"A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year" "A remarkably lively and intelligent book."---Robert Irwin, Times Literary Supplement "This book makes a convincing case for a fundamentally different reading of Christian-Muslim relationships in the early Middle Ages. . . . The panorama unfolded is fascinating, all the more so since the author has a great eye for detail."---Carine van Rhijn, History Today "Ottewill-Soulsby has powerfully demonstrated that Carolingian historians cannot hope to examine Christian-Muslim diplomatic relations without first comprehending the political dynamics of Muslim polities based on their own sources. . . . An important, enduring contribution to medieval scholarship."---Sara Ann Knutson, Studies in Late Antiquity "Ottewill-Soulsby is to be commended for undertaking such a meticulously researched, cleanly written, comprehensive study of a subject whose complexities have been buried far too long under an old thesis that oversimplified and, in the process, under-delivered."---Kenneth Baxter Wolf, Early Medieval Europe "[ A] lively, well-researched, and insightful book, written with great clarity and wit. . . . Excellent."---James H. Kane, Journal of Religious History "Groundbreaking. . . . An innovative and important model for studying diplomacy in the early medieval Mediterranean." * Choice * "[ The Emperor and the Elephant] is a finely produced book and is in the end a study that energetically engages with our medieval sourcesboth those well known and others less soand centuries of academic scholarship. The result is a nuanced, wonderfully complicated, and yet admirably clear exposition of the practice of Carolingian diplomacy and the stakes involved for the Christian and Muslim states that ringed the shores of the early medieval Mediterranean."---Paul M. Cobb, Speculum "A major contribution to the scholarship of the era. Erudite, well-written, interestingone cannot say enough about this book."---Karl Bridges, Catholic Library World "An original, insightful, and deeply researched study that should change how we think about both the Carolingian Empire and early medieval Muslim powers."---Valerie L. Garver, Medieval Encounters
