One of the wonderful things about history is that through its study one can encounter great people, great events, and great stories. It helps if you have a vivid imagination; and if you have the skill to weave these elements into a coherent narrative, you can share your discoveries and impressions with others. This Jeff Sypeck has done in his highly readable book, Becoming Charlemagne: Europe, Baghdad, and the Empires of A.D. 800.
This is not a biography. Although Sypeck does a fine job of elucidating Charlemagne's character, he does not offer up the details of the emperor's life story. Rather, as its subtitle indicates, Becoming Charlemagne explores the most dynamic political entities of the age. The author reveals the international relations, the domestic situations, and the everyday lives of the people in these empires with clarity and vivid prose.
Sypeck has chosen an excellent point in time to bring to life. Anyone who's studied early medieval Europe knows that some extraordinary events took place around the turn of the 9th century. Today it's hard to believe how a pope was attacked in the streets of Rome -- not by one lone gunman from another culture, but by supporters of a rival candidate for the papacy. Did a woman really attain the Byzantine throne by having her own son blinded? And what marvels could be seen in Baghdad -- Al Mansur's "City of Peace"?
Then, of course, there is Charlemagne himself -- or, as he was known to his contemporaries, Karl, King of the Franks. That most important event on Christmas of 800, when the pope acclaimed him "pious Augustus crowned by God, great and peaceful emperor," was only the beginning of the transformation of the ruler from king to emperor, from flesh-and-blood man to legend.
All of this and more are explored and explained in Jeff Sypeck's enjoyable work. There is even a survey of post-Charlemagne attitudes toward the emperor and his legacy.
However, although he sticks to the facts and fills in the gaps with clearly identified supposition, and although he certainly did his homework, the author does not provide an in-depth, scholarly examination of the events and personalities and their significance. There is little new here for the scholar of the era, even though it makes for a good read. This is lightweight -- but then, Sypeck makes no pretensions to academic weightiness.
And what may be considered a drawback to the serious student is a boon for the newcomer to the era. Becoming Charlemagne is ideal for anyone unfamiliar with Carolingian Europe, or early Islam, or 9th-century Byzantium, and it's a wonderful way to interest someone in the time period or the subject matter. There's a good chance that anyone who reads it will want to know more -- and that, in my view, can't be a bad thing.
