Never in the history of the world had there been so rapid and extensive a propagation of any religion as Mohammedanism.  It was now dominating from the Altai Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean, from the centre of Asia to the western verge of Africa.

Conquest of Spain.  The Khalif Alwalid next authorized the invasion of Europe, the conquest of Andalusia, or the Region of the Evening.  Musa, his general, found, as had so often been the case elsewhere, two effective allies sectarianism and treason—­the Archbishop of Toledo and Count Julian the Gothic general.  Under their lead, in the very crisis of the battle of Xeres, a large portion of the army went over to the invaders; the Spanish king was compelled to flee from the field, and in the pursuit he was drowned in the waters of the Guadalquivir.

With great rapidity Tarik, the lieutenant of Musa, pushed forward from the battle-field to Toledo, and thence northward.  On the arrival of Musa the reduction of the Spanish peninsula was completed, and the wreck of the Gothic army driven beyond the Pyrenees into France.  Considering the conquest of Spain as only the first step in his victories, he announced his intention of forcing his way into Italy, and preaching the unity of God in the Vatican.  Thence he would march to Constantinople, and, having put all end to the Roman Empire and Christianity, would pass into Asia and lay his victorious sword on the footstool of the khalif at Damascus.

But this was not to be.  Musa, envious of his lieutenant, Tarik, had treated him with great indignity.  The friends of Tarik at the court of the khalif found means of retaliation.  An envoy from Damascus arrested Musa in his camp; he was carried before his sovereign, disgraced by a public whipping, and died of a broken heart.

Invasion of France.  Under other leaders, however, the Saracen conquest of France was attempted.  In a preliminary campaign the country from the mouth of the Garonne to that of the Loire was secured.  Then Abderahman, the Saracen commander, dividing his forces into two columns, with one on the east passed the Rhone, and laid siege to Arles.  A Christian army, attempting the relief of the place, was defeated with heavy loss.  His western column, equally successful, passed the Dordogne, defeated another Christian army, inflicting on it such dreadful loss that, according to its own fugitives, “God alone could number the slain.”  All Central France was now overrun; the banks of the Loire were reached; the churches and monasteries were despoiled of their treasures; and the tutelar saints, who had worked so many miracles when there was no necessity, were found to want the requisite power when it was so greatly needed.

The progress of the invaders was at length stopped by Charles Martel (A.D. 732).  Between Tours and Poictiers, a great battle, which lasted seven days, was fought.  Abderahman was killed, the Saracens retreated, and soon afterward were compelled to recross the Pyrenees.