Historians know him as Leo Africanus, the man behind the first geographical history of Africa. A fascinating and scholarly study of Hasan al-Wazzan, born in Granada to a Moslem family that in 1492 was expelled to Morocco. Captured and taken to Rome, he was forced to embrace Christianity but had friends in high places. Popes and cardinals admired his scholarship, of which little has come down to us, but Davis makes all possible use of the valuable fragments.
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton - bwl 71 Winter 2014 ) |
