BLOG 2: Leo Africanus

This sections of reading begins with Hasan's grandmother dying when he was eight years old. Muhammed and the community were mourning for her death; the culture really seemed to come together for the loss. Muhammed sends his son Hasan to school when he comes of age. In school, Hasan befriends a mischievous boy named Harun. Harun tells Hasan and the other boys that sometimes he dresses up like girls to spy on people without them noticing. One day, while the boys were wandering, Hasan sees his father in a tavern, he was in shock, he did not know what to do. Eventually he confronted Muhammed about it when they were fighting about something else: Miriam.

Muhammed had arranged for her to marry the Zarwali; however, Hasan was very against it because he heard terrible stories about the Zarwali's acts of violence towards people and women. But, Muhammed looked passed it for his own selfish reasons of gaining wealth in the family. Hasan was eventually able to save his sister from marrying the Zarwali, but the fact it came so close to happening scarred Miriam.

There were many interesting themes in this reading: loss, friendship, and arranged marriages. I find it very interesting how different cultures think about these same ideas. Similarly to their culture, our culture takes loss and friendship very seriously, they are very important in our lives. However, arranged marriages we do not see as frequently today. They take away people's power and force them to do something they do not want to do. In some cultures, you can still find cases of arranged marriages, but thankfully in ours today, we do not.