"I'm a son of the road, my home is the caravan, and my life is a journey full of surprises." Hassan al-Wazzan, an educated young man and a devout Muslim, travels the Maghreb as a merchant and has a great desire to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. But these are troubled times in a troubled region, there are raids and wars. As if from nowhere, one day a gang of Sicilian pirates appears, who carry Hassan off to Rome and enslave him. It is a lucky chance for the pirates, because Hassan's alert mind and extraordinary intelligence make him a special gift to the most powerful man in the Christian world: Pope Leo X. He appoints him as his geographer - but will he ever be able to escape the Vatican, regain his freedom and return to his homeland, the Maghreb? "The Pope's geographer" is.