With Abd al-Rahman’s power increasing in Andalusia, the new Frankish kings, Pippin and his son Charlemagne, found that they had a common interest with the Caliphs in Baghdad. Baghdad was too far away to feel like a threat to Frankland. The Abbasid Caliphs would have liked nothing better than seeing the upstart Umayyad Emir crushed without their having to do anything.
During the 760s, ambassadors visited. At that time, ambassadors stayed for a few years, brought gifts, established a working knowledge of the people and the land, and then returned home. The embassy from Baghdad probably accompanied the Frankish embassy group back to Aachen, then stayed three years as had the Franks.
The Northern Europeans saw alliance with Baghdad as a way to join the Silk Road market. The Franks accepted Arabic gold dinars, and even in the more distant kingdom of Mercia, in England, King Offa was so eager to participate in trade that he struck his own coins to look like Arabic dinars. Europe had furs, timber, iron and slaves to trade to Baghdad. What didn’t Baghdad have to trade back? Silk, spices, gold, and gems came from the far east and may have stocked the Frankish capital for later creation of crown jewels.
The two kingdoms also shared common antipathy to Constantinople. Rome was pulling away from Constantinople as their prelates vied for higher authority. Charlemagne and Haroun al-Rashid might have contemplated a joint assault on Byzantine territory, although it never happened.
In 797, a number of embassies went back and forth. First, Charlemagne sent Isaac the Jew, who was from Narbonne and probably had many Mediterranean travel contacts. Isaac may have spoken some Arabic, too. With him went some Frankish nobles, but we know less about them, since they died while abroad. Isaac was sent home with an Asian elephant named Abul Abbas. They traveled through Egypt and North Africa, sailing from Kairouan to Genoa. In spring 802, they took the road over the Alps to arrive at Aachen. Surprisingly, the elephant made it.
The Royal Frankish Annals catalogued gifts received from Caliph Haroun al-Rashid. They included a tent with finely-woven colored curtains, ivory chessmen, perfume, silk, a brass candelabra, and a clock. The clock ran by water, using gravity and the size of holes and pipes to measure time. It struck cymbals on the hour, while also twelve little horsemen twirled.
Charlemagne also sent embassies to the Patriarch of Jerusalem, who was of course living under Abbasid rule. The King paid for the construction of the Church of St. Mary, and some monks came to Aachen as ambassadors. Caliph Haroun al-Rashid offered Charlemagne custody of the holy places, but he died before it could be worked out. Embassies continued after the deaths of the two kings, their successors trying to keep up good relations.
- God’s Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215, David Levering Lewis