nkind.

Sismondi and Michelet have underrated the enduring interest of this
great Appeal of Battle between the champions of the Crescent and the
Cross. But, if French writers have slighted the exploits of their
national hero, the Saracenic trophies of Charles Martel have had full
justice done to them by English and German historians. Gibbon devotes
several pages of his great work[69] to the narrative of the battle of
Tours, and to the consideration of the consequences which probably would
have resulted if Abderrahman's enterprise had not been crushed by the
Frankish chief. Schlegel speaks of this "mighty victory" in terms of
fervent gratitude, and tells how "the arm of Charles Martel saved and
delivered the Christian nations of the West from the deadly grasp of
all-destroying Islam"; and Ranke points out, as "one of the most
important epochs in the history of the world, the commencement of the
eighth century, when on the one side Mahometanism threatened to
overspread Italy and Gaul, and on the other the ancient idolatry of
Saxony and Friesland once more forced its way across the Rhine. In this
peril of Christian institutions, a youthful prince of Germanic race,
Charles (or Karl) Martel, arose as their champion, maintained them with
all the energy which the necessity for self-defence calls forth, and
finally extended them into new regions."

Arnold ranks the victory of Charles Martel even higher than the victory
of Arminius, "among those signal deliverances which have affected for
centuries the happiness of mankind." In fact, the more we test its
importance, the higher we shall be led to estimate it; and, though all
authentic details which we possess of its circumstances and its heroes
are but meagre, we can trace enough of its general character to make us
watch with deep interest this encounter between the rival conquerors of
the decaying Roman Empire. That old classic world, the history of which
occupies so large a portion of our early studies, lay, in the eighth
century of our era, utterly exanimate and overthrown. On the north the
German, on the south the Arab, was rending away its provinces. At last
the spoilers encountered one another, each striving for the full mastery
of the prey. Their conflict brought back upon the memory of Gibbon the
old Homeric simile, where the strife of Hector and Patroclus over the
dead body of Cebriones is compared to the combat of two lions, that in
their hate and hunger fight together