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Title: Leo Africanus by Amin Maalouf, Peter Sluglett ISBN: 1-56131-022-0 Publisher: New Amsterdam Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 1990 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.38 (24 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A great adventure
Comment: People with some education and who like historical novel will love this book (actually every book that Amin Maalouf wrote is a jewel). Fast paced well documented and well written from the Spain of the Reconquista at the end of the 15th Century to the first half of the 16th Century's Vatican and passing by North Africa, this book keeps you dreaming, from the safety of your favorite chair, of exotic lands and times
Rating: 4
Summary: A beautiful book
Comment: Amin Maalouf tells the life story of Hasan al-Wazzan, a middle ages traveller extraordinaire. Known as Leo, he grew up in Granada in a mixed community, only to be thrown out, along with all the Jews, during the purges. He then travelled to north Africa where his life followed many twists and turns, some good and some tragic. There are tales of wealth, abject poverty, slavery and high position within the caliph courts. His life was a kaleidoscope of styles and standards - of religions and travelling partners. Mid-way he found himself in Rome, a Christian and papal emissary, only to return to north Africa and convert back to Islam once again. No state of mind or situation ever lasted for long.
Leo the African had a fantastic life and Amin Maalouf has written a fantastic story around it. His style is effortless and the descriptions of sixteenth century Middle East are teasing enough to get you looking at the maps and travel guides again. You'll love this book. I did, and I'd recommend everyone with wanderlust to read it.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Global Witness
Comment: The story of Leo Africanus or Hassan Al Wazan is a truly fascinating tale. Amin Maalouf has done an outstanding job in creating a very readable largely biographical work of a remarkable man. While a fiction there are no historical inaccuracies and a tremendous degree of accuracy in corroborating the event of this magnificent work with actual history.
A wonderful aspect of Leo Africanus is the pitfalls it avoided. Amin Maalouf did not attempt to paint a picture that support a certain vision of history or advances a certain agenda. This is a common theme in modern day work on history and especially historical fiction. The one agenda that Amin Maalouf may have had in mind and advanced beautifully is that the world is full of wonderful people; they come in different religions, different colors and different ethnicity and they speak different languages. The world is also full of many awful people from different religions, cultures and colors.
Reading Leo Africanus one feels a direct witness to the fall of Andalusia to the Spanish and its aftermath, the fall of Cairo to the Ottomans and its aftermath and the fall of Rome to the Lutherans. Globalization and the "global village" and easy travel may have made the world smaller in our time, for Hassan Al Wazan too, nearly 600 years ago traveling the globe and fitting in was a way of life.
Exceptional historical and cultural education, beautifully written and well translated.
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Title: Samarkand by Amin Maalouf, Russell Harris ISBN: 1566562937 Publisher: Interlink Pub Group Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Crusades Through Arab Eyes by Amin Maalouf ISBN: 0805208984 Publisher: Schocken Books Pub. Date: 29 April, 1989 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong by Amin Maalouf ISBN: 0142002577 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 25 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Book of Saladin: A Novel by Tariq Ali ISBN: 1859842313 Publisher: Verso Books Pub. Date: October, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Gardens of Light (Emerging Voices Series New International Fiction) by Amin Maalouf, Dorothy S. Blair ISBN: 1566562481 Publisher: Interlink Pub Group Pub. Date: September, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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