Leo Africanus

Author: Amin Maalouf
Publisher: New Amsterdam Books
ISBN: 1461663318
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 370

Book Description
"I, Hasan the son of Muhammad the weigh-master, I, Jean-Leon de Medici, circumcised at the hand of a barber and baptized at the hand of a pope, I am now called the African, but I am not from Africa, nor from Europe, nor from Arabia. I am also called the Granadan, the Fassi, the Zayyati, but I come from no country, from no city, no tribe. I am the son of the road, my country is the caravan, my life the most unexpected of voyages." Thus wrote Leo Africanus, in his fortieth year, in this imaginary autobiography of the famous geographer, adventurer, and scholar Hasan al-Wazzan, who was born in Granada in 1488. His family fled the Inquisition and took him to the city of Fez, in North Africa. Hasan became an itinerant merchant, and made many journeys to the East, journeys rich in adventure and observation. He was captured by a Sicilian pirate and taken back to Rome as a gift to Pope Leo X, who baptized him Johannes Leo. While in Rome, he wrote the first trilingual dictionary (Latin, Arabic and Hebrew), as well as his celebrated Description of Africa, for which he is still remembered as Leo Africanus.

The History and Description of Africa

Author: Leo (Africanus)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Africa
Languages : en
Pages : 494

Book Description

The Cosmography and Geography of Africa

Author: Leo Africanus
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0141998822
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 358

Book Description
The first new translation in over 400 years of one of the great works of the Renaissance In 1518, al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Wazzan, a Moroccan diplomat, was seized by pirates while travelling in the Mediterranean. Brought before Pope Leo X, he was persuaded to convert to Christianity, in the process taking the name Johannes Leo Africanus. Acclaimed in the papal court for his learning, Leo would in time write his masterpiece, The Cosmography and the Geography of Africa. The Cosmography was the first book about Africa, and the first book written by a modern African, to reach print. It would remain central to the European understanding of Africa for over 300 years, with its descriptions of lands, cities and peoples giving a singular vision of the vast continent: its urban bustle and rural desolation, its culture, commerce and warfare, its magical herbs and strange animals. Yet it is not a mere catalogue of the exotic: Leo also invited his readers to acknowledge the similarity and relevance of these lands to the time and place they knew. For this reason, The Cosmography and Geography of Africa remains significant to our understanding not only of Africa, but of the world and how we perceive it. Translated by Anthony Ossa-Richardson and Richard Oosterhoff

African Genesis

Author: Leo Frobenius
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486409112
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Book Description
Presents a collection of African folk tales and myths.

Trickster Travels

Author: Natalie Zemon Davis
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1466829303
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 659

Book Description
An engrossing study of Leo Africanus and his famous book, which introduced Africa to European readers Al-Hasan al-Wazzan--born in Granada to a Muslim family that in 1492 went to Morocco, where he traveled extensively on behalf of the sultan of Fez--is known to historians as Leo Africanus, author of the first geography of Africa to be published in Europe (in 1550). He had been captured by Christian pirates in the Mediterranean and imprisoned by the pope, then released, baptized, and allowed a European life of scholarship as the Christian writer Giovanni Leone. In this fascinating new book, the distinguished historian Natalie Zemon Davis offers a virtuoso study of the fragmentary, partial, and often contradictory traces that al-Hasan al-Wazzan left behind him, and a superb interpretation of his extraordinary life and work. In Trickster Travels, Davis describes all the sectors of her hero's life in rich detail, scrutinizing the evidence of al-Hasan's movement between cultural worlds; the Islamic and Arab traditions, genres, and ideas available to him; and his adventures with Christians and Jews in a European community of learned men and powerful church leaders. In depicting the life of this adventurous border-crosser, Davis suggests the many ways cultural barriers are negotiated and diverging traditions are fused.

Leo Frobenius on African History, Art and Culture

Author: Leo Frobenius
Publisher: Markus Wiener Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 286

Book Description
Foreword / by Léopold Sédar Senghor -- The "Atlas Africanus"--Discussion of the method of cultural history -- On the morphological method of studying cultures -- The nature of culture -- Reflections on African art -- Rock art of the Saharan atlas -- Rock art of the Fezzan -- Rock art of South Africa -- African hunters: the Mahalbi culture -- African hunters: bushmen and hunting spirits -- The civilization of the Kabyls -- Tales from the Sudan -- The religion of the Yoruba -- Zimbabwe and the Wahungwe civilization -- Editor's postscript -- Main works of Leo Frobenius -- Works on Leo Frobenius

Travel Knowledge

Author: I. Kamps
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 134962263X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 278

Book Description
These essays examine European travel writing from 1500 to 1800, with an emphasis on travel to the East Indies, Africa, and the Levant. By focusing on voyages to the East, the essays allow the voices of marginalised travellers to speak.

African Struggles Today

Author: Leo Zeilig
Publisher: Haymarket Books
ISBN: 1608461203
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Book Description
Social movements and the working class in Africa -- An epoch of uprisings : social movements in postcolonial Africa, 1945/98 -- Cracks in the monolith : social movements in post-apartheid South Africa -- Social movements after the transition : choiceless democracies? -- Frustrated transitions : social movements, protest, and repression in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, and Swaziland -- Social forums and the World Social Forum in Africa.

Travels Into the Inland Parts of Africa

Author: Francis Moore
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Africa, North
Languages : en
Pages : 390

Book Description

The Hidden Treasures of Timbuktu

Author: John Owen Hunwick
Publisher: Thames and Hudson
ISBN:
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 184

Book Description
The extraordinary manuscripts of Timbuktu: invaluable historical documents, objects of tremendous beauty, and a testament to a great center of learning and civilization. For centuries, trading caravans made epic journeys across the Saharan sands to reach the markets of the legendary city of Timbuktu, where they traded salt, gold, slaves, textiles—and books. By the mid-fifteenth century, Timbuktu had become a major center of Islamic literary culture and scholarship. The city's libraries were repositories of all the world's learning, housing not only works by Arab and Islamic writers but also volumes from the classical Greek and Roman worlds and studies by contemporary scholars. The astonishing manuscripts of Timbuktu form the lavish visual heart of this book. Beautifully graphic, occasionally decorated, these exquisite artifacts reveal great craftsmanship as well as learning. All were written in the Arabic script, but not all are in Arabic, for they also feature a range of local African languages. Aside from scholarly works, the surviving manuscripts include a wealth of correspondence between rulers, advisers, and merchants on subjects as various as taxation, commerce, marriage, divorce, adoption, breastfeeding, and prostitution, providing a vivid insight into the ordinary life and values of the day.