C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Leo Africanus (c. 1492–c. 1550)
Leo Africanus (le’ō af-rē-kā’nus), properly Alhassan ibn Mohammed Alwazzan. A Moorish traveler and geographer. About 1517 he was captured by pirates while returning from Egypt after extended travels in northern and central Africa, Arabia, Syria, etc. Ultimately he was presented as a slave to Leo X., who assigned him a pension. He wrote a ‘Description of Africa,’ which for a long time was almost the only authority, especially on the Soudan. He also wrote a ‘Tractate on the Lives of Arab Philosophers.’