Leo Africanus
Leo Africanus/al-Hasan Muhammad al-Wazzan al-Fasi | |
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Born | al-Hasan Muhammad al-Wazzan c. 1494 |
Died | c. 1554 (aged c. 60) |
Occupation(s) | Diplomat, geographer, traveler and scientist |
Notable work | Description of Africa |
Johannes Leo Africanus (born al-Hasan Muhammad al-Wazzan
Biography
Most of what is known about his life is gathered from autobiographical notes in his own work. Leo Africanus was born as al-Hasan, son of Muhammad in
On his way back to
Leo Africanus left Rome and spent the next three or four years traveling in Italy. The death of his patron Leo X in 1521, and suspicions from the new Pope
There are several theories of his later life, but none of them are certain. According to one theory, he spent it in Rome until he died around 1550, the year Description of Africa was published. This theory was based on indirect allusion in a later preface to this book. According to another theory, he left shortly before the Sack of Rome by Charles V's troops in 1527. He then returned to North Africa and lived in Tunis until his death, some time after 1550. This was based on records by German orientalist Johann Albrecht Widmannstetter, who arrived in Italy and planned (but ultimately failed) to travel to Tunis to meet Leo who had since reconverted to Islam. Yet another theory said that he left Tunis after it was captured by Charles V in 1535 for Morocco, his second home country after Granada where his relatives were still living. This was based on the assumption that Leo, having left Granada, would not have wanted to live under Christian Spanish rule again, and his wish (recorded in Description of Africa) that he wanted to ultimately return to his home country "by God's assistance".[3]
Veracity of Africa trip
It is unlikely that Leo Africanus visited all the places that he describes and he must therefore have relied on information obtained from other travellers.[
Name
In an autograph in one of his surviving manuscripts, a fragment of an Arabic-Hebrew-Latin medical
Works
Moroccan literature |
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Moroccan writers |
Forms |
Criticism and awards |
See also |
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References in media
A fictionalized account of his life, Leo Africanus, by the Lebanese-French author Amin Maalouf, fills in key gaps in the story and places Leo Africanus in prominent events of his time.
The BBC produced a documentary about his life called "Leo Africanus: A Man Between Worlds" in 2011. It was presented by Badr Sayegh and directed by Jeremy Jeffs. The film followed in Leo's footsteps from Granada, through Fez and Timbuktu, all the way to Rome.[citation needed]
It has been suggested that William Shakespeare may have drawn on Leo Africanus' book when preparing to write Othello.[9]
References
- ^ Rauchenberger 1999, pp. 78–79.
- . Retrieved 2022-10-03.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Masonen 2001.
- . Retrieved 2022-10-03.
- ^ Leo Africanus 1896, Vol. 1 p. v. He was 12 years old when the Portuguese captured the port of Safi on the coast of Morocco in 1507 and 16 years old when he visited Timbuktu in 1509–1510.
- ^ Rauchenberger 1999, p. 26.
- ^ Leo Africanus 1600; Leo Africanus 1896.
- ^ Fisher 1978.
- ^ Whitney 1922.
Sources
- Fisher, Humphrey J. (1978). "Leo Africanus and the Songhay conquest of Hausaland". International Journal of African Historical Studies. 11 (1). JSTOR 217055.
- Leo Africanus (1600). A Geographical Historie of Africa, written in Arabicke and Italian. Before which is prefixed a generall description of Africa, and a particular treatise of all the lands undescribed. Translated and collected by John Pory. London: G. Bishop. The first translation into English.
- Leo Africanus (1896). The History and Description of Africa (3 Vols). Brown, Robert, editor. London: Hakluyt Society. Internet Archive: Volume 1 (pp. 1–224), Volume 2, (pp. 225–668); Volume 3 (pp. 669–1119); Geographical index. The original text of Pory's 1600 English translation together with an introduction and notes by the editor.
- Masonen, Pekka (2001). "Leo Africanus: the man with many names" (PDF). Al-Andalus Magreb. 8–9: 115–143.
- Rauchenberger, Dietrich (1999). Johannes Leo der Afrikaner: seine Beschreibung des Raumes zwischen Nil und Niger nach dem Urtext (in German). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 3-447-04172-2.
- Whitney, Lois (1922). "Did Shakespeare know Leo Africanus?". Publications of the Modern Language Association of America. 37 (3): 470–483. S2CID 163273508.
Further reading
- Beazley, Charles Raymond (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 16 (11th ed.). p. 441. .
- Black, Crofton (2002). "Leo Africanus's "Descrittione dell'Africa" and its sixteenth-century translations". Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. 65: 262–272. S2CID 190220063.
- ISBN 978-0-8090-9435-6. pages 186, 260
- Jean-Léon l'Africain (1956). Description de l'Afrique: Nouvelle édition traduite de l'italien par Alexis Épaulard et annotée par Alexis Épaulard, Théodore Monod, Henri Lhote et Raymond Mauny (2 Vols). Paris: Maisonneuve. A scholarly translation into French with extensive notes.
- ISBN 90-04-11207-3. pages 272–291 contain a translation into English of Leo Africanus's descriptions of the Middle Niger, Hausaland and Bornu. Corresponds to Épaulard 1956 Vol II pages 463–481.
- Masonen, Pekka (2000). The Negroland revisited: Discovery and invention of the Sudanese middle ages. Helsinki: Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. pp. 167–207. ISBN 951-41-0886-8.
- Brinda Charry, Gitanjali Shahani: Emissaries in Early Modern Literature and Culture: Mediation, Transmission, Traffic, 1550–1700. Ashgate, 2009, repr. Routledge, 2016
- Zhiri, Oumelbanine, L'Afrique au miroir de l'Europe, Fortunes de Jean Léon l'Africain à la Renaissance, Droz, 1991. A book-length study of Leo Africanus' influence during the Renaissance.
- Pouillon, François ed., "Léon l'Africain", Paris, 2009. A collection of studies on different aspects of Leo Africanus's work and life.
External links
- Leo Africanus; A Man Between Worlds – BBC
- Hassan Al Wazzan aka Leo Africanus
- Site devoted to Leo Africanus.
- Interactive map of Leo Africanus' travels in Sub-Saharan Africa created in the Harvard Worldmap platform.
- "Travels into the Inland Parts of Africa: Containing a Description of the Several Nations for the Space of Six Hundred Miles up the River Gambia" features an English translation of work by Africanus, dating from 1738