Leo Africanus
ليون الإفريقي
al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Wazzān al-Zayyātī al-Fasī
CountrySpain, Tunisia
LanguagesRenaissance Latin
Datesc. 1494 - c. 1554
mediterranean
muslim world
Johannes Leo Africanus 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 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. Leo possibly returned to North Africa in 1528.— Wikipedia