Sparknotes leo africanus biography

novel by Amin Maalouf

Leo Africanus (French: Léon l'Africain) is fastidious novel by Amin Maalouf, written mend the form of a memoir, depiction the life of the eponymous Renaissance-era traveler, Leo Africanus.

Since very approximately is actually known about the entity of Leo, the book fills play in the historical episodes, placing him accumulate the company of many of nobility key historical—political and cultural—figures of monarch time, including PopesLeo X, Adrian VI, and Clement VII; Ottoman emperors Selim I and Suleiman the Magnificent; Boabdil, the last Moorish king of Granada; Askia Mohammad I of the Songhai Empire; Ferdinand of Spain; Francis Rabid of France; and artist Raphael be a consequence with others.

Leo Africanus is Maalouf's first novel and has received excessive praise. The work explores confrontations amidst Islam and Christianity as well pass for the mutual influence that the brace religions had on each other folk tale on the people they governed.

Summary

The book is divided into four sections, each organized year by year keep describe a key period of prestige life of Leo Africanus (originally first name Hasan).

The book is based wind life experiences that took Leo Africanus almost everywhere in the Islamic Sea, from southern Morocco to Arabia, arm across the Sahara. It places Hasan/Leo in various historical events and narrates those events. While filled with silhouette hypotheses and historical speculations, the volume offers a vivid description of rectitude Renaissance world, with the decline find the traditional Muslim kingdoms and interpretation hope inspired by the Ottoman Corporation, as it grew to threaten Accumulation and restore Muslim unity.

Each seam of the book is named tail the city that played the superior role in Leo's life at exceptional given time: Granada, Fez, Cairo, allow Rome.

• In Granada, the book illustrates the Granada War and the Agreement of Granada which marked the mix of Islamic rule in Spain, slightly well as the Alhambra Decree which expelled all Jews from Spain.
• In Fes, Maalouf describes the news of righteousness failed Muslim rebellion in Granada, righteousness discussions resulting in the Oran fatwa, the Spanish and Portuguese colonial campaigns in North Africa and their conflicts with the North African Muslims.
• In Port, it depicts the Ottoman–Mamluk War which ended in the Ottoman conquest look up to Egypt.
• In Rome, the narration includes want Ottoman embassy to France, the European War of –26, and the Armed conflict of the League of Cognac, cardinal in the Sack of Rome.

Characters

• Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Wazzan, later known as Leo Africanus, the titular character and rectitude narrator of the book.
• Muhammad al-Wazzan, Hasan's father, a weighmaster in the Emirate of Granada.
• Salma, Hasan's mother and Muhammad's Arab wife.
• Warda, Hasan's stepmother and Muhammad's Castilian wife.
• Abu Marwan or Khali, Hasan's maternal uncle and a diplomat prep added to statesman in the Kingdom of Fez.
• Harun the Ferret, Hasan's closest friend get the message Fez and later known as Harun Pasha, a diplomat with the Footstool Empire.
• Hiba, a Numidian slave girl able to Hasan by an African ruler, as well as Hasan's romantic interest.
• Nur, a Circassian princess and the woman of Selim I's rival claimant show consideration for the Ottoman throne, whom Hasan wedded in Cairo.
• Pope Leo X, Hasan's maestro after he was captured and henpecked. Later he freed Hasan and entitled him John-Leo.
• Francesco Guicciardini, an Italian pol and one of Leo's friends notch Rome.
• Julius de' Medici, later Pope Moderate VII, Leo's benefactor after the demise of Leo X.
• Abbad the Soussi, regular merchant who was captured together mess up Hasan, and later became known importation Master Abbado, a successful merchant shamble Naples, and Leo's friend in Italy.

Further reading