In the Early Middle Ages, two of the world’s most powerful empires forged a relationship shaped by strategy, diplomacy, and shared rivals. The Carolingians and Abbasids built ties that extended from western Europe to the eastern Mediterranean, reshaping the political landscape of their age.
By David Bachrach
All students of the Carolingian Empire are familiar with the story of Harun al-Rashid, the Abbasid Caliph (786-809), dispatching an elephant to the court of Charlemagne, which arrived in 802. Earlier generations of scholars saw in this gift a metaphor for the sophistication of the Muslim East and the barbarism of the contemporary West. Harun al-Rashid was the urbane and highly civilized ruler of an expansive empire built on a highly advanced economy, whereas Charlemagne had delusions of grandeur, imagining himself a proper heir of the Roman Empire in the West. This dichotomy largely has disappeared from specialist studies. The image of Charlemagne, in particular, has benefitted tremendously since the 1960s from the vast expansion of our knowledge of the sophistication of his government, the material wealth of the lands of the Carolingian Empire, and, not least, an understanding that his imperial ambitions extended well beyond northern Europe and even contemporary southern France and Italy down to Rome.
The publication by Michael McCormick of an edition and commentary of three texts produced in the early ninth century by Charlemagne’s officials, who had travelled to the patriarchate of Jerusalem at the request of Patriarch George (797-807), sheds considerable light on the energetic efforts of the now aging emperor to extend his influence to the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. This effort, however, was only possible with the permission of Harun al-Rashid, whose officials governed the holy city.
The strong diplomatic ties between the Carolingian and Abbasid rulers in the early ninth century, which are illuminated both by the story of the elephant and the mission of Charlemagne’s missi dominici, were not, however, the beginning of a new story, but rather the continuation of a long relationship that dated back more than half a century to the replacement of the Umayyad dynasty by the Abbasids in 750.
Harun al-Rashid receiving a delegation of Charlemagne in Baghdad – a painting from 1864 by Julius Köckert (1827–1918) – Wikimedia Commons
From the Frankish perspective, the story began in the decades following the Muslim conquest of the Visigothic kingdom, which was completed in 711. Muslim forces undertook campaigns on almost an annual basis against targets on what is now the southern French coast, capturing the old Roman fortress cities of Narbonne, Marseilles, and Avignon. The main opponent of the Muslims in this early period was Duke Eudo of Aquitaine (died c. 735), who was able to relieve a Muslim siege of Toulouse in 721. Under the leadership of Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi, the Muslim governor in Spain (722-732), however, the Muslims gained the upper hand and Eudo sought military assistance from Charles Martel, the Carolingian mayor of the palace and de facto ruler of the regnum Francorum. Charles won a famous victory at the Battle of Poitiers in 732. Charles’ son and successor Pippin captured Muslim-held cities along the southern French coast, and by 768 ruled all of Provence and Aquitaine.
As Pippin was campaigning in Aquitaine against the successors of Eudo, Abul ‘Abbas as-Saffah defeated the forces of the Umayyad dynasty at the Battle of Zab (750) and engineered the massacre of the entire Umayyad family, with the exception of Abd al-Rahman I, who fled to Spain. In response to what he perceived to be the common interests of his dynasty with that of Pippin, who had been anointed as king of the Franks in 754, thus ending nearly three centuries of Merovingian rule, the Abbasid Caliph Abd Allah al-Mansur (754-775) dispatched envoys to the Frankish royal court. In addition to the obvious political and military advantages to both the new Carolingian and Abbasid dynasties in developing an alliance against the Umayyad Abd al-Rahman (died 788), the two rulers also negotiated agreements to facilitate trade, and to improve conditions for Christian pilgrims who sought to visit Jerusalem.
Charlemagne and Harun al-Rashid
Charlemagne built on the successes of his father Pippin, conquering the Lombard kingdom in northern Italy in 773, and then turning his attention to Spain. After a failed effort in 778, Charlemagne began a systematic effort to expand his dominion to the southwest. He captured the fortress cities of Urgel, Gerona, and Huesca from the Muslims, and subsequently advanced inland with the capture of Vich and Cardona. His efforts were crowned in 801 with the capture of the city of Barcelona in 801 by Louis the Pious, Charlemagne’s son and ruler of the kingdom of Aquitaine.
16th-century depiction of Harun Al-Rashid – Bibliothèque Nationale de France MS Arabe 6075, fol. 9a
Like his predecessor al-Mansur, Harun al-Rashid was both very interested in and well informed about Charlemagne’s military successors against the Umayyad rulers in Spain. He sent several emissaries to the Carolingian court, and Charlemagne reciprocated, sending two high-ranking counts along with the Jewish interpreter Isaac to the newly established city of Baghdad. It was the survivors of this embassy, dispatched in 797, who brought back the elephant Abu Abbas to Aachen.
These negotiations brought important benefits to both sides in terms of increased trade agreements. Among the most prominent of the merchants to travel between the two empires were the Radanites, Jewish merchants based on the valley of the Rhône, who gained the attention of the Abbasid governor in eastern Persia, Ibn Khurradadhbih. He wrote a report on these merchants for the Abbasid court, titled The Routes of the Jewish Merchants Called Radanites. He observed that they sailed from Frankish ports along the Mediterranean, and reached important commercial centers at Medina, Mecca, Antioch, and Baghdad.
In addition, Charlemagne was able to secure important concessions from Harun al-Rashid with regard to Christian pilgrims traveling from his empire to Jerusalem. The Abbasid ruler allowed Charlemagne to fund the establishment of a pilgrimage hostel at Jerusalem. In addition, Charlemagne obtained increased privileges for the Christian subjects of Harun al-Rashid within the Holy Land, including the right to build churches and to worship more openly under the protection of Charlemagne. Indeed, one of the main purposes of the mission dispatched by Charlemagne to Jerusalem was to take an inventory of Christian assets there and to determine what additional funding was required to sustain the activities of the patriarchate of Jerusalem. Subsequent to this survey, Charlemagne sent financial aid to the Christian communities in the region.
Overall, the common interests of the Carolingians and Abbasids vis-à-vis the Umayyad “caliphate” in Spain and, to a lesser extent against the Byzantines, led to more than half a century of fruitful diplomatic relations. The Abbasids benefited from the ongoing military efforts of the Carolingians in Spain, while the Carolingians gained both increased commercial ties with the wealthy empire of the east and an opportunity to extend their influence over the Christians of the eastern Mediterranean.
David Bachrach is a Professor at the University of New Hampshire, where he researches medieval military history, particularly in England and Germany.
Bernard S. Bachrach, “Charlemagne’s Mediterranean Empire,” in Mediterranean Identities in the Premodern Era, ed. John Watkins, Kathryn L. Reyerson (London, 2016), 155-172.
Top Image: Depictions of Charlemagne and Harun al-Rashid – Wikimedia Commons
In the Early Middle Ages, two of the world’s most powerful empires forged a relationship shaped by strategy, diplomacy, and shared rivals. The Carolingians and Abbasids built ties that extended from western Europe to the eastern Mediterranean, reshaping the political landscape of their age.
By David Bachrach
All students of the Carolingian Empire are familiar with the story of Harun al-Rashid, the Abbasid Caliph (786-809), dispatching an elephant to the court of Charlemagne, which arrived in 802. Earlier generations of scholars saw in this gift a metaphor for the sophistication of the Muslim East and the barbarism of the contemporary West. Harun al-Rashid was the urbane and highly civilized ruler of an expansive empire built on a highly advanced economy, whereas Charlemagne had delusions of grandeur, imagining himself a proper heir of the Roman Empire in the West. This dichotomy largely has disappeared from specialist studies. The image of Charlemagne, in particular, has benefitted tremendously since the 1960s from the vast expansion of our knowledge of the sophistication of his government, the material wealth of the lands of the Carolingian Empire, and, not least, an understanding that his imperial ambitions extended well beyond northern Europe and even contemporary southern France and Italy down to Rome.
The publication by Michael McCormick of an edition and commentary of three texts produced in the early ninth century by Charlemagne’s officials, who had travelled to the patriarchate of Jerusalem at the request of Patriarch George (797-807), sheds considerable light on the energetic efforts of the now aging emperor to extend his influence to the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. This effort, however, was only possible with the permission of Harun al-Rashid, whose officials governed the holy city.
The strong diplomatic ties between the Carolingian and Abbasid rulers in the early ninth century, which are illuminated both by the story of the elephant and the mission of Charlemagne’s missi dominici, were not, however, the beginning of a new story, but rather the continuation of a long relationship that dated back more than half a century to the replacement of the Umayyad dynasty by the Abbasids in 750.
Julius Köckert (1827–1918) – Wikimedia Commons
From the Frankish perspective, the story began in the decades following the Muslim conquest of the Visigothic kingdom, which was completed in 711. Muslim forces undertook campaigns on almost an annual basis against targets on what is now the southern French coast, capturing the old Roman fortress cities of Narbonne, Marseilles, and Avignon. The main opponent of the Muslims in this early period was Duke Eudo of Aquitaine (died c. 735), who was able to relieve a Muslim siege of Toulouse in 721. Under the leadership of Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi, the Muslim governor in Spain (722-732), however, the Muslims gained the upper hand and Eudo sought military assistance from Charles Martel, the Carolingian mayor of the palace and de facto ruler of the regnum Francorum. Charles won a famous victory at the Battle of Poitiers in 732. Charles’ son and successor Pippin captured Muslim-held cities along the southern French coast, and by 768 ruled all of Provence and Aquitaine.
As Pippin was campaigning in Aquitaine against the successors of Eudo, Abul ‘Abbas as-Saffah defeated the forces of the Umayyad dynasty at the Battle of Zab (750) and engineered the massacre of the entire Umayyad family, with the exception of Abd al-Rahman I, who fled to Spain. In response to what he perceived to be the common interests of his dynasty with that of Pippin, who had been anointed as king of the Franks in 754, thus ending nearly three centuries of Merovingian rule, the Abbasid Caliph Abd Allah al-Mansur (754-775) dispatched envoys to the Frankish royal court. In addition to the obvious political and military advantages to both the new Carolingian and Abbasid dynasties in developing an alliance against the Umayyad Abd al-Rahman (died 788), the two rulers also negotiated agreements to facilitate trade, and to improve conditions for Christian pilgrims who sought to visit Jerusalem.
Charlemagne and Harun al-Rashid
Charlemagne built on the successes of his father Pippin, conquering the Lombard kingdom in northern Italy in 773, and then turning his attention to Spain. After a failed effort in 778, Charlemagne began a systematic effort to expand his dominion to the southwest. He captured the fortress cities of Urgel, Gerona, and Huesca from the Muslims, and subsequently advanced inland with the capture of Vich and Cardona. His efforts were crowned in 801 with the capture of the city of Barcelona in 801 by Louis the Pious, Charlemagne’s son and ruler of the kingdom of Aquitaine.
Like his predecessor al-Mansur, Harun al-Rashid was both very interested in and well informed about Charlemagne’s military successors against the Umayyad rulers in Spain. He sent several emissaries to the Carolingian court, and Charlemagne reciprocated, sending two high-ranking counts along with the Jewish interpreter Isaac to the newly established city of Baghdad. It was the survivors of this embassy, dispatched in 797, who brought back the elephant Abu Abbas to Aachen.
These negotiations brought important benefits to both sides in terms of increased trade agreements. Among the most prominent of the merchants to travel between the two empires were the Radanites, Jewish merchants based on the valley of the Rhône, who gained the attention of the Abbasid governor in eastern Persia, Ibn Khurradadhbih. He wrote a report on these merchants for the Abbasid court, titled The Routes of the Jewish Merchants Called Radanites. He observed that they sailed from Frankish ports along the Mediterranean, and reached important commercial centers at Medina, Mecca, Antioch, and Baghdad.
In addition, Charlemagne was able to secure important concessions from Harun al-Rashid with regard to Christian pilgrims traveling from his empire to Jerusalem. The Abbasid ruler allowed Charlemagne to fund the establishment of a pilgrimage hostel at Jerusalem. In addition, Charlemagne obtained increased privileges for the Christian subjects of Harun al-Rashid within the Holy Land, including the right to build churches and to worship more openly under the protection of Charlemagne. Indeed, one of the main purposes of the mission dispatched by Charlemagne to Jerusalem was to take an inventory of Christian assets there and to determine what additional funding was required to sustain the activities of the patriarchate of Jerusalem. Subsequent to this survey, Charlemagne sent financial aid to the Christian communities in the region.
Overall, the common interests of the Carolingians and Abbasids vis-à-vis the Umayyad “caliphate” in Spain and, to a lesser extent against the Byzantines, led to more than half a century of fruitful diplomatic relations. The Abbasids benefited from the ongoing military efforts of the Carolingians in Spain, while the Carolingians gained both increased commercial ties with the wealthy empire of the east and an opportunity to extend their influence over the Christians of the eastern Mediterranean.
David Bachrach is a Professor at the University of New Hampshire, where he researches medieval military history, particularly in England and Germany.
Click here to read more from David Bachrach
Further Readings:
Michael McCormick, Charlemagne’s Survey of the Holy Land: Wealth, Personnel, and Buildings of a Mediterranean Church between Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Washington D.C., 2011).
Bernard S. Bachrach, “Charlemagne’s Mediterranean Empire,” in Mediterranean Identities in the Premodern Era, ed. John Watkins, Kathryn L. Reyerson (London, 2016), 155-172.
Top Image: Depictions of Charlemagne and Harun al-Rashid – Wikimedia Commons
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