Jerusalem and Charlemagne
August 2024 | Vol. 12.8
By Jodi Magness
On Christmas day, 800 CE, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. At the ceremony, which took place in Rome, the king was presented with the keys to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and a banner of Jerusalem. Charlemagne’s decision to be crowned on this date may have been motivated by widespread apocalyptic expectations that the year 800 would usher in a new epoch in human history. It was against this background that Charlemagne established intensive contacts with Harun al-Rashid (786-809 CE), the Abbasid caliph whose empire included the province of Greater Syria (Arabic Bilad al-Sham). Within this province, Jerusalem belonged to the district of Palestine (Jund Filastin), the capital of which originally was at Lod (ancient Lydda) and was moved to Ramla after its foundation by the Umayyads in 715-717 CE. The ties between Charlemagne and Harun al-Rashid were due, at least in part, to shared interests — the principle that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. For Charlemagne, the Abbasids helped keep the Byzantine Empire in check, while for Harun al-Rashid, the Frankish king was a buffer against the threat posed by the remaining Umayyads (the previous Islamic dynasty) in Spain.
View of the Old City of Jerusalem, looking northeast: The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is on the left (the grey dome); the tower in the middle is the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer; the Dome of the Rock is visible on the right (the gold dome). Photo by Jodi Magness.
By the mid-8th century CE, Christians in Jerusalem began to seek the financial assistance and protection of Christian rulers in Europe. These contacts intensified under Charlemagne, who exchanged several delegations with the patriarch of Jerusalem and Harun al-Rashid. Charlemagne’s first delegation to the Abbasid caliph, sent in 797 CE, consisted of two Frankish representatives named Lantfrid and Sigismund (or Sigimund), neither of whom survived the mission, and a Jewish interpreter named Isaac. A few weeks after Charlemagne’s coronation, a delegation sent by Harun al-Rashid arrived and announced that a gift of an African elephant was on its way. In 801 CE, Isaac arrived at Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) with the elephant (named Abul Abaz), which died nine years later.
In 799 CE, a delegation sent by the patriarch of Jerusalem to Aix-la-Chapelle brought gifts to Charlemagne, who dispatched his own delegation to Jerusalem led by the palace priest Zacharias. Zacharias returned to Rome on December 23, 800 CE, with the keys to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the banner of Jerusalem. These delegations are described in the Royal Annals of Charlemagne’s court (Annales Regni Francorum), where the keys to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher are linked to the king’s coronation.
The entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Photo by Jodi Magness.
While Charlemagne designed his capital at Aix-la-Chapelle as a “new Rome” and modeled his palace (which has disappeared) after that of Constantine, the first Christian emperor, he also cultivated an image as heir to David and Solomon through his patronage of the Christians and churches of Jerusalem. Jerusalem’s influence is evident in the design of the Palatine Chapel at the heart of Charlemagne’s palace: an inner octagon surrounded by a sixteen-sided ambulatory (which still stands today).
Interior of the Palatine Chapel, Aachen, Germany, consecrated in 805 CE. Photo by Willy Horsch, CC By-SA 3.0.
Exterior view of the dome of the Palatine Chapel, consecrated in 805 CE. Photo by CaS2000, CC By-SA 3.0 Germany.
Although it was modeled after the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna, the chapel was also intended to recall the Rotunda of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher as well as the Dome of the Rock, which, perhaps by this time and certainly by the Crusades, was identified by Christians as Solomon’s temple. The master builder of the chapel, Odo of Metz, might be the same courtier nicknamed in some sources “Hiram” — the name of the king of Tyre who supplied cedars of Lebanon and skilled craftsmen for Solomon’s temple (1 Kgs 5:18). And Charlemagne’s court biographer Einhard (or Eginhard), who wrote the Life of Charles in the early 830s, was nicknamed Bezalel, the figure said to have designed the biblical tabernacle (Exodus 35:30-33).
The Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem, built between 685 and 691 CE. Photo by Jodi Magness.
The expectation that Charlemagne’s investiture in the year 800 would usher in a new epoch in human history focused attention on Jerusalem — the site of the return of the messiah and the Last Judgement. These apocalyptic and eschatological expectations are expressed in the layout and decoration of the Palatine Chapel. For example, the octagonal plan alludes to Christ’s resurrection eight days after Palm Sunday, and the image of Christ enthroned in judgement in the cupola was inspired by the description of the apocalypse in Revelation 4:2. The total length of the octagon and the sixteen-sided ambulatory is 144 feet – three times the octagon’s diameter and height of 48 feet – corresponding to the number of cubits (144) mentioned in Revelation 21:17 as the length of Jerusalem’s walls. 144 stars surrounded the figure of Christ in the cupola, symbolizing the 144,000 souls saved at the apocalypse (Rev 7:4-8; 14:1). These correspondences might even indicate that Charlemagne intended the Palatine Chapel to be a symbol of Jerusalem.
Interior of the cupola of the Palatine Chapel. © José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro / CC BY-SA 4.0. (Photo has been cropped from the original)
Charlemagne’s ties to Jerusalem and his patronage of its churches would have bolstered his claim to have ushered in a new era as ruler of a revived Christian Roman empire. These ties were solidified not only by Charlemagne’s benefactions to Jerusalem but by the sacred relics enshrined in the Palatine Chapel, including, perhaps, a splinter from the Holy Cross and an ancient marble throne as well as the keys to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The altar in the center of the octagon, with the figure of Christ seated in judgement above, was consecrated to the Trinity, an expression of Charlemagne’s commitment to defending Catholic orthodoxy against heresies. One of these was adoptionism, a doctrine that considers Jesus to be God’s “adopted son” instead of his “only begotten son.” Another controversy concerned the filioque (Latin: “and of the son”), a phrase that was added to the Nicene Creed by the Western church but was rejected by the Greeks, which states that the Holy Spirit proceeds not only from God but from his son Jesus: “And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who proceeds from the Father and the Son (filioque)…” The controversy over the filioque was a major cause of the schism between the Eastern (Orthodox) and Western churches.
My book — Jerusalem Through the Ages From Its Beginnings to the Crusades — describes Charlemagne’s involvement in Jerusalem and other fascinating episodes in the city’s long history. Each chapter focuses on a key moment of transition, enabling readers to experience Jerusalem’s many transformations as it changed hands and populations — Jebusites and Canaanites, Israelites and Judahites, Greeks and Romans, Jews and Christians, Muslims and Crusaders. My hope is that readers will come away with an understanding of how this relatively poor and isolated mountain town came to be sacred to billions of followers of the three Abrahamic faiths worldwide.
Jodi Magness (JodiMagness.org) is the Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her most recent book is Jerusalem Through the Ages From Its Beginnings to the Crusades (New York: Oxford University Press, 2024).
Prof. Magness will be giving a webinar for the Friends of ASOR on September 4, 2024. Register Here for “What Makes Jerusalem Special?” It will be recorded, and everyone who registers will have access.
How to cite this article:
Magness, J. 2024. “Jerusalem and Charlemagne.” The Ancient Near East Today 12.8. Accessed at: https://anetoday.org/jerusalem-and-charlemagne/.
Want to learn more?
Ancient Near Eastern Rulers and their Delegations in 18th Dynasty Egyptian Tombs
Resilience and Rebirth: Lessons Learned from the Aftermath of the Late Bronze Age Collapse
Post a comment