A Small Gift

[JesusA (imported)]

About the year 906 (date slightly uncertain), Bertha, daughter of King Lothar II of Lotharingia (a kingdom that covered the modern Netherlands, most of Belgium, and northeastern France) sent a gift to the caliph al-Muktafiʼ in Bagdad. The embassy and its gifts are noted in Arabic sources, though not in surviving European ones. Among the many gifts were forty Slavic slaves – twenty particularly beautiful Slavic girls and twenty castrated Slavic boys. The gift was noteworthy to the Arabs, not because of its size or the value of the gifts, but because it is a rare instance of a woman of the time engaging in diplomatic negotiations.

Gifts of slaves were a common part of negotiations at the time. At about the same time, records indicate that a rather modest emir of Central Asia sent a gift of 120 castrated boys, most likely of Turkish origin. The Turks of Central Asia were a major source of eunuchs in the early Moslem world until the area was converted to Islam. They continued to be a lesser source even after conversion until at least the late 19th century.

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Christys, Ann. (2010). The queen of the Franks offers gifts to the caliph al-Muktafiʼ. IN: W.Davies & P.Fouracre (eds.), The Languages of Gift in the Early Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press, pp. 149-170.

[ylpb7508 (imported)]

I was thinking of a gift card. You know, maybe $25 for Starbucks?

[Paolo]

Wow, those are some nice gifts!