Leo Africanus Leo Africanus Amin Maalouf Translated by Peter Sluglett For Andrée Copyright © by Amin Maalouf 1986 Translation copyright © by Peter Sluglett 1988 First paperback edition published in 1992 by New Amsterdam Books c/o Ivan R. Dee, Publisher 1332 North Halsted Street, Chicago 60622 by arrangement with W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Maalouf, Amin. [Léon, l’Africain. English] Leo Africanus/Amin Maalouf; translated by Peter Sluglett. p. cm Translation of: Léon, l’Africain. ISBN 978-1-56131-022-7 1. Leo, Africanus, ca. 1492–ca. 1550—Fiction. 2. Africa—Discovery and exploration—Fiction. I. Title. [PQ3979.2.M28L413 1992] 843—dc20 91-36145 CIP ISBN 1-56131-022-0 (paper : alk. paper) Manufactured in the United States of America. Table of Contents I THE BOOK OF GRANADA The Year of Salma al-Hurra The Year of the Amulets The Year of Astaghfirullah The Year of the Fall The Year of Mihrajan The Year of the Crossing II THE BOOK OF FEZ The Year of the Hostelries The Year of the Soothsayers The Year of the Mourners The Year of Harun the Ferret The Year of the Inquisitors The Year of the Hammam The Year of the Raging Lions The Year of the Great Recitation The Year of the Stratagem The Year of the Knotted Blade of Grass The Year of the Caravan The Year of Timbuktu The Year of the Testament The Year of the Maristan The Year of the Bride The Year of Fortune The Year of the Two Palaces The Year of the Lame Sharif The Year of the Storm III THE BOOK OF CAIRO The Year of the Noble Eye The Year of the Circassian The Year of the Rebels The Year of the Grand Turk The Year of Tumanbay The Year of the Abduction IV THE BOOK OF ROME The Year of San Angelo The Year of the Heretics The Year of the Conversa The Year of Adrian The Year of Sulaiman The Year of Clemency The Year of the King of France The Year of the Black Bands The Year of the Lansquenets ‘Yet do not doubt that I am also Leo Africanus the traveller’ W.B. YEATS 1865–1939 I, Hasan the son of Muhammad the weigh-master, I, Jean-Leon de Medici, circumcised at the hand of a barber and baptized at the hand of a pope, I am now called the African, but I am not from Africa, nor from Europe, nor from Arabia. I am also called the Granadan, the Fassi, the Zayyati, but I come from no country, from no city, no tribe. I am the son of the road, my country is the caravan, my life the most unexpected of voyages. My wrists have experienced in turn the caresses of silk, the abuses of wool, the gold of princes and the chains of slaves. My fingers have parted a thousand veils, my lips have made a thousand virgins blush, and my eyes have seen cities die and empires perish. From my mouth you will hear Arabic, Turkish, Castilian, Berber, Hebrew, Latin and vulgar Italian, because all tongues and all prayers belong to me. But I belong to none of them. I belong only to God and to the earth, and it is to them that I will one day soon return. But you will remain after me, my son. And you will carry the memory of me with you. And you will read my books. And this scene will come back to you: your father, dressed in the Neapolitan style, aboard this galley which is conveying him towards the African coast, scribbling to himself, like a merchant working out his accounts at the end of a long journey. But is this not in part what I am doing: what have I gained, what have I lost, what shall I say to the supreme Creator? He has granted me forty years of life, which I have spent where my travels have taken me: my wisdom has flourished in Rome, my passion in Cairo, my anguish in Fez, and my innocence still flourishes in Granada. I The Book of Granada