The Arabs had but very confused ideas of Gaul; they called it _Frandjas,_ and gave to all its inhabitants, without distinction, the name of Frandj.

The Khalif Abdelmelek, having recalled Moussa, questioned him about the different peoples with which he had been concerned.

"And of these Frandj," said he, "what hast thou to tell me ?" "They are a people," answered Moussa, "very many in number and abundantly provided with everything, brave and impetuous in attack, but spiritless and timid under reverses." "And how went the war betwixt them and thee ?" added Abdelmelek: "was it favorable to thee or the contrary ?" "The contrary! Nay, by Allah and the Prophet; never was my army vanquished; never was a battalion beaten; and never did the Mussulmans hesitate to follow me when I led them forty against fourscore." (Fauriel, _Histoire de la Gaule,_ &c., t.III., pp.

48, 67.) In 719, under El-Idaur-ben-Abdel-Rhaman, a valiant and able leader, say the Arab writers, but greedy, harsh, and cruel, the Arabs pursued their incursions into Southern Gaul, took Narbonne, dispersed the inhabitants, spread themselves abroad in search of plunder as far as the borders of the Garonne, and went and laid siege to Toulouse.

Eudes, Duke of Aquitania, happened to be at Bordeaux, and he hastily summoned all the forces of his towns and all the populations from the Pyrenees to the Loire, and hurried to the relief of his capital.