Fraxinetum

Common card · No. 285539

Fraxinetum or Fraxinet (Arabic: فرخشنيط, romanized: Farakhshanīt or فرخشة Farakhsha, from Latin fraxinus: "ash tree", fraxinetum: "ash forest") was the site of a Muslim stronghold at the centre of a frontier state in Provence between about 887 and 972. It is identified with modern La Garde-Freinet, near Saint-Tropez. The fortress was established by Muslims from al-Andalus. From this base, the Muslims raided up the Rhône Valley, into Piedmont and as far as the Abbey of Saint Gall within present-day Switzerland. Their main business was slave-raiding of Europeans for export to Islamic markets. For a time, they controlled passes through the Western Alps. They withstood several attempts to oust them, but were finally defeated by the combined forces of the Provençal and Piedmontese nobility at the battle of Tourtour in 972.

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