From Timbuktu to the Pope's court

Al-Hasan al-Wazzan, a Granada-born, Fez-raised diplomat, traveled across North Africa and the Sahara to Timbuktu and Cairo. Returning by sea around 1518 he was seized by Mediterranean corsairs, who — impressed by his learning — presented him to Pope Leo X in Rome. Baptized there in 1520 and known ever after as Leo Africanus, he wrote a Description of Africa that shaped Europe's picture of the continent for centuries.

One of many fact-checked wonders across eight traditions at The Spring of Wisdom.