Fraxinet

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Fraxinet (Arabic, Farakhshanit) was the site of a tenth century Saracen or Muslim Arab slave base near modern St. Tropez, in southern France. The named derived from the ancient village local village of Fraxinetum.

[edit] History

In about 889 a ship carrying twenty Andalusian adventurers anchored in the Gulf of St. Tropez in Provence.

From this base, Muslim bandits and slave-traders raided the surrounding area, reaching as far as Piedmont in Northern Italy and effectively controlling the Alpine passes between France and Italy. An outpost was established at modern St. Moritz in southern Switzerland. The number of slaves exported via Fraxinetum is unknown, but is believed to be in the hundreds of thousands.

In 956, John of Gorze was sent as ambassador for Emperor Otto II to the Caliph Abd-ar-Rahman III of Córdoba for two years. The purpose of this mission was to stop the attacks made from Fraxinetum.

The Saracens were defeated at the Battle of Tourtour by William I of Provence. They were expelled from Fraxinetum in 975 by an alliance of local French rulers. The expulsion had two effects. It allowed southern France to begin a gradual economic and cultural recovery while the loss of income from slave-trading presaged the fall of Caliphate forty years later.