Both Einhard and Notker the Stammerer refer…

802 CE

Both Einhard and Notker the Stammerer refer to envoys traveling between Harun's and Charlemagne's courts, amicable discussions concerning Christian access to the Holy Land and the exchange of gifts.

Notker mentions Charlemagne sent Harun Spanish horses, colorful Frisian cloaks and impressive hunting dogs.

The Frankish Jew Isaac, sent to the caliph in 802 on Charles's orders, returns with Abul-Abbas, an Asian elephant, whose name and events from his life in the Carolingian Empire are recorded in the Annales regni Francorum (ARF; or the "Royal Frankish Annals").

That the only surviving member of the group of three, Isaac, was being sent back with the elephant was heralded as advance news to Charles from two emissaries he had met in the year 801: one had been sent by the caliph himself, another by Abraham (Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab) who was governor of Africa.

Charles had then ordered a man to Liguria (the province around Genoa) to commission a fleet of ships to carry the elephant and other goods.

Researchers have speculated on Isaac and the elephant's route through Africa: Isaac and the elephant began the trek back by following the Egyptian coast into Ifriqiya, ruled by Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab, who had bought the land from al-Rashid for forty thousand dinars annually.

Possibly with the help of Ibrahim in the capital city of Kairouan (now in Tunisia), Isaac had set sail from port (possibly Carthage, now in Tunisia) with Abul-Abbas and traveled the remaining distance to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea.

In any case, the strict reading of the historic text Annales regni Francorum is that "Isaac the Jew returned from Africa" (Isaac Iudeus de Africa cum elefanto) had landed in Porto Venere (near Genoa) in October 801.

Spending the winter in Vercelli, in the spring the emissary and the elephant start the march over the Alps to the Emperor's residence in Aachen, arriving on July 20, 802.

Einhard's Vita Karoli Magni also mentions the elephant.

However, no references of the gift have been found in Abbasid records, nor any mentions of interactions with Charles, possibly because Rashid regarded the Frank as a minor ruler.

In addition, Harun has sent Charles a present consisting of silks, brass candelabra, perfume, balsam, ivory chessmen, a colossal tent with many-colored curtains, and a water clock that marks the hours by dropping bronze balls into a bowl, as mechanical knights—one for each hour—emerge from little doors that shut behind them.

The gifts are unprecedented in Western Europe and may have influenced Carolingian art.