Harun al-Rashid’s Gift to Charlemagne

In the year 802 an Indian elephant named Abul al-Abbas arrived at the court of Charlemagne in Aachen as a gift from Caliph Harun al-Rashid, who ruled in distant Baghdad. This extraordinary event serves as the starting point for a detailed study of how medieval diplomacy worked between the Christian West and its adversaries in the Islamic world. It was a slow and dangerous business. Travel between these empires was hazardous, often taking months or even years to make a round trip, and many envoys died in transit before they could complete their missions.

Diplomatic relations in this era served two distinctly different purposes. The exchange of exotic and precious gifts between distant empires was a kind of theatrical display intended to demonstrate the ruler’s prestige and power to local elites. The exchange of prisoners, messages and information between bordering states, on the other hand, was a way to defuse tensions or gain potential advantages in the event of armed conflict. This was particularly true in northeastern Spain where war between the Carolingians and the Muslims alternated with periods of truce.

The book contains six chapters and a brief Conclusion.

1. Introduction

2. Perception and Practice in Carolingian Diplomacy with the Islamic World

3. Carolingian Diplomacy with the ?Abbasid Caliphate

4. Carolingian-Umayyad Diplomacy: Part 1: 751–820

5. Carolingian-Umayyad Diplomacy: Part 2: 820–864

6. The Central Mediterranean: The Limits of Carolingian Diplomacy with the Islamic World

7. Conclusion: Death of an Elephant

The book concludes with a fascinating story. In 1843, Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV (ruled 1840-1861) ordered the opening of Charlemagne’s tomb in Aachen’s cathedral. The late emperor’s body was “wrapped in a silk shroud dominated by images of elephants.” Woven in Eleventh Century Constantinople, the fabric was probably placed in the tomb by the later emperor Frederick Barbarossa (r. 1155-1190). “Whatever the occasion, the design of the silk suggests the continued importance of Abul al-Abbas to the memory of Charlemagne. Long after both elephant and emperor had passed away, the two remained bound together in death.” (p. 289)

Heavily footnoted, and written in a dense academic style, The Emperor and the Elephant will mainly be of interest to scholars with a strong background in Islamic studies. The author is a Senior Researcher at the University of Oslo. He holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Cambridge.

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Our Reviewer: Mike Markowitz is an historian and wargame designer. He writes a monthly column for CoinWeek.Com and is a member of the ADBC (Association of Dedicated Byzantine Collectors). His previous reviews include Caesar Rules: The Emperor in the Changing Roman World, Ancient Rome on the Silver Screen, Justinian: Emperor, Soldier, Saint, Persians: The Age of the Great Kings, Polis: A New History of the Ancient Greek City-State, At the Gates of Rome: The Battle for a Dying Empire, Roman Emperors in Context, After 1177 B.C., Cyrus the Great, Barbarians and Romans: The Birth Struggle of Europe, A.D. 400–700, Crescent Dawn: The Rise of the Ottoman Empire and the Making of the Modern Age, The Missing Thread: A New History of the Ancient World Through the Women Who Shaped It, The Roman Provinces, 300 BCE–300 CE: Using Coins as Sources, The Cambridge Companion to Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, Archaic Greece, Amazons: The History Behind the Legend, The Byzantine World, Classical Controversies, Reassessing the Peloponnesian War, War and Masculinity in Roman and Medieval Culture, Nemesis: Medieval England's Greatest Enemy, and The Wars of the Roses: A Medieval Civil War.

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Note: The Emperor and the Elephant is also available in e-editions.

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