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The Emperor and the Elephant: Christians and Muslims in the Age of Charlemagne
A new history of Christian-Muslim relations in the Carolingian period that provides a fresh account of events by drawing on Arabic as well as western sources
In the year 802, an elephant arrived at the court of the Emperor Charlemagne in Aachen, sent as a gift by the ʿAbbasid Caliph, Harun al-Rashid. This extraordinary moment was part of a much wider set of diplomatic relations between the Carolingian dynasty and the Islamic world, including not only the Caliphate in the east but also Umayyad al-Andalus, North Africa, the Muslim lords of Italy and a varied cast of warlords, pirates and renegades. The Emperor and the Elephant offers a new account of these relations. By drawing on Arabic sources that help explain how and why Muslim rulers engaged with Charlemagne and his family, Sam Ottewill-Soulsby provides a fresh perspective on a subject that has until now been dominated by and seen through western sources.
The Emperor and the Elephant demonstrates the fundamental importance of these diplomatic relations to everyone involved. Charlemagne and Harun al-Rashid’s imperial ambitions at home were shaped by their dealings abroad. Populated by canny border lords who lived in multiple worlds, the long and shifting frontier between al-Andalus and the Franks presented both powers with opportunities and dangers, which their diplomats sought to manage.
Tracking the movement of envoys and messengers across the Pyrenees, the Mediterranean and beyond, and the complex ideas that lay behind them, this book examines the ways in which Christians and Muslims could make common cause in an age of faith.
In the year 802, an elephant arrived at the court of the Emperor Charlemagne in Aachen, sent as a gift by the ʿAbbasid Caliph, Harun al-Rashid. This extraordinary moment was part of a much wider set of diplomatic relations between the Carolingian dynasty and the Islamic world, including not only the Caliphate in the east but also Umayyad al-Andalus, North Africa, the Muslim lords of Italy and a varied cast of warlords, pirates and renegades. The Emperor and the Elephant offers a new account of these relations. By drawing on Arabic sources that help explain how and why Muslim rulers engaged with Charlemagne and his family, Sam Ottewill-Soulsby provides a fresh perspective on a subject that has until now been dominated by and seen through western sources.
The Emperor and the Elephant demonstrates the fundamental importance of these diplomatic relations to everyone involved. Charlemagne and Harun al-Rashid’s imperial ambitions at home were shaped by their dealings abroad. Populated by canny border lords who lived in multiple worlds, the long and shifting frontier between al-Andalus and the Franks presented both powers with opportunities and dangers, which their diplomats sought to manage.
Tracking the movement of envoys and messengers across the Pyrenees, the Mediterranean and beyond, and the complex ideas that lay behind them, this book examines the ways in which Christians and Muslims could make common cause in an age of faith.
- GenresHistory
392 pages, Hardcover
Published September 26, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 8, 2023
I really want to understand the Muslim polities in this time period as well as I understand the Carolingians and their Euro neighbours. It's still a fog but this book helped. There's some good stuff on Carolingian diplomacy in general, which I'd love to read more of. And does a good job of going beyond what kings were doing to show a more complex picture, which is something I really appreciate in Carolingian histories. Gave a more granular picture on stuff I sort of already knew about (Charlemagne sending money/support to Christians in the Abbasid Caliphate, the complex coalitions along the border marches between the Carolingians and Ummayyads).
Also it's funny how Charlemagne is seen as this crusading figure fighting Muslims on behalf of Christians, but that's not the case at all. He clearly sought friendship and alliances with Harun al-Rashid in the east, and in Spain the situation was so complex that it never narrowed down to a fight between one religion against another. I mean, Charlemagne's army fought one major battle in Spain, the biggest loss of his career, and it didn't involve Muslims on either side but rather Basques or proto-Basques who probably weren't Christian either! Charlemagne is such a weird character that way, its hard to pin him down: he probably deeply believed in Christianity but he was also using the church for his own ends and ignoring the parts that didn't work for him. He was both loved and resented for it (think about that monk's prophetic dreams of Charlemagne's genitals being gnawed by demons in hell). I dunno. Weird, fascinating guy.
Also it's funny how Charlemagne is seen as this crusading figure fighting Muslims on behalf of Christians, but that's not the case at all. He clearly sought friendship and alliances with Harun al-Rashid in the east, and in Spain the situation was so complex that it never narrowed down to a fight between one religion against another. I mean, Charlemagne's army fought one major battle in Spain, the biggest loss of his career, and it didn't involve Muslims on either side but rather Basques or proto-Basques who probably weren't Christian either! Charlemagne is such a weird character that way, its hard to pin him down: he probably deeply believed in Christianity but he was also using the church for his own ends and ignoring the parts that didn't work for him. He was both loved and resented for it (think about that monk's prophetic dreams of Charlemagne's genitals being gnawed by demons in hell). I dunno. Weird, fascinating guy.
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April 30, 2024The elephant in the title of Sam Ottewill-Soulsby’s study of diplomatic relations between Christians and Muslims in the Carolingian period (800-887) is Abul-Abbas, who having arrived in Aachen in 802 as a gift to Charlemagne from the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid thereafter became the most famous four-legged inhabitant of the Carolingian court. The gift was apparently a direct request from Charlemagne himself; the caliph went to a lot of trouble to comply. In Ottewill-Soulsby’s book, Harun does not appear as the sort of fabulously rich caliph we might encounter in the 1001 Nights, but as a hard-working ruler who went to great lengths to secure a precious elephant for Charlemagne from his reluctant Indian colleagues. This was not just any diplomatic gift, but one that was to influence the reputation of its grateful recipient forever: when Frederick Wilhelm IV of Prussia opened Charlemagne’s tomb in 1843, he found the emperor’s remains wrapped in a silk cloth. It was decorated with little elephants.
Prestigious gifts travelling between Aachen and Baghdad were an important factor in the diplomatic relationships between various Carolingian and Abbasid rulers. The reason why such relations existed in the first place has traditionally been explained by a supposed Carolingian-Abbasid alliance, formed in the middle of the eighth century against the Umayyads of al-Andalus and the Byzantines, who had created an alliance of their own. Francis W. Buckler, who published his Harunu’l Rashid and Charles the Great in 1931, interpreted diplomacy between Harun and Charles in the context of this ‘alliance thesis’, according to which both rulers sought collaboration when they each found themselves at loggerheads with Constantinople and Córdoba. But was it really that straightforward? Buckler relied on Frankish sources to build his theory, which means that he could do little more than replicate the Frankish narrative. The Abbasid or Umayyad perspective on the Carolingians has, therefore, hardly been taken into account.
This book makes a convincing case for a fundamentally different reading of Christian-Muslim relationships in the early Middle Ages. For one thing, there were more Muslim rulers than just the caliphs of Baghdad, and the Carolingians carefully constructed their relations with each of them – or decided it was not worth their while to conduct diplomacy at all. Ottewill-Soulsby provides a thorough tour of the Carolingians’ diplomatic landscape: the prestige diplomacy with the Abbasids; the frontier diplomacy with their unpredictable (and increasingly dangerous) Umayyad neighbours in al-Andalus; the very short-lived relations with the governor of Ifriqīya; and a conscious decision not to engage in diplomacy with the small emirates of Italy. What makes the book original is that Ottewill-Soulsby does not rely on Frankish sources alone, but also uses all available material produced by the Muslim societies in question – frustratingly scarce as it may be – to understand what circumstances or ideas guided diplomatic strategies. How and if envoys were sent or received, so it turns out, was dependent on both parties and on the specific political circumstances in which they found themselves at particular moments in time. A Muslim leader in al-Andalus, for instance, would happily collaborate with a strong Frankish neighbour if it suited his agenda, but could also decide to ignore or even fight the northerners if it suited his agenda better – and vice versa.
Read the rest of the review at HistoryToday.com.
Carine van Rhijn is a lecturer in medieval history at Utrecht University.
Prestigious gifts travelling between Aachen and Baghdad were an important factor in the diplomatic relationships between various Carolingian and Abbasid rulers. The reason why such relations existed in the first place has traditionally been explained by a supposed Carolingian-Abbasid alliance, formed in the middle of the eighth century against the Umayyads of al-Andalus and the Byzantines, who had created an alliance of their own. Francis W. Buckler, who published his Harunu’l Rashid and Charles the Great in 1931, interpreted diplomacy between Harun and Charles in the context of this ‘alliance thesis’, according to which both rulers sought collaboration when they each found themselves at loggerheads with Constantinople and Córdoba. But was it really that straightforward? Buckler relied on Frankish sources to build his theory, which means that he could do little more than replicate the Frankish narrative. The Abbasid or Umayyad perspective on the Carolingians has, therefore, hardly been taken into account.
This book makes a convincing case for a fundamentally different reading of Christian-Muslim relationships in the early Middle Ages. For one thing, there were more Muslim rulers than just the caliphs of Baghdad, and the Carolingians carefully constructed their relations with each of them – or decided it was not worth their while to conduct diplomacy at all. Ottewill-Soulsby provides a thorough tour of the Carolingians’ diplomatic landscape: the prestige diplomacy with the Abbasids; the frontier diplomacy with their unpredictable (and increasingly dangerous) Umayyad neighbours in al-Andalus; the very short-lived relations with the governor of Ifriqīya; and a conscious decision not to engage in diplomacy with the small emirates of Italy. What makes the book original is that Ottewill-Soulsby does not rely on Frankish sources alone, but also uses all available material produced by the Muslim societies in question – frustratingly scarce as it may be – to understand what circumstances or ideas guided diplomatic strategies. How and if envoys were sent or received, so it turns out, was dependent on both parties and on the specific political circumstances in which they found themselves at particular moments in time. A Muslim leader in al-Andalus, for instance, would happily collaborate with a strong Frankish neighbour if it suited his agenda, but could also decide to ignore or even fight the northerners if it suited his agenda better – and vice versa.
Read the rest of the review at HistoryToday.com.
Carine van Rhijn is a lecturer in medieval history at Utrecht University.
September 18, 2024
Extremely dense content on the diplomatic activity and relationship between Carolingian Empire and the Islamic, specifically Abbasid, Cardoba and the Mediterranean. The elephant actually is not focus on that much smh. I would recommend this if you have some knowledge of Islamic history before diving.
April 13, 2025
Well lads, I did read this. It helped me a lot with my essay, so that’s a positive. Tbh I did appreciate how in-depth and readable it was simultaneously. Idk this is not the book’s fault at all but I just prefer high medieval history. What can a gal do?
April 26, 2024
Academic but readable journey through the Carolingian and early Islamic worlds, with some highly enjoyable turns of phrase.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews