Description of Africa, written by the diplomat and scholar Al-Hassan Ibn Muhammad al-Wazzan, also known as Leo Africanus, was first published in 1526. Born in Fez, Morocco, al-Wazzan was captured while on board a ship in the Mediterranean Sea and imprisoned in Rome for nine years by order of the pope. He based his account partly on his own experiences traveling to locations including Cairo and across the Sahara to Timbuktu, which was then part of the Songhai Empire. The book, which was composed in Italian, was the first description of Africa published in Europe for a largely European and Christian readership hungry to know more about the continent’s geography, people, and resources. This Latin translation was published in 1556.
