How a Carolingian Count, as Sent in an Embassy to Baghdad, Might Have Travelled Until the Last Reaches of the World arrow back

How a Carolingian Count, as Sent in an Embassy to Baghdad, Might Have Travelled Until the Last Reaches of the World

The emperor Charlemagne, by the year 796 A.D., as he had been asked by the Caliph Harun al-Raschid, the Abassid Caliph of Baghdad, he sent to his court, like his representatives and ambassadors of the Franks, counts Adalhard and Gribald, and archbishops Fromilbert and Anglon. Those took the road, by land. As they had left the Rhine river valley, they did cross the whole of southern Germany, on that side of the Alps, until they reached the border of the Ostmark (note: that journey is purely fictitious -even if Carolingian embassies did take place towards the Abassid Caliphate)

picture illustrating the journey of a Carolingian count until the last reaches of the world

symbolic picture accompanying the journey of a Carolingian count As they had been journeying at the border of the Alps, and then having had frankly took South and crossed the last passes in the Niedere Tauern, the voyagers arrived in the Ostmark. That part of the march was close to those regions which had recently been vainquished over the Avars and much was still to do to pacify there, or to re-organize those places

 

picture illustrating the journey of a Carolingian count until the last reaches of the world

The troop then crossed the Slavic tributaries principalties in the region and then kept advancing along the Danube, that large river, which is said to eventually terminate into the Pontus Euxinus. Some missionaries from Byzantium sometimes came and evangelized in those parts

 

picture illustrating the journey of a Carolingian count until the last reaches of the world

As the Rodhopus Mount was left to the right, the ambassadors eventually got in those places which are close to Constantinople and which are thus depending on them

 

picture illustrating the journey of a Carolingian count until the last reaches of the world

They finally came under the powerful walls of Byzantium, which had been built in the late Roman empire, and the troop spent some time there

 

picture illustrating the journey of a Carolingian count until the last reaches of the world

Albeit the drought begins to be felt there, the landscapes of Anatolia -there were once stood ancient kindgoms- are remaining prosperous however, with the agriculture well extant

 

picture illustrating the journey of a Carolingian count until the last reaches of the world

The compartimented reaches of the Greeks soon let the room, after one week of journey, to vast regions. The Frankish ambassadors and the archbishops were welcome, after that large mountains were crossed, by the emissaries of the Caliph, as they had came from Baghdad. Because, even if Baghdad did was the main purpose of the journey, the emperor Charlemagne and the Caliph had agreed that some part of the group would separate however, and journey to the last reaches of the known world, the other part heading directly to the capital of the Abassid empire, which is sitting near those large rivers of the Euphrates and the Tigris

 

picture illustrating the journey of a Carolingian count until the last reaches of the world

The part of the troop which was scheduled to reach Baghdad later, resolutely took the direction of the Orient. They travelled along further large mountains and the heat was creating vast deserts!

 

picture illustrating the journey of a Carolingian count until the last reaches of the world


 

After two weeks of an improving journey, both for men and the beasts, the Persian guides said that they had arrived to that famed river that Alexander the Great had crossed, and the name of which was the 'Oxus'. That river is vast and large, as it's meandering in vast, desolated and flat landscapes

 

picture illustrating the journey of a Carolingian count until the last reaches of the world

Thence, the group took to the northeast, with soon appearing a formidable embroilment of much powerful mountains, like no one had never seen of any kind. It is said that some trade routes however, despite such a barrier, are having caravans of traders passing through and that those, either in that direction, or the other, are travelling down to some territories depending upon India and thereof

 

picture illustrating the journey of a Carolingian count until the last reaches of the world

The Persian guides said that they could not go farther and, once they had seen the trade route by which one might reach to India, the troop returned. Once back in the vast plains of the people of the Bactres, they found back more direct routes, and less deserted, which, passing through the center of the antique Perisa, brought them back down to Baghdad, where this part of the embassy who had already reached there, was encountered. Baghdad is a mighty and rich city, and the capital city of the great king, the King of king and the Caliph of the Muslim believers, the mightful prince Harun

 

picture illustrating the journey of a Carolingian count until the last reaches of the world

The embassy lasted, allowing to the ambassadors to see how that part of Persia is close to a southern Ocean, which is much warm as, anywhere else, it is sided with deserts everywhere. When the time came that the troop had to take the road back to the Frankish lands, it was cleared too to be able to journey to the Holy Land, and Jerusalem. Along more trade routes, going from the Euphrates and the Tigris to the land of the Philistines and its neighbourhood, they did see the ancient capital of the Arab caliphate, Damascus that is, which now is abandonned and few populated. The advantage that the Arabs had with having their capital there was that the Mediterranean was not that far and that they could have shipyards and their ships built there

 

picture illustrating the journey of a Carolingian count until the last reaches of the world

Jerusalem eventually was reached, that city where the tumb of Our Lord Jesus Christ is lying, and where one can see a grand basilica which St. Helena had made build in that location

 

picture illustrating the journey of a Carolingian count until the last reaches of the world

After they had spent two months visiting the Holy places, and cared about the Christian people who are living in the region, the Franks and the archbishops were able to get the opportunity of finding a boat which had brought pilgrims in the Holy Land, from southern Italy. They embarked all, with the beasts and the luggage and they were back in Italy. Whence, they had just to head North, towards the Frankish domains. As Rome was along the route, the counts and the archbishops did not miss to make a pause there as they were welcome by the pope, and that they visited the tumb of the Apostle Peter

 

picture illustrating the journey of a Carolingian count until the last reaches of the world

They further climbed the tall valleys of the Alps, crossing through high and desolated passes, and they eventually were back in Bavaria

 

picture illustrating the journey of a Carolingian count until the last reaches of the world

They then followed the Rhine river, as the emperor Charlemagne, that year, was sojourning in his palace at Köln

pictures Alps, Bulgaria, Anatolia, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Oxus, Baghdad, Damascus, Rome, Alps' Pass, Rhine based on pictures published under the GNU license (a copy of which is available at WikipediA); picture Pamir based on a picture published under the Creative Commons Attribution 1.0 (a copy of which is available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0/); picture Jerusalem based on a picture published under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 (a copy of which is available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/)

Website Manager: G. Guichard, site Learning and Knowledge In the Carolingian Times / Erudition et savoir à l'époque carolingienne, http://schoolsempire.6te.net. Page Editor: G. Guichard. last edited: 12/28/2010. contact us at ggwebsites@outlook.com
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