Leo Africanus

Timeline

1. c. 1494–1512Fez · North AfricaHasan ibn Muhammad was born to a Moorish family in Granada and moved as a child with his family to Fez, Morocco. He received a traditional Islamic education there, studying at the famous University of al-Qarawiyyin in theology, law, rhetoric, and geography, laying the foundation for his later diplomatic and scholarly career.
2. c. 1510–1520Timbuktu · Sub-Saharan AfricaCommissioned by the Moroccan sultan, Hasan made several embassies to West Africa, the Sahara, and the Middle East, traveling through the Songhai Empire (including Timbuktu), the Niger River basin, Egypt, and Ottoman-controlled lands. He recorded in detail the cities, trade routes, tribes, and customs he encountered, gathering rich first-hand material for his later writings.
3. 1520–1532Rome · EuropeAround 1520, Hasan was captured by Spanish pirates in the Mediterranean near Sicily and presented to Pope Leo X. The pope greatly admired his learning and had him baptized under the name "Johannes Leo de Medicis." He then remained in Rome, exchanging ideas with humanist scholars, and began writing his African travel accounts in Italian.
4. c. 1526–1554Rome / North Africa · MediterraneanLeo completed the Italian manuscript Descrittione dell'Africa around 1526, describing the geography, history, and customs from Morocco to Egypt and from Timbuktu in West Africa to the Sahara. It was published in 1550 by the Venetian publisher Ramusio and became one of the most authoritative European works on Africa. Leo may later have returned to North Africa, spending his final years in places such as Tunisia, where he died around 1554.