Leo

As we approach the end of this book Hasan’s story becomes very interesting. Some of the parts I found fun to read were of him being exiled and eventually captured. The reason for Hasan’s exile was because of his brother. This is a strange compared to now because back then you were placed and associated with your family and your family name. Just because you have a relation to someone by blood can get you exiled if one of you does something wrong. Whole families would be removed from communities simply because they were related to a criminal. This is different from today because if your sibling or parent does something wrong they are responsible and the rest of the family can continue with their lives. They are not removed from society because of what someone else did, but they are still looked at differently society.

The ending of Maalouf’s chapter of being captured I feel like it was written as a cliffhanger to keep the reader interested. Whatever the case he kept me reading about how he was taken to Rome. I wanted to talk about how people dealt with power in that time. Power was ruling, the ottoman how supreme power, but how did it come about, what were the so scared of? I want to know how they can be across continents and still able to sustain a family life. Think about it, today were have social tools to connect with people at a moment notice. They come home and it almost like they never left. Hasan describes his palace as only looking different on the outside, but the family was sad, but still connected to him.

What really boggles my mind is how the pens lost to the devils at home for the second time. I understand that we have a lot of injuries but we have sid the kid and he knows how to win da cups. He is like Hasan who had to learn the way of his enemy as they kept him captive. The question I have is why Christian leaders gave their name to their converted captives? Why did Leo X name Hasan Leo Africanus? HMMMM I wonder.