Leo Africanus

“Without lifting her eyes, she said these words, which I remember to this day: ‘For us, the women of Granada, freedom is a deceitful form of bondage, and slavery a subtle form of freedom.’” 

Salma here quotes Gaudy Sarah, whose words convey how Salma views her husband, Muhammad, and the concubine Warda’s relationship. Salma is restrained by the conservative expectations placed on her as a respectable Muslim wife. Warda is a slave, but she does not have such restrictions in her own relationship with Muhammad.

“‘It was a just punishment for the crimes of Granada,’ said my mother, repeating a well-worn maxim. ‘God desired to show us that His power has no equal, and wanted to punish the arrogance of the rulers, their corruption, injustice and depravity. He wanted to warn us about the destiny which awaited us if we continued to walk in our impious ways, with our eyes and hearts closed.’” 

Here is a common view expressed throughout the novel—a belief that even catastrophes like plagues are caused by the sins of the people. While one might take issue with such a view, moralistic campaigns by people like Astaghfirullah and the Sultan of Egypt succeed in warding off disaster. 

“The sense of feeling freer and less spied upon only made the people of Granada more severe towards the sultan, even when they found themselves under his roof, even when they were there to wish him long life, health and victories. People are merciless towards sovereigns who do not behave towards them as sovereigns.” 

Many of the monarchs who appear in Hasan’s narrative are tyrannical or are expected to be so. A monarch who is less cruel only invites ridicule from his subjects. Nonetheless, Hasan’s ideal ruler appears to be Sultan Sulaiman of the Ottoman Empire or Pope Clement VII, who encourages the arts and acts humanely.

“Brothers! Just as, with the fish that is caught, it is the head which begins to rot first, it is the same in human societies, where rottenness spreads from the top to the bottom.” 

For Hasan, corrupt, greedy rulers like the Sultan of Fez attract and nurture corrupt subjects like the Zarwali. This relationship is a marked contrast to someone like Pope Leo X, who drew artists and scholars to Rome. 

“‘For eight centuries,’ he continued in a broken and breathless voice, ‘we have illuminated this earth with our knowledge, but our sun is at its eclipse, and everything is becoming dark. And as for you, O Granada, I know that your flame will flicker one last time before being extinguished, but do not count on me to blow it out, as my descendants would spit upon my memory until the Day of Judgment.’” 

This speech is delivered by Astaghfirullah’s intellectual rival, the doctor Abu Khmer. Since Granada was the last outpost of Islamic civilization in Spain, he is bemoaning the end of the Islamic intellectual tradition in the country. 

“When this city is taken, do you think that your lands, your houses and your gold will be less coveted than ours? Do you believe that your Faith will be more tolerated than ours? Do you believe that the fire burning at the stake will be kinder to one of the sons of Shem than to the other? In Granada it is as if we were on an ark, we have floated together and we shall sink together.” 

Gaudy Sarah sternly warns Salma that the Castilians will persecute the Muslims after the Jews. This warning turns out to be true, both in the narrative and in historical fact. 

“And I had to await my first white hairs, my first regrets, before becoming convinced that every man, including my father, had the right to take the wrong road if he believed he was pursuing happiness.” 

This is a key passage for understanding Hasan’s mindset when he is writing his narrative, although he did not yet feel this way at the point in the story he is recounting. His life experience has made him more sympathetic toward his father, especially his father’s relationship with Warda.

“If death was not inevitable, man would have wasted his whole life attempting to avoid it. He would have risked nothing, attempted nothing, undertaken nothing, attempted nothing, built nothing. Life would have been a perpetual convalescence.” 

Much like how Hasan believes that poor choices can enrich a life, here Astaghfirullah asserts that death makes life worth living. This view fits well with the book’s theme that the world is best viewed not in terms of absolutes, but for its complexities and contrasts. 

“Islam began as a religion for outsiders and it will become once again a religion for outsiders just as it begin. Blessed are the outsiders.” 

This is the conclusion of the religious authority from Oran when he argues that the poor Muslim inhabitants of Granada are not sinning when they pretend to convert to escape persecution. This belief is in contrast to the rigid morality of Astaghfirullah, who uses religion to exclude people. Meanwhile, the authority from Oran is arguing that religion is for the excluded. 

“May everyone be free to believe what he will!” 

Hasan makes this exhortation after describing numerous local beliefs about how to tame or ward off lions. It demonstrates Hasan celebrating the diversity in thought and belief that exists in the world.

“A community begins to fall apart the moment it agrees to abandon the weakest of its members.” 

Khali makes this statement in reference to the imprisonment of Mariam in the leper quarter. It illustrates how émigré communities like that of Granada survive and maintain their identity.

“If you live in a city, you agree to set aside all dignity, all self-respect in exchange for the protection of a sultan, who makes you pay dearly for it even when he is no longer capable of assuring it. When you live far off from the cities, but in the plains or on the hills, you escape the sultan, his soldiers and his tax-collectors; however, you are at the mercy of marauding nomadic tribes, Arabs, sometimes even Berbers, who overrun the country, and you can never even build a wall without fearing that it will soon be pulled down. If you live in an inaccessible place far off the highway, you are of course safe from subjugation and attack, but, if you have no exchanges with other regions, you end up by living like an animal, ignorant, impoverished and frightened.” 

Hasan hears these words from a man belonging to a highly educated mountain tribe. This is another point when Hasan’s eyes are opened to the complexity and diversity of the world. Also, it hints toward what will become of Harun and Mariam.

“Many men discover the whole world while seeking only to make their fortune. But as for you, my son, you will stumble on your treasure as you discover the world.”

Salma tells Hasan this, predicting how much travel will change him. Also, this may foretell how Hasan’s journeys end with his marriage to Maddalena.

“When a traveller tells of his exploits, he becomes a prisoner of the admiring chuckles of those who listen to him. He no longer dares to say ‘I don’t know’, or ‘I haven’t seen’ for fear of losing face.” 

Nur says this in reference to the Arabic chronicler Ibn Battuta and the fact that he got the shape of the pyramids wrong. This passage may suggest that Hasan himself should be seen as an unreliable narrator.

“At Fez I possessed nothing more than a half-completed building, a ruin inhabited by regrets and empty of memories.” 

Hasan comes across the unfinished “palace” he hoped to complete when he was at the height of his fortunes in Fez. This comment suggests at least part of the reason why Hasan does not wish to return to Fez, even after his period of exile is over.

“All cities were perishable; all empires devouring, Providence unfathomable.” 

This is Hasan’s sad reflection on the Ottoman Empire’s invasion of Egypt. Political affairs and ambitions are transitory. Note the contrast to Princess Nur’s ambition to have her son rule the Ottoman Empire. 

“But the world is so made that vice is often the arm of virtue, that the best acts are often undertaken for the worst reasons and the worst acts for the best reasons.”

Pope Leo X’s system, conveyed here to Hasan through an interpreter, does match Hasan’s own views on religion as a force of both good and evil. Also, it fits into the narrative’s view of the world as an often contradictory place. 

“Does Luther not say that Christianity is none other than the community of the believers, and ought not to be reduced to a Church hierarchy? Does he not affirm that the Holy Scripture is the sole foundation of the Faith? Does he not hold up the celibacy of the priesthood to ridicule? Does he not teach that no man can escape from that which his Creator has ordained for him?” 

Hasan notes the similarities between Islam and Martin Luther’s interpretation of Christianity. This reflection builds into his relative view of religions as just different collections of rituals.

“A world is in the process of being reborn, with a new vision, a new ambition, a new beauty. It is being reborn here, now, in corrupt, venal and impious Rome, with money wrested from the Germans. Is that not a very useful sort of waste?” 

In front of Hasan, Guicciardini argues against Hans’s view that Rome is simply decadence. In reference to the Renaissance, Guicciardini argues that the modern world is being born through the artists and scholars whom leaders like Pope Leo X are sponsoring. Further, this world will be the more cosmopolitan, humane, and interconnected world that Hasan desires. 

“Virtue becomes unhealthy if it is not softened by some misdemeanours, and faith quickly becomes cruel if it is not subdued by certain doubts.” 

This is another example of Hasan’s and the narrative’s emphasis on paradoxes. Also, Hasan calls back to moralists like Pope Adrian, who becomes seen as tyrannical and brutal because of how he seeks to impose his religion.

“I would say that all religions have produced both saints and murderers, with an equally good conscience.”

Hasan does not deny the value of religion. Rather, in a debate with Pope Clement, he argues that religions have led to both good and evil. Even the people who do evil in religion’s name feel justified.

“Having learned from the misfortune of my own family, I had come to be distrustful of appearances. When everyone persists in the same opinion, I turn away from it; the truth is surely elsewhere.” 

Hasan refers to his experiences with the Zarwali, a man who presented a deceptive persona to the world. 

“By the God who caused me to traverse the wide world, by the God who has made me live through the torments of Cairo and those of Granada, I have never encountered such bestiality, such hatred, such bloody destruction, such pleasure in massacre, destruction and sacrilege!” 

Hasan describes a real historical event, the Sack of Rome. This experience also calls back to the beginning, when religious fanaticism leads the Granadans to burn books and the Castilians to persecute non-Christians. Religion can inspire, but it can also lead to atrocities when it is coupled with hatred or closed-mindedness.