The Moha77tniedans l(>7 cross into Gaul. For some years the Duke of Aquitaine kept them in check; but in 732 they col- lected a large army, defeated the duke near Bordeaux, advanced to Poitiers, and then set out for Tours. Here they met the army of the Franks which Charles the Hamnier (Martel), the king's chief minister, had brought to- gether to meet the new danger. We know very little indeed of this famous battle of Tours, ex- cept that the Mohammedans were repulsed, and that they never again made any serious attempt to conquer western Europe beyond the Pyrenees. They retired to Spain and there developed a great 'and prosper- ous kingdom, far in advance of the Christian kingdoms to the north of them. Some of the buildings which they erected soon after their arrival still stand. A^iong these is the mosque at Cordova with its forest of columns and arches.-^ They also erected a great tower at Seville (Fig. 147). This has been copied by the architects of 1 The great mosque, which the Mo- hammedan rulers built at Cordova (Fig. 145) on the site of a Christian church of the West Goths, was second in size only % ^1^ ^ ^ ill J :^' j:^ Fig. 147. GiRALDA This tower, called the Giralda, was originally the great minaret of the chief mosque at Seville. It was built (1184-1196) out of Roman and West Gothic mate- rials, and many Roman inscrip- tions are to be seen on the stones used for the walls. Orig- inally the tower was lower than it now is. All the upper part, including the story where the bells hang, was rebuilt by the Christians after they drove the Moors out of the city
