Charlemagne’s elephant

Several months after Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor of the west (no big deal) the great man was again on the move, touring the Italian north in the spring of 801. While in Pavia, “he was told that legates from Aaron Amir al Muminin,^1.Known to us as Harun al-Rashid. There are several versions of his name in the sources. the rex of the Persians, had arrived at the port of Pisa.”^2.King, Royal Annals, 801, p. 94.

This was news indeed. As Charlemagne’s vision had expanded past the European scene, as a good Christian his attention had naturally turned to Jerusalem and the holy lands of Palestine. At some point the sad state of Christian communities to the east had been made known to him, and he had decided to remedy this unacceptable state of affairs. But as those lands were not under his rule and obviously outside the reach of his armies, he would need to use the softer skills of politics and charm to work his will. In those days that meant the dispatch and reception of personal envoys.

Jerusalem had come under the rule of the Islamic Umayyad dynasty around 638 CE. The Umayyads ruled until 750 until overthrown by the Abbasids.^3.It was the rump Ummayyad dynasty that had embroiled Charlemagne in Spain in 777. When Charlemagne’s gaze touched upon the Navel of the World, it was Harun al-Rashid who ruled Palestine from Baghdad. In 797 Charlemagne dispatched an envoy who passed through Jerusalem on his way to Baghdad. Two years later, as Charlemagne summered in Aachen, “a certain monk arrived from Jerusalem, bringing blessing from the patriarch and relics from the place of the Lord’s resurrection which he had sent to the king. And the king celebrated the Lord’s birthday while residing in the same palace; and when he gave the monk, who wished to return home, leave to depart, he ordered a certain priest from his palace to go with him, Zacharias, to whom he also entrusted certain gifts, to be delivered to those reverend places.”^4.King, Revised Annals, 799, p. 130.

This “certain monk” is believed to be the response from the Patriarch of Jerusalem to the envoy Charlemagne dispatched in 797. Here we see one-half of Charlemagne’s plan for the holy land. To aid poor Christians he must achieve and maintain good relations with the supreme Christian authority. Clearly the exchange of gifts described in the Annals boded well for the future, yet relations with the Patriarch were necessary but not sufficient. As a mustachioed Georgian twelve centuries later noted, “The Pope. How many divisions has he?” No doubt Charles wondered about his Baghdad emissary as the years ticked over. His relief in Pavia must have been considerable.

“He sent men to meet them and had them presented to him between Vercelli and Ivrea. One of them was a Persian from the east, the legate (there had been two) of the rex of the Persians, and the other a Saracen from Africa, the legate of the amir Abraham, who held sway in Fossatum [Fustat], on the border of Africa. They reported that Isaac the Jew, whom the emperor had sent to the rex of the Persians with Lantfrid and Sigimund four years before, was on his way back with great gifts but that Lantfrid and Sigimund were both dead. He then dispatched Ercanbald the notary to Liguria to get a fleet ready by which the elephant and whatever else was being brought might be conducted across.”^5.King, Royal Annals, 801, p. 94.

I’m sorry, what? Three men set out, and one man comes back with… an elephant? Despite a curiosity no doubt raised to a fever pitch, duty called from the north. Charlemagne crossed that Alps that summer and made his way to Aachen, where he engaged in more Mediterranean diplomacy with Irene, empress of Constantinople. Yet surely the highlight of his year came in the heat of the summer. “On 20 July of this year Isaac arrived with the elephant and the rest of the gifts sent by the rex of the Persians and handed them all over to the emperor at Aachen. The elephant’s name was Abul Abaz.”^6.King, Royal Annals, 802, p. 95.

The friendship between the Emperor of Europe and the emir in Baghdad continued. In 803 Charlemagne dispatched another embassy to Harun.^7.Noted in King, p. 69, but I can’t find anything in the usual sources. After another years-long round trip, in 807, “a legate from the rex of the Persians, Abd-Allah by name, reached the emperor together with monks from Jerusalem…”^8.Royal Annals, 807, King, p. 98 This entry includes a long description (long by the standard of the Annals) of the presents that Harun showered on Charlemagne. While no animals are reported, gifts included a magnificent pavilion and other tents, silk garments, perfumes, and a brass water clock.

You can go to wiki for a deeper discussion of water clocks (clepsydra, to the cognoscenti), but they are an ancient time-keeping device, dependent only on a steady supply of water. But this was no simple hinged bowl that tipped over when full. Harun’s gift featured “twelve little copper balls, one of which would fall down on the completion of an hour and by its fall make a bell positioned below ring. Additionally, it had twelve horsemen; when an hour was up one would emerge from one of twelve windows and by his movement in coming out close whichever window had previously been open. This clock possessed many other features also, which it would take too long to list here.”^9.Ibid. Modern life being what it is, an Arabic scholar has created a visualization of how it may have functioned. While this video may capture the fundamentals, no doubt the real item was ornate, compact, and an engineering marvel.

Such a gift demanded a suitable response. Michael McCormick describes an untranslated letter addressed to Arn, archbishop of Salzburg, written after receiving the water clock, seeking expensive “counter-gifts” to send to Harun.^10.McCormick, Charlemagne’s Survey of the Holy Land, p. 80, n. 18. That seems to be the last mention of active diplomacy between the emperor and the emir. Harun died in 809, and of course Charlemagne passed in 814. Perhaps the need to exchange gifts had already passed.

Chapter 18 of the Aachen capitulary for the missi, promulgated in 810, reads, “Concerning the sending of alms to Jerusalem for the restoration of God’s churches.”^11.King, Capitularies, p. 263. By this point whatever concession Charlemagne desired in the holy land had been granted. The extent of that concession is debated, and as King notes, “The most one can safely say is that Charles held, with caliphal consent, certain rights in Jerusalem…” Einhard’s assertion that Harun “not only agreed to what they asked him but even decreed that that holy and life-giving place should be assigned to Charles’s authority”^12.Noble, Lives, Einhard, ch. 16, p. 35. is doubtless one of his sycophantic exaggerations.

Harun must have been pleased to find a rich ruler eager to subsidize his poorer subjects in faraway, rundown Jerusalem. We don’t know, because the Franks are never mentioned in the Arabic chronicles. An oversight? Deliberate omission? Another mystery.

But, I hear you shout, what about Abul Abas? While nothing is known of his life, the creature’s death is recorded in the Royal Annals, a source noted for its brevity. In 810 Charlemagne marched to confront the Danes with a large force that crossed the Rhine at Lippeham. The two translations I’ve read both imply (but do not state plainly) that Abul Abas was with Charlemagne on campaign. “And while he stayed there for a time the elephant sent to him by Aaron, rex of the Saracens, suddenly died.”^13.King, Royal Annals, 810, p. 102. That same year the Royal Annals and the Lorsch Annals both mention a vicious plague. Charlemagne’s eldest daughter Rotrud and his son Pippin both died, as well as vast numbers of cattle throughout the realm. It is conceivable that the elephant was felled by the same virulence.

The location of Lippeham is a matter of debate. The river Lippe runs into the Rhine at town called Wesel, so perhaps that is where Abul Abas breathed his last. According to Wikipedia (yes, Abul Abas has his own Wikipedia page), in the middle of the 18th century a couple of enormous bones were unearthed, whose discoverers claimed to be those of Charlemagne’s elephant. Personally I like the idea that the great beast accompanied his emperor to battle the fearsome Northmen.