Overview

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 Abbasid 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.

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9780691227962

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Reviews

""A remarkably lively and intelligent book.""---Robert Irwin, Times Literary Supplement ""Ottewill-Soulsby has powerfully demonstrated that Carolingian historians cannot hope to examine Christian-Muslim diplomatic relations without first comprehending the political dynamics of Muslim polities based on their own sources . . . [A]n important, enduring contribution to medieval scholarship.""---Sara Ann Knutson, Studies in Late Antiquity ""[The Emperor and the Elephant] is a major contribution to the scholarship of the era. Erudite, well-written, interesting—one cannot say enough about this book. ""---Karl Bridges, Catholic Library World ""[A] lively, well-researched, and insightful book, written with great clarity and wit. . . . Scholars of Christian–Muslim relations in the Middle Ages would do well not to ignore this excellent book.""---James H. Kane, Journal of Religious History

"""A remarkably lively and intelligent book.""---Robert Irwin, Times Literary Supplement ""Ottewill-Soulsby has powerfully demonstrated that Carolingian historians cannot hope to examine Christian-Muslim diplomatic relations without first comprehending the political dynamics of Muslim polities based on their own sources . . . [A]n important, enduring contribution to medieval scholarship.""---Sara Ann Knutson, Studies in Late Antiquity"

"""A remarkably lively and intelligent book.""---Robert Irwin, Times Literary Supplement"

""A remarkably lively and intelligent book.""---Robert Irwin, Times Literary Supplement ""Ottewill-Soulsby has powerfully demonstrated that Carolingian historians cannot hope to examine Christian-Muslim diplomatic relations without first comprehending the political dynamics of Muslim polities based on their own sources . . . [A]n important, enduring contribution to medieval scholarship.""---Sara Ann Knutson, Studies in Late Antiquity ""[The Emperor and the Elephant] is a major contribution to the scholarship of the era. Erudite, well-written, interesting—one cannot say enough about this book. ""---Karl Bridges, Catholic Library World ""[A] lively, well-researched, and insightful book, written with great clarity and wit. . . . Scholars of Christian–Muslim relations in the Middle Ages would do well not to ignore this excellent book.""---James H. Kane, Journal of Religious History ""Groundbreaking. . . . an innovative and important model for studying diplomacy in the early medieval Mediterranean."" * Choice *

Author Information

Sam Ottewill-Soulsby is a senior researcher at the University of Oslo.

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