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Leo Africanus
Sign in to saveAlso known as Hasan bin Muhammed al-Wazzan al-Fasi, Joannes Leo Africanus
Andalusian author
Key facts
- Born
- al-Hasan Muhammad al-Wazzan , c. 1494, Granada , Kingdom of Castile
- Died
- c. 1554 (aged c. 60), Tunis , Hafsid dynasty
- Occupations
- Diplomat, geographer, traveler and scientist
- Notable work
- Description of Africa
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Leo
- Gender
- male
- Place of birth
- Granada
- Place of death
- Tunis
- Occupation
- writer
- Educated at
- University of al-Qarawiyyin
- Languages spoken
- Spanish
- Native language
- Arabic
- Religion
- ex-Muslims
- Notable work
- Description of Africa
- Image
- Sebastiano del Piombo Portrait of a Humanist.jpg
- Work location
- Rome
Show 7 more facts
- described by source
- New International Encyclopedia
- Commons category
- Joannes Leo Africanus
- has works in the collection
- National Museum of World Cultures
- birth name
- حسن ابن محمد الوزان الغرناطي
- Commons Creator page
- Léon l'Africain
- date of birth
- 1496-00-00
- date of death
- 1550-00-00
via Wikidata · CC0
Works in European collections
6 objects attributed to Leo Africanus, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana
~9 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Johannes Leo Africanus (born al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Wazzān al-Zayyātī al-Fasī, ; c. 1494 – c. 1554) was an Andalusi diplomat and author who is best known for his 1526 book Cosmographia et geographia de Affrica, later published by Giovanni Battista Ramusio as Descrittione dell'Africa (Description of Africa) in 1550, centered on the geography of the Maghreb and Nile Valley. The book was regarded among his scholarly peers in Europe as the most authoritative treatise on the subject until the modern exploration of Africa. For this work, Leo became a household name among European geographers. He converted from Islam to Christianity and changed his name to Johannes Leo de Medicis (Arabic: يوحنا الأسد, romanized: Yuḥannā al-Asad). Leo possibly returned to North Africa in 1528.
Biography
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Leo Africanus” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.