Leo Africanus

Amin Maalouf

Maalouf imagines the life of Hasan al-Wazzan, the sixteenth-century traveler and scholar later known in Europe as Leo Africanus. Born in Granada and driven with his family to Fez, Hasan grows into a man whose life belongs increasingly to the road. Morocco becomes his first great point of arrival, a new home shaped by markets, scholarship, dynasties and the traffic of people moving across North Africa.

Exile; Identity; Travel; Sixteenth century; Family