Leo Africanus converted from Islam to Christianity and changed his name to Johannes Leo de Medicis.
14 Facts About Leo Africanus
2.
Leo Africanus was born as al-Hasan, son of Muhammad in Granada around the year 1494.
3.
Leo Africanus's family moved to Fez soon after his birth.
4.
Leo Africanus continued with his journey through Cairo and Aswan and across the Red Sea to Arabia, where he probably performed a pilgrimage to Mecca.
5.
Leo Africanus was baptized in the Basilica of Saint Peter's in 1520.
6.
Leo Africanus took the Latin name Johannes Leo de Medicis.
7.
Leo Africanus left Rome and spent the next three or four years traveling in Italy.
8.
Leo Africanus returned to Rome in 1526 under the protection of the new Pope Clement VII, a cousin of Leo X who replaced Adrian.
9.
Leo Africanus then returned to North Africa and lived in Tunis until his death, some time after 1550.
10.
At the time Leo Africanus visited the city of Timbuktu, it was a thriving Islamic city famous for its learning.
11.
Leo Africanus was given the family name Medici after his patron, Pope Leo X's family.
12.
Leo Africanus wrote an Arabic-Hebrew-Latin medical vocabulary for the Jewish physician Jacob Mantino.
13.
Leo Africanus planned two descriptions of places, one for the Middle East and another for Europe.
14.
Leo Africanus planned to write an exposition of the Islamic faith and a history of North Africa.