What animal did Charlemagne receive from the Abbasid caliph?

Charlemagne received an elephant from the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid.

The elephant was named Abul-Abbas and arrived in the Carolingian world in 802 after a long journey from Baghdad. Charlemagne had sent an embassy to Harun al-Rashid, ruler of the Abbasid Caliphate, and the animal became the most remarkable part of the diplomatic exchange. Isaac the Jew, the surviving member of the mission, escorted it back toward Europe.

Abul-Abbas was recorded in the Royal Frankish Annals and later mentioned by Einhard, Charlemagne’s biographer. The elephant died in 810 near the Rhine while Charlemagne was preparing a campaign. Historians debate whether it was an Asian or African elephant; although it is often called an Indian elephant, the surviving sources do not identify its species with certainty.

The story is sometimes embellished with claims that Abul-Abbas was white or served regularly as a war elephant. Those details are uncertain. The secure fact is that an elephant was sent as a diplomatic gift from Harun al-Rashid to Charlemagne.