Sam Ottewill-Soulsby: The Emperor and the Elephant: Christians and Muslims in the Age of Charlemagne. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2023; pp. xv + 363.

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Abstract

Book review of - Sam Ottewill-Soulsby: The Emperor and the Elephant: Christians and Muslims in the Age of Charlemagne. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2023; pp. xv + 363

Both the internal and external mechanics of the Carolingian Empire have come under renewed scrutiny in recent years, with scholars paying increasing attention to the subject of Carolingian interactions with the Islamic world. In this lively, well-researched, and insightful book, written with great clarity and wit, Sam Ottewill-Soulsby justifies launching a new foray into the study of Carolingian–Islamic diplomacy on two main grounds. The first is that previous analyses tend to privilege the Carolingian perspective, with the result that “the roles and interests of Muslim rulers have taken a back seat” and “been treated as an inert fixture in the landscape” of early medieval geopolitics (p. 7). The second is the need to dispel what Ottewill-Soulsby calls “the lingering shadow” (p. 8) of Francis W. Buckler's monograph Harunu'l-Rashid and Charles the Great (1931), which postulated the operation of an “alliance system between the four great powers of the Mediterranean” in the eighth and ninth centuries (p. 6), with the Carolingians and the ‘Abbāsid Caliphate supposedly aligning with one another against the Byzantines and the Umayyads of Córdoba. Though Buckler's work was controversial even in its time, Ottewill-Soulsby emphasises that his thesis “remains an important shorthand for Carolingianists who are not otherwise concerned with the subject” (p. 8). Contesting Eurocentric approaches to Carolingian-Islamic contact and challenging Buckler's ongoing influence, Ottewill-Soulsby thus sets out to articulate “a new vision of Carolingian relations with the Islamic world” based on the ideas that “Frankish monarchs did not deal with all Muslim rulers as part of a grand system” and that “each power was engaged with on its own terms” (p. 11)...
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages2
JournalJournal of Religious History
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 19 Mar 2024

Keywords

  • Literary review
  • Sam Ottewill-Soulsby
  • The Emperor and the Elephant

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