Trickster Travels

By Natalie Zemon Davis,

Book cover of Trickster Travels: A Sixteenth-Century Muslim Between Worlds

Book description

Al-Hasan al-Wazzan - born in Granada to a Muslim family that in 1492 went to Morocco - became famous as the great Renaissance writer Leo Africanus, author of the first geography of Africa to be published in Europe (in 1550). He had been captured by Christian pirates in the Mediterranean…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Trickster Travels as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This must be one of the best biographies ever!

It’s an academic take on the story of Leo the African, novelised by Amin Maalouf, and it brings out his complex identity and the richness of interconnected Mediterranean cultures in a way that is totally relevant to today.

It really made me think about the limitations of what we call national or religious identity and the almost infinite ability of human beings to adapt, chameleon-like, to different circumstances and cultures. 

From Teresa's list on memories of Moorish Spain.

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