Novel
Leo Africanus
Léon l'Africain
Amin Maalouf · 1986
Synopsis
Hassan, born in Granada around 1488, grows up during the siege of the city, when the Catholic monarchs impose conversion or exile on the Muslims, and his family takes refuge in Fez. As a young man, he accompanies his uncle on a mission to Timbuktu, then, banished from Fez, finds refuge in Cairo, where he sees the Ottomans overthrow the Mamluks. Captured, he is presented to Pope Leo X, who has him baptised. The book presents itself as the memoirs he writes for his son.
Context
The book appears in Paris from Jean-Claude Lattès in 1986, three years after Les Croisades vues par les Arabes. It takes the form of a fictionalised autobiography in four books, each bearing the name of the city where the period it recounts takes place: Granada, Fez, Cairo and Rome. Its hero existed: Hassan al-Wazzan, who became in Rome Jean-Léon l'Africain. Peter Sluglett translated it into English for W. W. Norton, in New York, and the New York Times Book Review reviewed it in 1989.
Who it is for
A long novel of history and travel, told in the first person and easily accessible to all.
Prizes and reception
Praised by critics on its publication in France, then in the United States on the release of its English translation.