Captured by Christian pirates in the Mediterranean and imprisoned by the Pope, then released, baptized, and allowed a European life of scholarship as the Christian writer Giovanni Leone, Al-Hasan al-Wazzan - or Leo Africanus - is a celebrated but hithero elusive figure.
Here, in Trickster Travels, distinguished historian Natalie Zemon-Davis offers a virtuoso study of the fragmentary, partial, and often contradictory traces that al-Hasan al-Wazzan left behind him, and a superb interpretation of his extraordinary life and work.
Natalie Zemon Davis is Henry Charles Lea Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University. Her books include The Return of Martin Guerre which was made into two hugely successful movies and which pioneered a new kind of historical writing. She lives in Toronto, Canada.