Because a long time ago, the French Riviera around Nice was Moorish
The
Muslim presence in medieval France corresponds to the
Saracen presence for several periods between
719 and
973 in the province of
Septimania and then in
Provence until
1197, of
Muslim populations, mainly
Arabs,
Berbers, and also Europeans who converted to Islam (
Muwallads).
A first phase of presence, following the
Umayyad conquest of Hispania, is recorded between
719 and
759 in the province of
Septimania with
Narbonne as its capital.
A second phase of presence lasted nearly 80 years, between
890 and
973, during which Muslims had established several fortified camps in the vicinity of
Saint-Tropez in the middle of the
Massif des Maures,
[1] with
Fraxinetum as its chief town, which Arab written sources call
Gabal al qilâl ("the mountain of the summits"), and
farahsinêt (the phonetic transcription of Fraxinetum), i.e., the present-day hinterland of the Gulf of
Saint-Tropez.
