Hassan al-Wazzan, known to Europeans as Leo Africanus, was one of the most important figures in geography and among the greatest travelers to emerge during the Wattasid era in Morocco in the 16th century. His writings were marked by precision, and his intellectual output had a major impact on Europeans, who came to know regions of Africa that had previously been little known to them. So how did Hassan al-Wazzan, or Leo Africanus, live and travel, and what were the main characteristics of his writings?
The Early Life and Origins of Leo Africanus
Leo Africanus was Andalusian by birth and Moroccan by upbringing and education. His father’s name was Muhammad al-Zayyati. He was born in Granada sometime between 1489 and 1495. The surname “al-Wazzan” was given to one of his ancestors because he held the function of public weighing. When the Spanish took Granada in 1492, Leo Africanus’s family migrated to Fez, where he continued his studies at al-Qarawiyyin.
To support himself, he worked as a scribe in the Maristan of Fez. While still young, he began his first journeys within Morocco and carried out several tasks on behalf of the Wattasid sultan Muhammad al-Burtughali. During these travels, he collected poems from tombs in different places and presented them to the sultan’s brother. He also traveled at a young age to Constantinople.
In 1514, Muhammad al-Burtughali entrusted him with a mission to contact the Portuguese governor of Safi. It appears that this task was linked to his early knowledge of the Portuguese language, likely due to his Andalusian background. Even before this period, he had already visited Timbuktu in the company of his uncle, while still no older than seventeen. His uncle had gone there on an embassy to Askia Muhammad, ruler of the Western Sudan. After making other journeys across Morocco, Leo Africanus traveled to Egypt through eastern Chad, then returned to Morocco by sea after eventually reaching Mecca to perform the pilgrimage at the end of 1515. During that same journey, he also visited Constantinople.
Leo Africanus’s Activity and Travels
Leo Africanus carried out major diplomatic and political work for the Wattasids. He took part in negotiations between the Hintata prince al-Nasir ibn Yusuf al-Hintati and Muhammad al-Burtughali. He also negotiated with Ahmad al-A‘raj, the ruler of Sus and Haha and the first Saadian ruler, as well as with the Portuguese governor of Safi in 1514. He later made contact with the ruler of Tlemcen, Abu Abd Allah Muhammad, and with the Ottoman corsair Aruj. He then continued his journey to Tunis, although he was unable to meet its Hafsid ruler.
He then continued on to Constantinople and arrived in Egypt in 1517. On his return journey to Morocco, he stopped in Tripoli in 1518. When the ship carrying him reached Djerba, it was intercepted by Sicilian pirates, who took him to Italy. There, he was presented as a gift to Pope Leo X in January 1520 (927 AH). He was given the name Johannes Leo de Medicis, while he himself adopted the name Yuhanna al-Asad al-Gharnati. Later, Italians came to call him Leo Africanus.
Leo Africanus in Italy and His Works There
Pope Leo X received Leo Africanus warmly and was impressed by his culture and learning. Leo Africanus converted to Christianity for reasons that remain unclear, whether by pressure or out of a desire to gain the favor of the Pope, under whose protection he lived, and later under the patronage of one of the cardinals. During this period, he taught Arabic and is also said to have taught it at the University of Bologna. At the same time, he studied Latin and Italian.
He then wrote a number of remarkable works, including:
- An Arabic-Hebrew-Latin dictionary, written in Bologna in 1524 for a Jewish physician.
- A book on famous Arab figures, written in 1527.
- A modern history of Africa, for which efforts are still ongoing to locate a complete manuscript for publication.
- The Description of Africa, the only one of his books that has remained widely known and circulated to this day.
He wrote The Description of Africa when he was around forty years old. This book achieved enormous fame among Christians. It was first published in Venice in 1550 by the Italian scholar J. B. Ramusio. It is certain that Leo Africanus wrote it in Italian, though he relied on Arabic manuscript sources whose traces have since been lost. In 1556, Latin and French translations of the book appeared, although the Latin version was considered poor in quality.
The Italian manuscript written by Leo Africanus himself was the one published by Ramusio, but the original version is now lost. A manuscript kept in the National Library of Rome has been known since 1931, though its style is considered weaker than Ramusio’s edition. This version was later translated back into French and compared with Ramusio’s edition by A. Epaulard, who published it in Paris in 1956 with highly valuable annotations. As for Arabic translations, the one by Muhammad Hajji, published in 1983, is considered the best to date, having been translated from both French and Italian into Arabic.
The Content and Importance of The Description of Africa
The work originally consisted of three large volumes, one devoted to Asia, another to Europe, and a third to Africa. It is this work that secured Leo Africanus’s lasting fame. Overall, it is organized into nine sections: general geographical and social information about Africa; a description of Haha, Sus, Marrakesh, Jazula, Dukala, Haskura, and Tadla; a description of Tamesna, the region of Fez, Azghar, al-Habt, the Rif, the eastern desert, and al-Hawz; a section on Tlemcen; one on the kingdoms of Bejaia and Tunis; one on Numidia and the Libyan desert; one on the Sudan; one on Egypt; and a final section on the principal rivers, plants, animals, fish, and minerals of Africa.
The first three sections are especially important for Morocco and make up nearly half of the book. His method of presentation was to begin with a very brief general overview of the region he intended to describe, then move on to its cities, villages, and mountains one by one. His descriptions of cities and villages almost always include the number of inhabitants. He also gives substantial information about social life, including housing, clothing, food, customs, and economic activity.
At times, he discusses rulers and the origins of settlements. He often describes local animals, plants, and the character of the inhabitants. When speaking about a large city, he presents its buildings and monuments in detail. One of his finest achievements in this regard is his description of Fez. He devoted many pages to it and dealt with its historical, social, and intellectual life. He described its construction, political development, markets, mosques, shops, clothing, food habits, festivities, games, educational methods, functions of officials, the royal court, hospitals, baths, and inns.
Leo Africanus’s Description of Africa, alongside the works of Marmol and Livio Sanuto, became one of the principal sources on which Europeans relied in discovering previously unknown parts of Africa.
A Glimpse of Leo Africanus’s Style of Description
One example of his descriptive style is the following:
“Tidsi is a great town with four thousand hearths, that is, families. It was built by Africans thirty miles east of Taroudant, sixty miles from the sea, and twenty miles from the Atlas Mountains. This region is fertile and productive, with many crops, sugar cane, and indigo. Its people trade with the lands of the Sudan. The inhabitants live in safety, and the men are good and civilized. Their government is republican, for power is held by six persons elected by vote and changed every six months.
Near the town flows the Sus River, three miles away. There are many Jewish craftsmen there, including dyers, blacksmiths, and others. It has a mosque with caretakers and staff, while the judges, teachers, and jurists are paid by the community. A market is held there every Saturday, attended by Arabs, villagers, and mountain people. Tidsi submitted in the year 920 AH to the Sharif who established his authority there.”
This passage clearly shows the precision of his method. He combines geography, population, agriculture, trade, political organization, religion, and social life in a concise but informative manner.
The End of Leo Africanus’s Life
As for the end of Leo Africanus’s life, some references, including Muhammad Hajji, the translator of The Description of Africa, state that he did not remain long in Italy and that he returned around 1528 to Tunis, where he embraced Islam again. However, the fourth edition of Ramusio’s publication states that he died in Rome before 1550.
Leo Africanus remains one of the greatest Moroccan geographers and travelers of the 16th century. His journeys across Morocco, the Sudan, Egypt, the Ottoman world, and Italy gave him wide knowledge of lands and peoples. His book The Description of Africa became one of the most influential works through which Europeans discovered Africa in the early modern period. What made his writings especially valuable was not only the breadth of his travels, but also the precision of his observations and his attention to geography, society, customs, economy, and urban life.
Sources:
- Ibrahim Harakat, Morocco Through History, Part Two, Dar al-Rashad al-Haditha, 2nd edition, 1994.
- Al-Wazzan, Hassan ibn Muhammad, Description of Africa, translated by Muhammad Hajji and Muhammad al-Akhdar, 2nd edition, Part One, Dar al-Gharb al-Islami.
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