Shortly after the founding of the Ayyubid dynasty, Friedrich Barbarossa established diplomatic relations with Sultan Saladin. The 1175–6 Report on the Orient written in this context by Burchard of Strasbourg gave the Stauffer palace new, up-to-date knowledge about the terra incognita of Egypt and Syria. Most remarkably, though, is the evidence provided by this travelogue of intensive exchange between Christians and Moslems.
