Isaac
ISAAC
ISAAC , Jewish merchant of Aachen, the first Jew in Germany to be mentioned by name. In 797 he was appointed by Charlemagne as guide and interpreter to an official delegation to Harun al-Rashid, entrusted with a delicate and important mission. Charlemagne's ambassadors died on the way and Isaac completed the journey and was received in audience when he returned four years later. He brought with him precious gifts from the caliph, including an elephant. According to one account *Machir, the Babylonian scholar credited with founding a Jewish academy in Narbonne, traveled from the East to Europe with Isaac.
bibliography:
Germ Jud, 1 (1963), xxviii; Graetz, Hist, 3 (1949), 143; M. Steinschneider, Jewish Literature (1965), 81; S. Katz, Jews in Visigothic Spain and France (1937), 133; Baron, Social2, 4 (1957), 45, 257.
