Trickster Travels: A Sixteenth-Century Muslim Between Worlds

by Natalie Zemon Davis

Acclaimed historian Natalie Zemon Davis's accessible and dramatic biography was widely hailed as a masterpiece and tells the story of Leo Africanus, a sixteenth-century Moroccan who embodies the rich and complex exchanges between Europe and Africa during the Renaissance. Trickster Travels offers a virtuoso study of the fragmentary, partial and often contradictory traces that al-Hasan al-Wazzan left behind him, and is a superb interpretation of his extraordinary life and work.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Africa, Biography, Islam, Travel, Morocco

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Natalie Zemon Davis was an American-Canadian historian of the early-modern period.

Reviews

[Sense of History]

Natalie Zemon Davis already had a huge reputation for immersing herself in specific late-medieval and early modern topics (see especially The Return of Martin Guerre). For this book she had to do an extra effort because of its highly specialized Arabic and Jewish background. That’s because the main character is an early 16th century Muslim diplomat, al-Hasan al-Wazzan, who - forcibly - lived in the Christian West for ten years, and then returned. A very fascinating study object, indeed.

Zemon Davis characterizes al-Wazzan as a man who led an ambivalent existence in these two, downright hostile worlds of Islam and Christianity. She also portrays those two worlds very attractively and gives a good description of the great complexity and the enormous interactions within those separate worlds themselves. But she covers this in so much detail that the layman will soon give up. For a more attractive narrative on the subject, it is better to turn to Amin Maalouf's more fictionalized Leo Africanus, published 20 years earlier.

What makes Zemon Davis’ work stand out is that she systematically fills in all the gaps in al-Wazzan's biography. And as it turns out, there are quite a few. The author constantly invokes phrases such as "it could be that", "it seems likely that" ,"perhaps he has spoken to this or that person, or done this or that." It seems that this celebrated historian intentionally did an exercise in reasonable guesswork and an experiment in historical imagination. And I have to say - as far as I can judge - she does it with merit, in the sense that she explains and substantiates every guess in the footnotes very extensively (half of the book consists of footnotes and bibliography). So, hats off for this elaborate effort.

But her approach has different downsides. In the first place, all that speculation and detailed analysis is at the expense of the readability of the story itself. Moreover, she tries to interpret al-Wazzan's ambiguous attitude as a case of deception, a reference to the controversial 'taquiyya' concept in the Islam world (the right to mislead unbelievers). She cites passages from the main work of al-Wazzan to justify that, and points to his very rudimentary treatment of Christian themes. She concludes that al-Wazzan has always speculated on a return to the familiar world of Islam, and therefore has been particularly wary both in his life in Rome and in his writings, and may have feigned his Christian conversion (out of preservation). That immediately explains the title of her book "trickster travels".

But to be honest: despite the extensive analysis, Zemon Davis has not convinced me, mainly because her reasoning is based on extrapolation and speculation. In her epilogue she even goes one step further, by suggesting a far-reaching degree of kinship between al-Wazzan and the French writer François Rabelais, who was in Rome shortly after al-Wazzan; I found her attempts to portray both of them as ambiguous travelers in foreign countries far-fetched. And the fact that they were both keen observers of human behavior seems to do too much honor to al-Wazzan; Rabelais really operated on a very different level (and in a very different register).

In conclusion: despite Zemon Davis' enormous effort to bring the world of Islam and that of Christianity at the beginning of the 16th century to life, and to point out the interconnection between the two, her very speculative biography of al-Hasan al-Wazzan did not convince me. Perhaps it is a good pioneer study into interconnectedness, but unfortunately there's too much mist around the protagonist she has chosen as object of study.

[Marc Lamot · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you like a well-written, exciting story, then this is NOT the book for you, because Natalie Zemon Davis has delivered a very detailed and academic book here. Earlier in 1986, the Lebanese author Amin Maalouf already wrote a romanticized biography of the same Muslim diplomat al-Hasan al-Wazzan, under the title Leo Africanus, and judging by the reviews that is quite an enjoyable book. Then, why did Natalie Zemon Davis write another biography on this man, 20 years later?

I think especially because our protagonist in these times of globalization and constant cultural exchange seems a very interesting case study: al-Hasan al-Wazzan grew up in the Moorish city of Granada (southern Spain) just before it was conquered by Christians in 1492 , fled with his family to Fez (now Morocco) and traveled as a diplomat in the service of the local sultan through large parts of the then still enlarged Islamic world; in 1518 he was captured by Spanish pirates during a sea voyage and presented as a gift to the then pope; after a short stay in the prison of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome, al-Wazzan was baptized and was given the nickname Leo Africanus; he frequented the cultural elite at the top of the Catholic Church, and published various works on the Islamic world, but in 1527 fled to North Africa again and disappeared into the mists of time.

For sure a fascinating figure, this al-Wazzan, were it not for the fact that sources about who he really was, and how he behaved in those two worlds, are rather scarce. Which means that Zemon Davis constantly had to depend on speculation and very intensively use the instrument of "historical imagination". I must concede she does that with verve, but the accumulation of "might’s" and "probably’s" and the very detailed analysis of both the Muslim and Christian world, are really at the expense of the readability of the story. You should therefore view this book as an experiment in historical speculation. More about this in my SenseofHistory review on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....

[Caroline · Rating 2 out of 5]

A disappointment. I sought this out because I thought (based on a reference in a book I can’t remember) it would give more information about the Renaissance/early modern kingdoms of black Africa (Mali, etc.) but there is very little. al-Hasan al-Wazzan traveled there as a young man on family business, but Davis has other priorities and there is little description. Most of the book focuses on his years in Rome as a captive and then semi-constrained translator and author. The information is scanty, and peters completely out when he leaves Rome after about a decade to return to Africa. The final chapter in which she attempts a comparison of Rabelais in Rome (after al-Hasan’s departure) and al-Hasan is a total waste.

That doesn’t keep Davis from 270 pages of long-shot ‘possibly’ ‘may have’ 'could have’ ‘probably’ etc. She spends page after page describing who was in Rome and what they were doing, but very little establishing a connection with her subject, try as she might. I would say this is best read as a companion volume to The Republic of Arabic Letters by Alexander Bevilacqua. Bevilacqua’s book is infinitely superior, but Davis does add a bit about who was bringing Arabic literature into European languages early in the process.

[Mary Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book had great potential, and undoubtedly what Davis is able to do with the amount of information she had is remarkable, but I feel like it missed the mark. This text walked the line of biography a little too closely for its own good, for while Leo Africanus led an interesting life, it is perhaps his text/his role as an author that warranted study more so than his person. Davis provided readers with an interesting framework for considering the way one can write oneself into history and the way that marginal figures come to define periods, but she could have pushed farther. If she had lost the fluff and pursued the scent, I'm sure this could have been great.

[barbs · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok, so... I didn't like this, but then.. I did. Lol. The methodology approach is interesting, it does question what we know as "true" for historians, the first thing you learn while studying hsitory is not to be fooled by the 'what ifs' and 'what coul've beens' and Davis defies that motion, and I'm just not sure how I feel about that. I think the problem comes not necessary from the execution of the idea, but the subject matter itself, Al-Hasan's life. I could honestly care less about all the annoying and irrelevant people he met on his travels, like wtf he was a social butterfly. I don't think the amount of detail brought anything to the narrative, by page 100 I'd forgotten most of it.

I do think he was historically relevant as he was a mediator between religions, cultures and languages... but I needn't read 300ish pages to know that.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leo Africanis looms large in my time period. His geography provides an important description of Africa and Muslim behaviors in the early modern world. I loved this mashup of the Mediterranean and for people who haven’t heard of Leo Africanus, this makes a fantastic introduction to the Mediterranean world in the 16th century. I liked being reminded of this man’s many names and the multiple lives he would have lived. I was also introduced to the many other sorts of scholarship that were available at that time. The themes lend themselves to reading by folks who are already a bit familiar with the time period/place, so I don’t know yet if I could assign the whole book to undergraduates but it is a lively narrative told with humor and I appreciated the way the scholarship is told out loud and is intentional. It’s good to see how a scholar sorted out their conclusions.

[Youssef · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick but fascinating glimpse into both sides of the Mediterranean through the admittedly fractured eyewitness tales of al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Wazzan al-Fasi/Joannes Leo Africanus/Yuhanna Al-Asad/Giovanni Leone, a Granadan diplomat and all-around learned dude.

[DS25 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dnf.
Onestamente dopo 4 libri della NZD mi aspettavo qualcosa di molto diverso rispetto a una collezione annalistica di eventi.

[Nicholas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Natalie Z. Davis's stated interests in mutually incomparable 'truths,' ambiguities, and speculative story-telling bear plenty of fruit in her most recent historical plunge: a cross-examination of cross-cultural relationships between cross and crescent worlds across a 16th-century Mediterranean milieu. Her analytical weapon of choice, neither a towering and typical monarch nor a Middle Aged Joe Sixpack (wink wink), was a Muslim scholar and diplomat named Al-Hasan al-Wazzan, conventionally known as Leo Africanus, who was captured by Christian pirates, dubiously converted under Pope Leo the X as a reprieve from the dungeon, and with the watchful eye of the Church began composing manuscripts in Italian on the Arab world.

A lazier historian would have picked a more substantial figure, since aside from Al-Hasan's notable and expansive manuscript 'The Geography and Cosmography of Africa' and a few minor works, all that remains are the table-scraps of indirect and obscure references of the time period. For Natalie Zemon, however, his fence-straddling position and Arabic heritage provide a perfect backdrop for comparative aesthetics between Peoples of the Book, creative speculation on his motives and lifestyle, and the chance to immerse herself in a new region of study, Africa, and its vast Muslim history.

How very apt then, that in the beginning of Al-Hasan's Cosmography , he relates to his would-be Italian readers a traditional anecdote of an 'amphibious bird' who would feign fish-hood when taxed in the skies by the bird-king and bird-hood when taxed in the seas by the sea-king, always escaping payment and surviving though ambiguity. Zemon makes quick work of this hint into Al-Hasan's middlesome mindset and from there tosses us into the cultural context of competing religious movements, African social trends, and Maghreb geopolitics swirling around the Mediterranean shores in woefully complex patterns. One goes on a tour of North Africa from Fez to Tunis, the Atlas Mountains, the Sahara, lower Sudan, and Rome, soaks in distinctions between Muslim and Christian (or lack thereof) tolerance of homosexuality, skin color, gender, conversion, and Jewish communities just to name a few, of sultan power struggles and Maghreb and Portuguese warfare, to false eschatological prophets, it just goes on and on.

Davis handles this all beautifully. She's done her research, lucidly acclimatizing Westerners to the fine-tuned nuances of Islamic religiosity with its factions and intercultural prejudices, and frequently employing Muslim terminology and Qu'ranic scripture. Small insights into Islamic behavior flourish under Davis's hand, such as the heavy foreboding Muslims felt at the arrival of the printing press, with its ability to replicate heresy en masse and its deemphasizing effect on the spiritual aesthetic of Arabic calligraphy. Along with such description is the pleasure of watching Davis weave it, musings and all, into a solid conception of how Al-Hasan may have engaged the zeitgeist of the times, and what his life would have looked like. More importantly, Davis succeeds in conveying the pervading atmosphere of a particular historical period for which any reader's modern worldview will be enriched.

Mostly, Trickster Travels concerns a traveler's relationship to his own time period, and what we can explore given the ambiguities of his situation. It does not present controversial discoveries or advance meticulously crafted conceptions, or attempt to tell us how Al-Hasan's work and life contributes or improves upon our present world. It is a reflection, a creative endeavor. A lively venture into one's imagination, contextualized historically with a bounty of information and impression. Perhaps most intriguing for me is the overlapping similarities between Zemon Davis and her very own subject, Al-Hasan Al-Wazzan: Davis writing in English to inform westerners about the Muslim world of Africa via an Islamic polymath, Al-Hasan, who himself was writing in Italian during his captivity in Rome to inform Europeans on the very same topic 500 years ago.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

October 19, 2009: This book is sloppy and unbalanced, and draws wide-ranging conclusions based on slender evidence. According to reviewers in Renaissance Quarterly, the Journal of World History, the Journal of Interdisciplinary History, and the Journal of Global History, this is a totally credible way of doing history -- if you're Natalie Zemon Davis. Fortunately, she is Natalie Zemon Davis -- but I fundamentally disagree that this makes it acceptable. Her main argument is that al-Hasan al-Wazzan, aka Giovanni Leone, aka Leo Africanus, aka Yuhanna al-Asad, was held apart from Roman society not because he didn't belong in the "Christian" "European" categories, but because he defied categorical identification, and instead slipped between a Christian/Muslim, European/African identity as he saw fit. This is about the only reliable conclusion that Davis draws in the entire work -- the rest is highly speculative and based on a fundamental misuse of her sources, rather than concrete historical evidence.

It is particularly weak for its lack of grounding in Middle Eastern scholarship. She refers uniquely to European work on similar themes, but never delves into work by scholars of either North African or Middle Eastern history. Her work is an inexpert, sophomoric foray into an intriguing field of history, which requires a more rigorous study than what Davis has given it.

February 25, 2008: Highly speculative work -- tries to extrapolate possible biographical details, attitudes, and experiences for al-Hasan al-Wazzan from relatively limited source material. This individual's significance is limited, and so the conclusions that Zemon Davis draws about his life are not hugely important. However, it is a very interesting (if problematic) way of doing history, and is very helpful for imagining the prosopography of the early sixteenth-century papal courts.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I recall enjoying Ms. Zemon Davis’ writing when I was in grad school for early modern European history. But this is not one of her most well-written books, and I’m now unaccustomed to reading academic writing. I think the story here could’ve been good; it’s inherently interesting. But the author couldn’t seem to help herself and kept speculating and bringing in other tangents from the period. Lots of them. There were sections where you could read 4-5 pages without the main character being discussed, because the author had started talking about someone else he might have encountered. I understand the effort to contextualize the main guy, but there was more context than story. Her Return of Martin Guerre is a much more readable picture of the period (though focused in France, not cross-cultural).

[Ned · Rating 4 out of 5]

great! fun! absorbing mystery!

103 pages of this paperback edition are footnotes
5 pages are glossary
30 pages are bibliography
20 pages are indices

[Revanth Ukkalam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Natalie Zemon Davis known for her classic 'microhistory", "The Return of Martin Guerre", seems to have a compulsion for tricksters and roadsters. Martin Guerre is that, and this book is of course about one such stylish chap. Remembered as Leo Africanus, al Wazzan was a Muslim scholar from Fez who cared little about attachments: nation, land, religion. He was willing to shed all such identities while in search of travel, experiences and of course, patronage and wealth. Much of this book is on the fascinating feat that his book on the Georgaphy and culture of Arabic North Africa written in Italian, while in Italy as Yuhanna Al Assad after having converted very comfortably to Catholicism. I have a particular fascination with mavericks and the book gave me sufficient dose of such a character. The most maverick deed of his should be his retreat from Italy. The historical record suddenly becomes mute on what happened to al Wazzan in 1527 amid the invasion of Italy by Charles V. This book is for every "wanderlust", every lover of the Arabic tradition of travel and anthropology, every Renaissance nerd, every humanist, and all those passionate for a cool and fluid world.

[Muaz Jalil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea. Interesting for sure but too bland. In 1516 Sultan Selim knew about the printing press but forbade it because he thought the technology might lead to the spread of the Quran with mistakes. Kind of like our response to G.AI. Talks about fundamentalist zealot Al Maghili (Maghreb), who accused other Muslims of being kafir and allowed Songhay ruler Askia Muhammad to attack others (similar to Saud). Religion is being used to justify war, what a surprise! I did not know Dhul Qarnay was Alexander the Great, making Iskander a Muslim prophet!! Yuhanna al Asad talks about el chena living in Fez, who are essentially trans and lgbtq individuals in the 15th century. Then there is a reference to the 8th-century homoerotic poem of Abu Nuwas, Al Jahiz. This was interesting. Yuhanna was originally al wazzan or Leo africunus

[pennyg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A detailed, dense fairly short history, given the subjects covered. Unfortunately, the first third of book was not so great and maybe could have been better as fiction. The rest of the book was fascinating, covering a multitude of topics from politics to sexual norms in the 16 century based on the writing and work of a Muslim scholar and others as well as religious text and some apparently meticulous research by the author. Extremely interesting. Women are usually completely forgotten in histories, but not here. One story describes wives that are allowed to take their husbands to court for 'inadequate sexual performance'. Now, hows that for satisfaction guaranteed. If you get past the first 100 pages and you like history, or sociology or religious studies, I think you find this exceptional.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not quite sure what to make of this...other than the fact that I wish I could like it more than I did. It's a fascinating premise: examining the life of a man who seems trapped between two 16th century cultures and religions. But informative though it is, it's also bogged down by (1) far too much listing -- too many itineraries, too many topics -- and (2) you never really get the sense of the book's main character: his personality, his likes, dislikes...the book portrays him as a creature of actions, but not much as a human being. Enlightening, but very odd.

[Noam Sienna · Rating 5 out of 5]

NZD is one of the great historians and historical writers of our time, and this book has been a model for me of how to balance between responsibility to one's sources and the importance of one's imagination.

[Thomas Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t really enjoy most of it, felt quite vague and lumbering, although I did get some good Islamic fables and a better understanding of Islamic learning and the Koran from it… I found the final chapters attempt to stitch together Rabelais with Al-Wazzan quite laboured.

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Natalie is so smart and confusing sometimes! how do u even write a book like this?

[Red Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remarkably enjoyable account of a complex person in a complex situation, and the legacy he left behind him.

[alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

the sloggiest of slogs

some interesting bits which are bookmark-worthy but really just spends way too much time talking about hypothetical scenarios which have little evidence

[Hannah Schoonderwoerd · Rating 1 out of 5]

i actually have no idea what the fuck this book spoke about

[Nailah · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5

[Alex Perrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting subject matter, wasted and baked dry by the author. Utter shite and frankly finished out of stubbornness. This is a generous 2/5

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Trickster Travels, Natalie Zemon Davis is as meticulous and complex as always. She has, again, reconstructed a life, a series of events, she has contextualized and used unreliable, meager written record to explore a long-dead human's psychological state. And, again, she has done so compellingly and persuasively. What sets Trickster Travels apart from much of her other work is that, at this latish (or at least not early) date in her career, Davis has completely shifted her historical focus to medieval Islam and the Maghreb (North Africa). To be sure, she deals with issues that resonate with some of her earlier work - i.e., identity and community, social rituals, questions of gender. But for an historian to tackle new cultures, geographies and languages at all, let alone as an established scholar, is daring, admirable and intriguing. And she does it beautifully. For all I know, Davis has held the medieval Muslim world and al-Wazzan as a pet research project for decades, but you wouldn't have known it by her career-making works like The Return of Martin Guerre or The Gift. To come forth with a work of this depth and complexity, frankly, just tickles me to death and reifies the affection I already have for Davis' work. Moreover, Trickster Travels presents a topic that speaks directly to humanity's present ongoing struggle with globalization, with learning about each other's differences while managing to maintain tolerance, with finding pride in our differences without exacerbating them or becoming polarized over them. Choosing to examine one man caught in between the poles of medieval Islam and Christianity enlightens our present struggles and also, I think, reminds us that we've made a few steps forward, if we could only stop all the backtracking... Like her protagonist, al-Wazzan, Davis comes to the conclusion that violence and conquest, wherever it occurs and by whoever it is perpetrated and for whatever reasons, only destroys beauty and diversity. It builds nothing lasting but more hate and violence. Not a shocking realization, perhaps, but given the violence and conquest that just keeps occurring in our world, it's a message worth repeating, as many times as it takes.

[Vivian Blaxell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Excessive use of the past tense auxiliary verbs: could have; would have; must have. Sometimes the historical evidence is not there and the historian may engage in a speculation grounded in what she knows about the way social, cultural, discursive and political practices operated in the time and place about which she writes. But when the majority of the study relies on this species of informed speculation, as does this study by the esteemed Natalie Zemon Davis, and without substantive discussion of methodology, the whole,project ends up feeling at best, pointless, and at worst, somehow deceptive.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

What became clear to me as I was reading this is that there is very little in the way of hard facts concerning the man called Leo Africanus. Davis attempts to analyze his writings and other materials that reference him and build what is essentially a forensic biography.

For instance, Davis does not believe that Leo Africanus really converted from Islam to Christianity, and I find her reasons compelling. Ultimately, we cannot know what the man really thought because he left no records.

There is a lot of conjecture, and some comparisons that I really didn't understand (as with Rabelais).

[Tariq Mahmood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this book tough going as it is a proper history book of a Muslim traveller living in Rome for nine years. I was fascinated to read how much literary endeavours were undertaken by the Muslim noblemen of the 16th century at the tail end of Muslim power in the world much like the Western travellers of today touring the world. There are other similarities as well with the Muslim culture appearing to be much more sexually active and liberal as compared to the Western world back then. No wonder the Muslim had done so well.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great history of the Christian and Muslim worlds in the sixteenth century. It's probably a bit too esoteric for the average reader: kind of like what people say about 19th century Russian literature (Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, etc.): "I can't read that, because I just get lost in all those names!" Oh well, if you're interested in Christianity, Islam and the Middle East and Europe, you'd like this book.

[Cynthia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would give it 3 stars for content, except that I find the narrative style really irritating. The central thesis, though interesting, is buried under lots of conjecture and musing on tangentially-related topics (don't get me wrong, that stuff was interesting, but it distracts from the main point). I love the metaphor of the bird moving between bird and fish cultures as it suits him, though.