Leo the African is based on the true life-story of Hasan al-Wazzan, the sixteenth-century traveller and writer who came to be known as Leo Africanus, or Leo the African.
From his chlidhood in Fez, having fled the Christian Inquisition, through his many journeys to the East as an itinerant merhcant, Hasans story is a quixotic catalogue of pirates, slave girls and princesses, encompassing the complexities of a world in a state of religious flux. Hasan too is touched by the instability of the era, performing his hadj to Mecca, then converting to Christianity, only to relapse back to the Muslim faith later in life.
In re-creating his extraordinary experiences, Amin Maalouf sketches an irrisistible portrait of the Mediterranea world as it was nearly five centuries ago - the fall of Granada, the Ottoman conquest of Egypt, Renaissance Rome under the Medicis: all contribute to a background of spectacular colour, matched only by the picaresque adventures of Hasan's life.
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Abacus; New Ed edition (22 Sep 1994)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0349106002
ISBN-13: 978-0349106007