Leo's Contribution to how the West Perceives the East

Zakiyyah Abdus-Salaam

          Leo was born in Granada during the transition of Granada from a Muslim ruled Spain, to a new Christian kingdom. Leo and many others were considered Andulusians, Muslims born in Spain. Many groups of Andalusian immigrants migrated to Morocco, where they had formed their own communities and bonds, introducing their own culture and customs to the new area. Leo and his family were able to bring majority of their belongings with them and maintain a high lifestyle in Fes, Morocco, kick starting Leo’s success. Leo began his life-long educational journey in one of the Fes’s Mederas. As a student Leo studied religion and theology as well as some science and mathematics. Along with schooling, Leo Africanus had the opportunity to travel worldwide and learn through personal experience and involvement with diverse groups of people with different customs. Leo’s excursions consisted of commercial and diplomatic missions through North Africa and parts of Europe. His first diplomatic operation took place with his uncle to the Maghreb, reaching as far as the city of Timbuktu; being sent as an ambassador for Fes to the Sudan at age 16 exemplifies his life long attachment to the city of Fes’s education and government facilities. On Leo’s voyages, he aimed to record only neutral and unbiased history so the audience of his works would know the valid facts. The types of facts he records for each location greatly depends on the purpose of his travels: when he visited foreign lands for the geographic demographics, he would leave out characteristics of the people of the land. Unfortunately, Leo documentation of his travels comes from his memory, leaving some room for inaccuracy; much speculation can be attributed to Leo’s portrayal of Morocco and the Muslims that inhabit Morocco because he in not Moroccan nor does he remain a Muslim. Leo was keen enough to realize that this could be a potential problem and responds with: "I realize that it is questionable of him to reveal the negative qualities of Africans. Africa was my wet nurse, I grew up there and spent the longest and most beautiful part of my life. But I must be a historian, and am thus obligated to speak the truth with no reserve." (65) The well-rounded education and traveling experiences that Leo had the opportunity to learn and grow interested the Europeans. Europe saw Leo as an excellent source of information on Islam and Middle Eastern Culture and learned from him. If the Far West would have had information as accurate as Leo’s, orientalism might not be as big of a problem today.