing them to pass."[8]
Around 954, Fraxinetum came into conflict with Hungarian invaders. King Conrad of Burgundy took advantage of the conflict to slaughter both sides. The major defeat dealt to the Hungarians by King Otto I of Germany at the Battle of Lechfeld the following year allowed the German king to focus on the threat from Fraxinetum.[10] At one point a military expedition may have been planned, but it never took place. This did not stop Widukind of Corvey from listing the Saracens among Otto's defeated enemies.[11]
Decline and defeat
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Karte_Hoch_und_Niederburgund_EN.png/220px-Karte_Hoch_und_Niederburgund_EN.png)
In 956, a raid into the Upper Rhine Valley prompted Otto I to send an embassy to the Umayyad court, which he clearly believed had the power to control Fraxinetum.[12] Ballan calls their raid deep into Otto's territory "their first major miscalculation". Several embassies were exchanged between the two most powerful courts in western Europe. After this, material aid from Spain to Fraxinetum declined substantially.[9]
In 972, the Muslims captured Abbot Maiolus of Cluny while he was crossing the Alps and held him for ransom. After his release, Maiolus organized a military response.[10] Led by Count William I of Provence and Count Arduin of Turin, a Christian force drawn from Provence, Piedmont and Septimania defeated the Muslims in the Battle of Tourtour in the summer of 972. Fraxinetum fell by the end of the year after a short siege.[13]
With the fall of Fraxinetum, those Muslims who did not go in to exile were either killed or sold into slavery. Many converted to Christianity and remained in Provence as serfs, while the formerly Muslim lands were parcelled out among the victorious Provençal nobles.[14]
Governance
The Muslims of Fraxinetum established forts throughout the areas they conquered in Provence and Piedmont, but Latin sources do not distinguish them, calling all of them Fraxinetum or a variant thereof, such as Frassineto, Frascendello or Fraxinth.[15] A string of forts was constructed across the Alps to control the mountain passes and serve as bases for raiding.[9]
The form of Islamic rule imposed by Fraxinetum was indirect. Christians retained their religion and towns their self-government through agreeing to the dhimma (the pact of submission) and paying the jizya (a head tax).[15]
Archaeological evidence in the form of 10th-century Muslim shipwrecks off the coast of Provence suggests that Fraxinetum maintained commercial links with the rest of the Muslim world.[16]
Timeline
- 889: Twenty Andalusis sail up the Gulf of St. Tropez and found a colony at Fraxinetum.
- 906: Andalusis cross the defiles of the Dauphiné and Mont Cénis.
- 908: Andalusis occupy the Susa Valley.
- 911: Andalusis hold the Alpine passes.
- 929: Fraxinetum forces advance to borders of Liguria.
- 935: Sa'id dies at the Battle of Acqui.
- 940: Andalusis occupy and colonize Toulon.
- 942: Andalusi settlement at Nice and Grenoble.
- 970: Andalusis evacuate Grenoble, Savoy and Gap.
- 972: Andalusis detain Majolus of Cluny at the Great St Bernard Pass
- 973: After the Battle of Tourtour, the Andalusis evacuate Fraxinetum.
- 1047: Andalusi raid on Lérins Islands.
See also
References
- ^ Wenner 1980, p. 59.
- ^ a b Ballan 2010, p. 26.
- ^ a b c d Ballan 2010, p. 27.
- ^ a b Wenner 1980, p. 74.
- ^ Wenner 1980, p. 74; Ballan 2010, p. 29.
- ^ Wenner 1980, p. 74; Ballan 2010, p. 29, implies that they held all the passes since 921.
- ^ Pryor & Jeffreys 2006, p. 72 (942); Ballan 2010, p. 28 (941); but Wenner 1980, p. 74, dates this attack to 931, while Pryor & Jeffreys, p. 69, distinguish between the attacks of 931 and 942.
- ^ a b c Ballan 2010, p. 29.
- ^ a b c Ballan 2010, p. 30.
- ^ a b Ballan 2010, p. 31.
- ^ Leyser 1968, p. 2, n1.
- ^ Ballan 2010, p. 30; Wenner 1980, p. 75.
- ^ Pryor & Jeffreys 2006, p. 69; Ballan 2010, p. 32, notes that a number of sources place Fraxinetum's fall in 990.
- ^ Ballan 2010, p. 32.
- ^ a b Ballan 2010, p. 28.
- ^ Pryor & Jeffreys 2006, p. 69.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Flodoard (2014). Bernard S. Bachrach; Steven Fanning; Philippe Lauer (eds.). The Annals of Flodoard of Reims, 919–966. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
- Liudprand (2007). Paolo Squatriti (ed.). The Complete Works of Liudprand of Cremona. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press.
Secondary sources
- Bruce, Scott G. (2007). "An Abbot Between Two Cultures: Maiolus of Cluny Considers the Muslims of La Garde-Freinet". Early Medieval Europe. 15 (4): 426–40. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0254.2007.00215.x.
- Bruce, Scott G. (2016). Cluny and the Muslims of La Garde-Freinet: Hagiography and the Problem of Islam in Medieval Europe. Cornell University Press.
- Ballan, Mohammad (2010). "Fraxinetum: An Islamic Frontier State in Tenth-Century Provence". Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 41: 23–76. doi:10.1353/cjm.2010.0053.
- Chalmeta Gendrón, Pedro (1976). "La Méditerranée occidentale et al-Andalus de 934 à 941: les données d'Ibn Hayyan". Rivista degli studi orientali. 50 (3/4): 337–51. JSTOR 41879841.
- Fernandes Cardoso, Elsa (2019). "Politics and Diplomacy in the Mediterranean of the 10th Century: Al-Andalus and Byzantium". In Daniëlle Slootjes; Mariette Verhoeven (eds.). Byzantium in Dialogue with the Mediterranean: History and Heritage. Leiden: Brill. doi:10.1163/9789004393585. ISBN 9789004393585.
- Jarrett, Jonathan (2019). "Nests of Pirates? 'Islandness' in the Balearic Islands and La Garde-Freinet". Al-Masāq. 31 (2): 196–222. doi:10.1080/09503110.2019.1600101.
- Joncheray, Jean-Pierre (2004). "The Four Saracen Shipwrecks of Provence". In Sean Kingsley (ed.). Barbarian Seas: Late Rome to Islam. London: Periplus. pp. 102–107.
- Lauwers, Michel (2015). "Des Sarrasins en Provence: représentations ecclésiales et luttes pour l'hégémonie en Méditerranée occidentale du Xe au XIIIe siècle". In Catherine Richarté; Roland-Pierre Gayraud; Jean-Michel Poisson (eds.). Héritages arabo-islamiques dans l'Europe méditerranéenne. La Découverte. pp. 23–40.
- Lebling, Robert (2000). "The Pirates of St. Tropez". Medieval Life. 14: 26–31. Archived from the original on 2001-06-22.
- Lebling, Robert (2009). "The Saracens of St. Tropez". Saudi Aramco World. Houston, TX: Aramco Services Company. pp. 32–39.
- Lévi-Provençal, Évariste (1950). Histoire de l'Espagne musulmane, II: Le califat umaiyade de Cordoue (912–1031). Paris: G. P. Maisonneuve.
- Leyser, Karl (1968). "Henry I and the Beginnings of the Saxon Empire". English Historical Review. 83 (326): 1–32. doi:10.1093/ehr/LXXXIII.CCCXXVI.1. JSTOR 561761.
- Lewis, B.; Pellat, Ch. & Schacht, J., eds. (1965). "Fraxinetum". The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume II: C–G. Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 933–34. OCLC 495469475.
- Manteyer, Georges de (1908). La Provence du premier au douzième siècle. Paris.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Nash, Penelope (2016). "The Ottonians Turn their Gaze West to the Court of al-Andalus". Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association. 12: 53–68.
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External links
- Islam in France
- Geography of Var (department)
- Populated places established in the 9th century
- 9th-century establishments in France
- History of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
- Military history of Al-Andalus
- 10th-century disestablishments in France
- Pirate dens and locations
- Piracy in the Mediterranean
- Medieval piracy
- Arab–Byzantine wars