Leo Africanus
Files
Description
This 1986 novel, originally published in French as Léon, l’Africain, is the imagined autobiography of real-life geographer, adventurer, and scholar Hasan al-Wassan (ca. 1494–ca. 1554), whose far-reaching travels in the sixteenth century were a precursor to the cultural interconnections we associate with modern globalization. After fleeing with his family from Granada to Fez, Morocco, to escape the Inquisition, Hasan made many commercial and diplomatic journeys. These took him throughout the Islamic Mediterranean, from North Africa to Arabia, and across the Sahara. Captured by a Sicilian pirate, he was taken as a gift to Pope Leo X in Rome. There he acquired the Latin name by which he is best known in the West. The writings of Leo Africanus served for some 400 years as one of Europe’s principal sources of information about Africa and Islam.
ISBN
9781561310227
Publication Date
1992
Publisher
New Amsterdam Books/ Ivan R. Dee, Publisher
City
Chicago, IL
Document Type
Book
Keywords
Muslim Journeys, Geographer, Adventurer, Scholar, Hasan al-Wassan, Travel, Modern globalization, Inquisition, Leo Africanus
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities | Religion
Recommended Citation
Maalouf, Amin, "Leo Africanus" (1992). Bridging Cultures Bookshelf: Muslim Journeys. 9.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/muslim-journeys-books/9
