Bertha (circa 863 – 868 – March 925) was the (second) illegitimate daughter of Lothair II, King of Lotharingia by his concubine Waldrada. Though born in suspect circumstances she landed on her feet and became countess of Arles by marriage to Theobald of Arles (who died in 895). After that she became margravine of the mark of Tuscany by marriage (sometime between 895 and 898) to Adalbert II (the Rich!) of Tuscany. After Adalbert’s death in the year 915, she then served as regent of Lucca and Tuscany until 916 (during the minority of her son Guy of Tuscany).
In 906 she appears to have written a letter (claiming to be the Queen of the Franks!), via a captured eunuch from the realm of the Aghlabids of Ifriqiyah, to Caliph al-Muktafi (the same whose army sacked Thessalonica in 904) while showering him with presents and, it seems though this is uncertain, asking to set her up (when Adalbert was still alive!?) with the Aghlabid Emir of Sicily. She was apparently convinced that al-Muktafi could make that happen notwithstanding the fact that the Abbasid Caliphate, though nominally in control, did not have much sway with the Aghlabids of Ifriqiyah (Tunisia) and who controlled Sicily at the time (they fell to the Fatimids soon after). In any event, the embassy reached the Caliph where the letter, after some heavy lifting, was translated by the Caliph’s folks (first from Latin into Greek with which the Moors were familiar and, it seems, only then, into Arabic).
We apparently had no knowledge of Bertha’s activities until the letter’s discovery in 1951 (in Afyonkarahisar, Turkey) and publication in 1953 by Muhammad Hamidullah (“An Embassy of Queen Bertha to the Caliph al-Muktafi billah”). The letter was part of a larger work Kitab al-dhakha’ir wa’l-tuhaf, written by Qadi al-Rashid ibn al-Zubayr (Zubayri) which was published by Hamidullah in 1959. That work, dealing mostly with treasures obtained in various ways by Muslim rulers also contains several interesting examples of Western-Eastern correspondence. Not much is known about Zubayr though he was not an eyewitness to these embassies as he was likely an official in Cairo much later the 1060s/1070s (as per the French Ukrainian historian/archeologist Oleg Grabar). (Though mention of Bertha’s correspondence is also made by ibn al-Nadim in the 10th century).
So what does this have to do with Suavs? Well, the letter itemizes Bertha’s presents for the Caliph in detail and among those we find both Suavic eunuchs and Suavic slave girls.
A bit of uncertainty prevails, however, regarding whether the gifts were ever actually sent for there is another version of the below letter from which we learn that the gifts may have stayed home since the eunuch feared being intercepted by the Ifriqiyahs, his former masters. This other version is found in “The Life of al-Muktafi” which also contains the Caliph’s response to Bertha (along the lines of “with all due respect, I know you are not any Queen of the Franks”) as well as information about the return of the eunuch’s embassy to Bertha – it seems that the eunuch did not survive the return journey. The Caliph al-Muktafi also did not live much longer. Bertha, apparently, outlasted them all. What happened to the Suavs and which Suavic tribe they belonged to we will likely never know.
Note that the letter somehow seems to have escaped Lewicki’s team’s notice and is not found in his compendium of Arab and Muslim sources on the Suavs.
Here is the letter:
“In the name of God the merciful and gracious. May God protect you from all your enemies, o’ king excellent in authority and powerful in lordship, secure your kingdom and you healthy in body and soul.
I Bertha, daughter of Lothar, queen of all the Franks (!), I salute you my lord king. There was friendship between me and the king of Ifriqiyah for until now I did not suspect that there was a greater king than him on Earth. My ships having gone out took the ships of the king of Ifriqiyah whose commander was a eunuch named Ali: I took him prisoner together with one hundred and fifty men who were with him on three ships and they remained held by me for seven years. I found him to be intelligent and a quick study and he informs me that you are king over all [Muslim] kings; and though many people had visited my kingdom, no one had told me the truth of you except this eunuch that [now] brings my letter to you. I have sent with him gifts of various things that are found my country to honor you and obtain your friendship; they consist of the following:
- fifty swords
- fifty shields
- fifty spears (of the type used by the Franks)
- twenty gold-woven robes
- twenty Suavic eunuchs
- twenty beautiful and graceful Suavic slave girls– ten great dogs against which no other beasts can stand
- seven hawks
- seven sparrow hawks
- a silk pavilion with the associated apparatus
- twenty woolen garments produced from a shell extracted from the seabed in these parts, with iridescent colors like those of the rainbow, changing colors throughout the day
- three birds (from the land of the Franks) who, if they see poisoned food and drink, throw a horrible scream and flap their wings, so that that circumstance becomes known
- glass beads that painlessly draw arrows and spearheads, even if the flesh has grown around it.
He [the eunuch Ali] informed me that there is friendship between you and the king of the Byzantines who resides in Constantinople. But my rule is greater and my armies more numerous, for my lordship comprises twenty-four kingdoms, each of which has a different language from that of the kingdom that is near it, and in my kingdom is the city of Rome the Great. God be praised.
He told me about you and that your matters are proceeding well, filling my heart with satisfaction as I ask God to help me obtain your friendship and an agreement between us for however many years I remain alive: whether that happens depends on you. This agreement is a thing that no one in my family, in my clan or in my lineage has ever sought; no one had ever informed me about your armies and the splendor in which you find yourself until this eunuch that I sent to you so informed me.
Now then, oh Lord, by the grace of God, may great well-being be upon you.
Write to me about your well-being and all that you need most from my kingdom and from my country through this eunuch All. Do not keep him by your side, so that he can [return and] bring me your answer. I await his arrival. I also entrusted him with a secret he will tell you when he sees your face and hears your words, so that this secret may remain between us, since I do not want anyone to know of it except for you, me and this here eunuch.
May God’s most great health be upon you and yours and may God humble your enemies and make your feet trample upon them.
Salutations!”
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