Timekeeping  /  The gift from Baghdad
807

The gift from Baghdad

In 807 the caliph Harun al-Rashid sent Charlemagne a brass water clock that rang the hours.

The gift from Baghdad
No picture of Charlemagne’s clock exists. This is a water clock of the same Islamic tradition, drawn by al-Jazari in his book of 1206 (copy of 1315): a float sinks in the tank and, through cords and a gear, moves the figures above.Photograph: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 55.121.15, “Design for the Water Clock of the Peacocks” · Public Domain (CC0)
The clock as the annal describes it: twelve windows, a rider coming out of one, a bronze ball dropping on a cymbal below at the hour.Drawing: Watch Historian
The entry for the year 807 in the Royal Frankish Annals, in a copy made around the year 1000. The description of the clock begins in the middle of the page; a later reader wrote “note the wonderful clock” in the margin.Photograph: Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 510, fol. 95v, via Bibliotheca Laureshamensis digital · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DE
The need
In 807 the caliph of Baghdad, Harun al-Rashid, sent envoys to the Frankish emperor Charlemagne at Aachen. Gifts between courts advertised a ruler’s wealth and skill; the Frankish annalist lists tents, silks, perfumes and balsam before dwelling on the clock.
How it worked
The annal describes it: a clock of brass, made with wonderful mechanical art, in which the course of the twelve hours moved by a water clock. Twelve small bronze balls fell at the completion of each hour and rang a cymbal beneath; twelve horsemen came out of twelve windows at the hours and shut the windows behind them. There were many other things in it, the annalist adds, too long to list.
What it changed
The earliest Western description of a striking clock with moving figures, and a glimpse of the Islamic world’s water-clock tradition that al-Jazari would write down four centuries later.
Where it is now
The clock is lost. The account survives in the Royal Frankish Annals; the page shown is from a copy of about the year 1000 in the Austrian National Library, Vienna.

SourcesAnnales regni Francorum a. 807, ed. Kurze (MGH 1895), pp. 123–124 · ÖNB Cod. 510, fol. 95v

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