Ali Bey

Born Domingo Francisco Jorge Badía y Leblich and better known by his pseudonym Ali Bey el Abbassi, he became famous for travels across North Africa and the Middle East in the early nineteenth century. Sources describe him as a Spanish explorer, and often also as a soldier and spy, who studied Arabic carefully and presented himself as a descendant of the Abbasids while traveling in Muslim dress.

Between 1803 and 1807, he traveled through Morocco, Tripoli, Cyprus, Egypt, Arabia, Syria, and Turkey, later turning those experiences into the travel narrative for which he is remembered. His account stood out for its close observation of places, customs, and political life, and he is especially noted for reaching Mecca and witnessing major events in the region during that period.

After returning to Spain, he aligned himself with the Bonapartist administration during the French occupation. When that political world collapsed, he went to France, where his travels were published, and later set out again for Syria under another assumed name. He died in 1818 in Aleppo, with some accounts noting suspicions that he had been poisoned.