The author Ibn Zaraa in his book "Al Qirtas" described the uprising of the Merinids against the Almohad dynasty in these terms:

This was how Ibn Zaraa presented the final days of the Almohad dynasty and the not so subtle message for reform delivered to the Moroccan nation by the Beni Merin. This description of events is accurate and suffers no exaggeration. If Ibn Zaraa had lived at the beginning of the Saadian era and if he had wanted to depict the end of the reign of the Merinids, he would not have been able to describe it any differently. The Merenids gained control and were enthroned for two and a half centuries, a period during which they prevailed over all vital sectors of the country. They initially led with an enlightened policy marked by a resolute encouragement of the arts, literature and science. But like the previous dynasty, the Merinids eventually had to face up to their own political upheavals which ultimately ended their existence as the reigning dynasty. And so another regime change would soon be imposed, endowing the nation with a rejuvenated, determined and firm government capable of offering the necessary measures to face up to the new crises at hand.

Tossing a rapid glance at events during the period in which lived our subject, we become aware of the troubles suffered by Morocco as it plunged into chaos following the weakening of the Merinid administration and the mass arrivals of the last contingent of Muslims from the Iberian peninsula after the Spanish "reconquista" of the Andalous region. The Spaniards exploited the weak authority in Morocco to nourish their aims on the southern bank of the Mediterranean straits. They entrained in their wake Portugal which also took advantage of the political turmoil tearing up the country by engaging in the conquest of Anfa in 1489 AD (894 Anno Hegira) and of Asilah in 1502 AD (907 AH). The Portuguese built the city of Mogador (now known as El Jadida) and advanced along the coastal cities of the Sous region. After having constructed Fort Founty near Agadir, they conquered the port of Safi and occupied Azemmour and Mamora. Meanwhile battles were raging between the last of the Al Wattasids and the Merinids on the one hand and Abou Alabbas Ahmed Al Saadi on the other.

Such were the events marking this era. The country was prey to internal revolts while foreign powers continued their attacks against its government, sapping its foundations. The events of this difficult period, precipitated the appearance and the consolidation of power by the Saadians who waged civil war against the aging Wattasid Merinid dynasty. Eventually the Saadians took over Morocco's destiny and chased away the foreign occupiers from the areas they had conquered, recovering full sovereignty over the entire Moroccan territories.

It is very likely that intellectual pursuits are the last to be influenced by externally induced political upheavals and internal revolts. Their roots grow and become strong during times of stability and rapid social, political and cultural development. And yet their fruits ripen much later, often during periods of rebellion against the establishment. Researchers typically do not take into much consideration the first manifestations of political turmoil. Instead they continue to focus their attention in a general manner on the various branches of scholarship and culture. Up to a certain point, one could surmise that the student's desire for study and the efforts by educational institutions to promote research serve as buffers against the negative effects of unrest.

The individual whom I wish to depict here, lived in this era marked by political agitation. But despite this, he succeeded in sweeping away obstacles in his path of learning and succeeded in becoming an exceptional talent who kindled admiration in the west. He lived during the end of the Merinid era, improved his education in their medrassas and was regarded as a shining outcome of the Merinid's stable and brilliant Islamic civilization.. Even though we know of him only through what was written about him in the west, he represents a golden era of our past, a most thriving period for the Moslem world with the city of Fez at the vanguard of science and civilization and the meeting place of western and eastern worlds. Fez was also the spiritual spring from which Europe, whose authority and influence was dominated by the Catholic Church, drew the essentials from the religious courses it taught.

In Fez, the Merinid capital, as well as in other Moroccan cities, institutes of learning played a very important role in education and the dissemination of knowledge. High level and state of the art courses were taught in the various branches of human knowledge. One could attend lectures on the law, the institutions, the natural sciences, mathematics, geography as well as many other disciplines. The Kairouyine University, unlike today, never restricted the scope of studies in science nor did it confine literature to prefixed ideas. On the contrary, the student holders of diplomas from this university were considered to have attained a high level of maturation thanks to the development of mind and talent allowing them to overcome the challenges in the scientific disciplines and to master the most arduous of literary texts.

A simple glance on the list of great thinkers cited by Hassan El Wazzan (aka Leo Africanus) in one of his works enlightens us on the level of culture of this era. He cites more than sixty of the most eminent thinkers of the time. In philosophy he references such notables as Averroes, Al Farabi, Avicenne, Ibn Tofayl, Al Tobrani, Ibn Khaldoun, Ibn Omran, and Moussa Ben Mamoun. Amongst the Sufis he mentions Al Ghazali, Al Hassan Al Basri, Abou Al Hassan Alssary, Al Chadli , Abou Hafs Omar Ben Farid. In medicine, Abdallah AlbaytAr, Ibn Zohr, and Ishaq Ben Amran el Razi. Amongst the geographers he cites Ibn Abdallah Al Bakri, Al Sherif Al Idrisi, Ibn Fadl Allah Al Amr and Al Masudi. The historians he mentions include Al Chahrastani, Ibn Al Jawzi , Ibn Al Hassan Al Mutalmidi and Ibn Bachkwal.

He refers to these leading experts and others in his book that deals on the geography of Africa in general and of Morocco in particular which is preserved in a European library. I don't know how many names he cites in books which he dedicated to other branches of learning. The latter were mislaid, without one copy preserved in a Moroccan library. These works are probably vegetating in the shelves of a private collection. And perhaps one day, by divine will, they along with other Moroccan manuscripts subjected to the same fate, will see the light of day and thus shed new light on the Merinid and other periods of Moroccan history and accurately underscore their cultural and contributions to civilization. The intellectual pursuits of his period are in contrast with the rot present today. There was exuberant thinking on many scientific themes and on methodology in other disciplines. And this was so despite political unrest, and violent jolts which shook from time to time the social foundation and tempered the vigor of cultural progress.

Hassan Al Wazzan wrote several pieces of work but unfortunately only one or two have succeeded in reaching us. As to the other publications we only know their titles. He most certainly must have edited books before and after his detention but of these we know absolutely nothing, not even their titles. Despite this, the book which we now find in our possession is to a large extent sufficient to give us a notion about the man, his thinking and his talents. The work in question is his "Description of Africa" which was not conceived for the purpose of retracing the steps of his itineraries in a descriptive manner but was instead a practical book, planned with attention to numerous details according to a methodical approach with all the precision of scientific logic. This was a book which tackled many subjects and further advanced numerous areas of research and analysis. It became a basic reference for history and geography and, before we had established relations with the west, it was even considered for a long period of time as the unique reference about Moslem countries for Europeans.

The mystery which surrounds the life of our subject surrounds his achievements as well. It extends to his "Description of Africa" which was translated into all the principal western languages and occupies a privileged place in European libraries. In reality we do not know for sure in which language Leo Africanus first wrote his publications nor what were the references which he relied on to justify the merit of his affirmations. Likewise we do not know the motives which drove him to author his books, nor the time he dedicated to their editing. So many questions whose answers would have contributed to setting us straight and to removing the nebulosity of the thoughts that vacillate in our minds. But, all that we know according to our current state of understanding, is that the aforementioned book was published in Italian in 1530 AD within the framework of an encyclopedia by the Italian Romisio dedicated to land and maritime travel. It was later translated into Latin and then into French in 1556 AD before becoming the object of systematic translations into the majority of the other European languages.

As to its Arabic roots, that is if it was of Arabic origin, we know absolutely nothing. We have recourse only to the thesis by professor Massignon, according to which Hassan Al Wazzan would have compiled travel logs during his many voyages and that he would have enriched these with everything that his prodigious memory of firsthand knowledge would have retained. This is because during his stay in Italy he had no Arabic references at his disposal to rely on to support his line of reasoning. He could only count on his personal observations and experiences during his voyages and it is precisely here that all the merit of his works which owe their intrinsic value only to the personal reflections of the author, independent of any external published reference. As to the motivation which drove him to write this book, we would not be too far from the truth in thinking that it was probably Pope Leo X himself who suggested to him, in the name of the friendship created between them, to undertake this endeavor to which he attached outstanding importance.

There is no doubt that the interest held by the pope in all fields of learning led him to ask his Moroccan host to describe the state of his country and to share with him observations he made during his many journeys. One can imagine Leo Africanus in the midst of trying to recollect events from his past prior to launching himself into a causerie; a chat that would have so impassioned his host that the latter would have proposed to put to ink the information evoked so it could be preserved in the Vatican Library. His interlocutor would have gladly accepted and would have put to print the publication asked of him. But all this is based on simple conjectures. Leo Africanus never alluded to such conversations and lacking any solid clues enabling confirmation, these conjectures should be considered to be nothing more or less than simple products of one's imagination.

When Louis Massignon, the noted orientalist scholar, studied the contents of the "Description of Africa" , he concluded , judging from its thematic content and from the methods used for analysis and classification, that it was edited uniquely for European readers. "Leo the Moroccan" divided his book into nine sections. He dedicated the first section to geographical deliberations of a general nature and addressed the following subtitled topics:

He pursued his examination with as much precision as with depth of analysis.

In the following seven sections, he proceeded with the description of different aspects about Africa , neglecting no details, and elucidating his statements with impressive explanations, journeying from the villages of each region to the surrounding mountains.

In the ninth section, he addressed the mineral resources, the fresh water streams and the seas.

It is of interest to emphasize that he was the first to have introduced the Maghreb in terms for four major regions:

This geographical partition is used to this day in the geography manuals on the Maghreb. Hence, being the first to have made such a partition shows a talent for observation endowed with an ability to conduct an analytical approach that is concrete and practical. Paging through this book, one gets the impression that it was written in our times. It contains some very broad information on certain aspects of living that one would think that the ancient world would not have granted the slightest note and moreover would not have drawn the conclusions brought to light by the author. When Leo Africanus sites an monument built by Yacoub El Mansour, he does not neglect to provide an exhaustive catalogue of all its composing arches. In his descriptions about the major regions he informs us about their mineral riches and the natural resources. We know, thanks to the information recorded in his book, that the life expectancy of Moroccans lay between 65 and 70 years . It could also vary between 80 and 100 years in the Atlas regions where the climate permits one to lead a healthy life and this is corroborated by the most recent of statistical studies.

From one topic leading to another, he managed to lay out a list of diseases ravaging the country, looking to diagnose their sources and their causes. Then he tackled social life and the influence of climate on those customs which he qualified as spontaneous and free. He described the Berbers as a people tied to commercial occupations, always in action, always engaged in discussions, and much attached to religion. He dedicated several pages to the period's garments and their variety as a function of the seasons and special occasions. He later delved into Moroccan dietary customs, showing an attention to detail and revealing a magnificent mastery of social behavior. He also analyzed the governing bodies. For each region he enumerated the courts therein, and pointed out the political divisions that defined the boundaries of areas under Wattaside authority and those under cities that enjoyed autonomy. He informs us that the tribes recognized neither the administrative bureaucracy nor the rule of the Wattasides because of their weakened authority and due to the declining state of affairs brought on by the political decadence of their dynasty. He described roadside conditions with infinite detail and listed the urban agglomerations en route as well as their network of roads.

In summary, Leo the Moroccan had touched upon a wide range of topics and treated each with such broadness and conciseness to lend proof to the broad scope of his knowledge and to the depth of his intelligence. It is certain that if we would continue to itemize and bring to light all that this book contains with respect to learning and information, we would exceed the framework of this introduction whose intent was to not sink under excess detail. The glimpse we have offered here on the life and work of Leo Africanus should suffice to rekindle him in our collective memory and to stimulate the curiosity of current and future young generations on the achievements of this worthy forefather who remained neglected for too long by the Moroccan community from which he had sprung.

I mentioned earlier that this book by Hassan Al Wazzan had been the unique reference representing us in the west. Since then, the oriental scholar, Louis Massignon, cited several famous authors who cited Leo Africanus as a reference in their research on Africa in general and on Morocco in particular. Their number exceeds thirty, the first dating back to the sixteenth century and the last in the middle of the nineteenth. To grasp the importance granted to him by the west, it suffices to open any book on Morocco published in Europe. One will find Leo Africanus named at the forefront of the index of bibliographies upon which the author of the book relied on to properly buttress his studies.

Sadly science and culture were dealt a disservice by the unfortunate loss of the other works by Leo Africanus of which only the titles of some remain. If the opportunity was given to us to rediscover these publications so as to submit them to appropriate study, we would have been in a position to re-establish contact with the scientific and cultural era of the Merinids. One wonders if there are manuscripts in certain private Moroccan book collections which , with current means of publishing, could be shared and thus creating a veritable revolution in our thinking of historical events and provoking a radical change of the ideas that we have had until now about our past.

Amongst the publications by Leo Africanus of which we know only the titles, it is necessary to cite an Arabic-Hebrew-Latin dictionary a copy of which is preserved at the Escorial monastery near Madrid, a grammar book, another on linguistics, and another written in Latin dedicated to the biographies of large number of Islamic notables. It remains for us to wonder if he had proceeded to publish anything before his detention or after his return to Tunisia. Meanwhile everything leads one to think that the above-mentioned books were written during his stay in Italy. And so it is at the least inconceivable that a man of the sciences and of such character as Hassan Al Wazzan could have spent a significant portion of his life, in the midst of his own and in the linguistic and cultural surroundings he inherited from his forebears, without having dedicated a given number of publications about his reflections on literary and scientific subjects. All that we currently know about our man we owe to the writings of western authors whose publications at the same time make up the only available references.