The Corrective Tendency in “Libellus De Viris Quibusdam Illustribus apud Arabes” by al-Hasan al-Wazzan

Abstract

This paper offers a look into al-Hasan al-Wazzan’s (or Leo Africanus’s) corrective tendency in his “De Viris Quibusdam Illustribus apud Arabes”, written in Latin in early 16^th Rome, in view of contemporary academic discourse on al-Wazzan and his oeuvre, especially Orientalist discourse. The article approaches such “tendency to correct” from three angles: the correction despite the mistakes resulting from the absence of Arabic sources available to al-Wazzan in Rome; al-Wazzan’s emotions in correcting the image of Arabic thought as prevalent in his biography of Avicenna and Averroes, and in presenting Arab theologians to European readers; and finally his choice to include Arabic humour (hazl) in his Latin biographies, mentioning without  reservation or timidity anecdotes of a sexual nature, which were omitted from the 17^th century printed copy of his De Viris.