Becoming Charlemagne: Europe, Baghdad, and the Empires of A.D. 800 by Jeff Sypeck
An examination of how Karl, king of the Franks became Charles the Great. Sypeck tries to find what is fact and what is legend and what is legend based in fact. Karl’s dealings with Pope Leo III, the Saxons, the Abassids, and Harun al-Rashid (of Arabian Nights fame) and others is examined in some details, but extant material is apparently pretty scarce, so there’s not a lot here. In fact, the book ends very abruptly. There’s a fair sized section of notes at the end and when you’re 2/3 of the way through the book, it’s over. The last chapter starts after a jump of a fair number of years and deals with the aftermath of Charlemagne’s sons and grandsons fighting over the division of the empire, but the jump is startling, and then you find it’s over.
The story of the trip of Abul Abiz, the elephant given by Harun al-Rashid, to Aachen was interesting as was the story of the attack on Pope Leo. But over all there really isn’t much here. A good read, though.
