Charlemagne’s elephant

In 797, Charlemagne sent envoys to Harun al-Rashid, the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad, one of the richest cities on Earth at the time. Only one member of the mission, a Jewish merchant named Isaac, survived the journey home.

Isaac returned with an extraordinary gift: an elephant, named in the Frankish annals as Abul-Abbas. They travelled across North Africa, sailed to Italy, waited out the winter and then crossed the Alps.

On 20 July 802, Abul-Abbas arrived at Charlemagne’s court in Aachen. Few people in northern Europe had ever seen an elephant. It travelled with the emperor and became a living symbol of his reach and diplomacy.

Abul-Abbas died in 810 while accompanying the army on a campaign against the Danes. The royal annals recorded his death alongside wars and treaties. Europe and the Islamic world were often at odds, but on this occasion two great rulers exchanged gifts instead of armies.