As has already been pointed out, Ismael was not a religious man, but one is inclined to think that even he must have begun to think of eternal things when less than a month after the massacre at Colomiers a violent earthquake shook Cordoba. Cordoba was then the capital of the Almohad Empire and one of the most highly developed cities in the known world. Yet when the only building destroyed was the Mosque, the people and the Alims in particular were in no doubt. Surely they said, this was Allah's way of showing his displeasure at the murder perpetrated by their Kalipha by withdrawing his blessing from Ismael. If Ismael did consider that perhaps the Almighty was showing His displeasure, he didn't consider it for very long. And as events would prove, if Allah was displeased with Ismael, then he had a funny way of showing it.
The next year, 1172, Ismael decided to start using the large profits that his trade empire was bringing in. He hired 2 armies of mercenaries and used his naval supremacy to land them in Northern France in Flanders and Normandy. King Phillipe III was concentrating all his forces at the front in the South of France and consequently had left his northern provinces lightly defended. The few troops that were stationed there to keep the peace retreated in the face of overwhelming numbers without even attempting to make a stand.
Meanwhile to the South, Phillipe was determined to lift the Muslim siege of Toulouse. Another huge army, 3000 strong and including many of the crusaders who had escaped the battle of Colomiers took on just 600 men led by Ismael himself. Arranging his army on a hillside near the village of Puylaurens, though they didn't know it, his vastly outnumbered army was about to fight one of the greatest defensive actions in history. Wave after wave after wave of French troops assaulted the Almohad line. Time and time again they were first beaten back by the infantry and archers, then driven off by the Islamic cavalry. It was whilst trying to drive off a broken attack that Ismaels youngest brother, Prince Ibrahim was killed. Only 21 and a great warrior (though with a violent proud streak) he allowed himself to be isolated from the rest of the army and was cut down, though in the confusion of the battle no-one realised until after the fighting was finished. When his body was found Ismael wept for his baby brother as only an eldest son can.
The final toll was staggering. Though outnumbered 5 to 1, and despite over half their number falling (327 dead is the figure recorded in the annals), the Almohads had killed 850 French soldiers and taken nearly 1000 more prisoner. It was a remarkable feat of valour. From then on Ismaels renown as a defensive specialist and his ability to make a skilled last stand gave great courage to his soldiers and dismayed his enemies.
1172 was truly a turning point in the war between the Almohads and the French. The loss of a large chunk of Northern France, with its income was bad enough. But it also left Prince Charles and nearly 700 men stranded in Wessex with their enemies the English to the North. The defeat at the battle of Puylaurens was devastating and it also cost the French 3000 florins, which they couldn't afford to spare, to ransom back the 1000 prisoners they so desperately needed to bolster their rapidly depleting armies. Although the French were still, for now, able to put more soldiers in the field than the Almohads, they were increasingly of poorer quality, compared to the battle hardened and well led Almohads. The French were skint, whilst the Almohads were the richest in the world, able to buy as many mercenaries as were needed to open a second front. The Almohad navy dominated the seas, enabling them to strike around the French coast at will, the French navy was reduced to just a few ships operating out of Sicily. In Sicily, as in Wessex, the French had a large army (2500 men) stranded, unable to move due to the dominance of the Almohad navy. The small French fleet did have some success though, raiding along the Gulfs of Valencia and Lions it was temporarily able to prevent Almohad reinforcements reaching Toulouse by sea, forcing them to travel by the much longer overland route. To round off the bad year for the French, King Phillipe collapsed when he heard news of the defeat at Puylaurens. He never recovered and died several weeks later, he was 56. Though renowned for his mathematical ability, he clearly didn't do his sums right when he decided to attack his powerful southern neighbours. The war that he started was the beginning of the end of France.
Even worse was to come when his successor was crowned. Only 28 and a man who liked to lead from the front, King Louis VI also liked to dance in moonbeams, paint his servants blue and suck on horseshoes. A crack-brained king is the last thing any nation needs at the best of times, even less so when it is being squeezed to destruction. Nevertheless, his reign got off to a promising start when Pope Giovanni I called for a crusade against the Almohads. Unfortunately, his call fell on largely deaf ears. The Spanish, Aragonese and Italians were already under Almohad rule. The English were allied with them and were more concerned about kicking the French out of Wessex than anything the Holy Father might say. Effectively, that left only the Holy Roman Empire, which by that time was neither Holy, Roman nor much of an Empire. Much of Northern Germany had broken away and was now comprised of lots of small Princedoms and for all his devout Catholic belief, Emperor Ferdinand I was more concerned about holding on to what he had rather than attacking his powerful Southern neighbours. Indeed the following year he managed to successfully negotiate an alliance with Ismael. Meanwhile, the Muslim advance into Europe continued as (thanks to a healthy bribe) Rainald Otterbach, King of Tyrolia, was convinced that it was better to become a vassal of the Kalipha, rather than be invaded and starve to death in Innsbruck Castle. Though a highly educated man of outstanding ability, in recent years he had become as mad as King Louis and left Ismael with the problem of who to appoint Amir. In the end, he did not appoint an official Amir for several years, leaving Otterbach to delude himself that he was ruler, until 5 years later when Ismael appointed a promising young Chief of Militia by the name of Conrad Von Kniprode,
Come 1173 the French had recovered to counterattack at the Mercenary army occupying the key (militarily as it was the gateway to the English Channel and the army trapped in Wessex, economically as it was a source of valuable trade commodities such as wool, silk and grain) province of Flanders. Although both armies were roughly equal at around 500 men, the French suffered total defeat, over 200 men killed, nearly 200 captured. Less than 200 mercenaries died, though Ismael cared not for their fate - they were not his men, nor his kin. But as long as they did the job for which they were paid, then Ismael was happy.
He was even happier when news reached him that his top general, Amir Rahman had marched back into Aquitane. Outnumbered, the French retreated to their fort in Bordeaux where Rahman laid siege to them.
East of Aquitane, Toulouse was yet again the scene of more fighting as the French tried once more to lift the siege of the keep protecting the city. Once more Ismaels army, outnumbered 800 to 300 beat them back. 400 Frenchman were killed, 250 captured, for the loss of only 130 Almohads. All told, the Almohads took 600 French prisoners that year, but in a sign that the French were becoming increasingly strapped for cash, no ransom was forthcoming, the men being left to die in captivity. But by now Ismaels army in Toulouse was getting dangerously small. Infantry in particular he was running out of, and with the hit and run tactics of the French warships in the Western Mediterranean, he was unable to bring up his reinforcements from Spain and North Africa as quickly as he would like. Another attack by the French and he knew that for all his skill as a general, without infantry he would not be able to maintain, let alone break, the siege of Toulouse.
