Léon l'Africain

This fictional autobiography is based on a true story.
In 1518, a Maghreb ambassador, returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca, was captured by Sicilian pirates and presented as a gift to Leo X. This traveler’s name was Hassan al-Wazzan. He became the geographer Jean-Léon de Médicis, known as Leo Africanus. His life, punctuated by the major events of his time, is fascinating: he was in Granada during the Reconquista, from where he had to flee the Inquisition; in Egypt during the Ottoman conquest of the country; in sub-Saharan Africa at the height of the empire of Askia Mohamed Touré; and finally in Rome during the heyday of the Renaissance, as well as at the time of the city’s sacking by the soldiers of Charles V.
A man of both the East and the West, of both Africa and Europe, it would be hard to find a figure whose life more closely mirrored the astonishing era that was the 16th century. This fictional autobiography is based on a true story.
In 1518, a Maghreb ambassador, returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca, was captured by Sicilian pirates and presented as a gift to Leo X. This traveler’s name was Hassan al-Wazzan. He became the geographer Jean-Léon de Médicis, known as Leo Africanus. His life, punctuated by the major events of his time, is fascinating: he was in Granada during the Reconquista, from where he had to flee the Inquisition; in Egypt during the Ottoman conquest of the country; in sub-Saharan Africa at the height of the empire of Askia Mohamed Touré; and finally to Rome during the heyday of the Renaissance, as well as at the time of the sacking of the city by the soldiers of Charles V.
A man of both the East and the West, of both Africa and Europe, it would be hard to find a figure whose life more closely mirrored the astonishing era that was the 16th century.

Cette autobiographie imaginaire part d’une histoire vraie.
En 1518, un ambassadeur maghrébin, de retour d’un pèlerinage à La Mecque, est capturé par des pirates siciliens, et offert en cadeau à Léon X. Ce voyageur s’appelait Hassan al-Wazzan. Il devint le géographe Jean-Léon de Médicis, dit Léon l’Africain. Sa vie, que ponctuent les grands événements de son temps, est fascinante: il se trouvait à Grenade pendant la Reconquista, d’où il a dû fuir l’Inquisition, en Égypte lors de la conquête du pays par les Ottomans, en Afrique noire à l’apogée de l’empire de l’Askia Mohamed Touré, enfin à Rome aux plus belles heures de la Renaissance, ainsi qu’au moment du sac de la ville par les soldats de Charles Quint.
Homme d’Orient et d’Occident, homme d’Afrique et d’Europe, on pouvait difficilement trouver personnage dont la vie corresponde davantage à l’époque étonnante que fut le xvie siècle.

• Item weight ‏ : ‎ 181 g
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 11 x 1.5 x 17 cm