Irene of Athens, now fifty years old, an emperor’s widow who was guiding Constantinople out of its frenzy of icon smashing, was keen to appease Charlemagne, who could threaten her southern Italian holdings. In 781, Irene as regent negotiated marriage between her young son, Emperor Constantine VI, and Charlemagne’s daughter Rotrude, but both Irene and Charlemagne delayed the wedding. Constantine was both inept and vicious: he was defeated in battle by the Muslims, and when an uncle rebelled he not only blinded him but tore out the tongues of his other four uncles. His mother was convinced she would do better. In 797, she deposed her twenty-seven-year-old son and blinded him. This demonstration of female misrule convinced Charlemagne and the Franks that the Roman throne was vacant. It helped that Pope Leo III was so terrorized by the grandees fighting for control of central Italy that he would agree to anything to win Charlemagne’s protection. Indeed, as he was negotiating the Frank’s new title, assassins attacked Leo and tried to blind him. In Rome on Christmas Day 800, Charlemagne and his sons donned Roman togas as the pope crowned him ‘Emperor of the Romans’. Charlemagne’s first act was to try and execute 300 of the conspirators who had just tried to assassinate Leo.
His new title would need Constantinople’s recognition. Irene considered marrying Charlemagne herself, but she was then deposed and exiled to spin wool on Lesbos. Charlemagne extended the hand of friendship to the caliph, Haroun al-Rashid. This was a way of putting pressure on Constantinople, which had just blundered into a war with Baghdad. Charlemagne sent gifts of Frisian cloaks, Spanish horses and hunting dogs to the caliph in Baghdad. The caliph sent him an array of gifts – an ivory chess set, a caliphal tent, an elephant named Abul-Abbas (walked all the way from Baghdad to Aix by his Jewish envoy) and an astonishing work of Arab sophistication, a water clock in which knights appeared out of little doors every hour.* Charlemagne could not help but be impressed by the splendours of Haroun al-Rashid.
In 1782, Haroun’s wedding to his double first cousin Zubaida was said to have been the greatest party of all time. Held at the Eternity Palace in Baghdad, the wedding was hosted by the groom’s father Caliph al-Mahdi and his mother Khayzuran, and every guest received ‘goody-bags’ of jewels, scents and handfuls of gold dinars. The groom was eighteen, the young bride was presented with the bejewelled sleeveless
Haroun’s mother was his champion. The slim and beautiful Khayzuran had been kidnapped and sold into slavery, until spotted by Crown Prince al-Mahdi, who fell in love with her and then freed and married her, giving her the name Reed – Khayzuran. Refusing to remain in the harem, she revelled in her prominence.
The diffident and shy Haroun was not the heir, but like so many royal scions dreamed of retiring with his lovely Zubaida to an estate away from what he called the ‘boiler room’ of Baghdad. Yet he had already shown his acumen: he had led an army that raided all the way to the Bosphoros before Empress Irene bought off the caliphate with golden tribute; the caliph then awarded him the title al-Rashid – the Righteous.
Haroun’s elder brother al-Hadi succeeded as caliph, but, beset by rebellions, abandoned Baghdad and clashed with their mother Khayzuran, whom he tried to kill. In September 786, al-Hadi, lying sick, was suffocated by the girls of the harem and Khayzuran took control, advised by Yahya the Barmaki. Granting the troops a bonus, they organized Haroun’s acclamation. Caliph Haroun then appointed his mentor, Yahya the Barmaki, as vizier: ‘I’ve invested you with the rule of my flock. Govern as you think is right.’ The Barmaki were almost family. Haroun had been brought up with Yahya’s playboy son Jafar, and his first mistress was probably one of Yahya’s concubines, Hailana, who begged the prince to rescue her from the old minister. When Haroun voiced his desires, Yahya gave him Hailana.
Haroun, often wearing disguise, partied with Jafar, as portrayed in
