1485-1554
Traveler

Spanish Muslim. Born al-Hassan ibn Muhammad al- Wizzaa al-Fasi, Leo Africanus was a native of Granada, Spain, and was educated in Morocco. As a young man he traveled all over North Africa and West Africa on trade and diplomatic missions with his father, visiting the Songhai Empire in 1513-1515.

Italy. On the way home from a 1516-1517 trip to Egypt, he was"captured by Christian pirates, who gave him to Pope Leo X as a slave. Impressed with his slave's intellectual abilities, the Pope set him free and in 1520 convinced him to convert to Christianity, baptizing him Johannis Leo (John Leo). The Pope also persuaded Leo to write an Italian account of his travels, which he completed in 1526. Published in 1550 as Descrittione dell'Africa (Description of Africa), the book became the most famous and most widely quoted European work about Africa. It remained the...