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Ali Bey al-Abbasi
Born	1766
Died	1818
Occupation	Explorer

Ali Bey al-Abbasi (Domingo Badia y Leblich; 1766 – 1818) was a Spanish explorer in the early 19th century. Notably, he actually witnessed the Wahhabi conquest of Mecca in 1807.

Bey travelled in and wrote descriptions of Morocco, Tripoli, Cyprus, Egypt, Arabia, Syria (including modern Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine, then considered part of Syria,) and Turkey during the period of 1803–1807. Ali Bey went to Mecca ostensibly to perform the hajj, giving out that he was a descendant of the Abbassid Caliphs of the West.

In conversations with individuals that he met during his travels, he claimed that he was born in Aleppo; but he was later identified as Domingo Badia y Leblich, a spanish spy for Joseph Bonaparte.^{[citation needed]} There was much mystery about Ali Bey. Bankes, writing in 1830, roundly asserted that he was a Jew, and many later writers have thought that he was a genuine Muslim of Moroccan origin, but of Spanish education. Although, he alleged to be a Muslim in order to enter places forbidden to non-Muslims, including the Cave of Machpelah at Hebron^[1] and Mecca.

When he died in Syria in 1818 he was denied a Muslim burial because a cross was found in his vest.^{[citation needed]} This, as suggested by some scholars, is conclusive proof that Ali Bey’s claims of Islam were a pretense maintained in order to travel to Mecca and Medina.^{[citation needed]}

In 1816, the account of his travels, Travels of Ali Bey : in Morocco, Tripoli, Cyprus, Egypt, Arabia, Syria, and Turkey, between the years 1803 and 1807, was published.

[edit] References

Travels of Ali Bey in Morocco, Tripoli, Cyprus, Egypt, Arabia, Syria, and Turkey, between the years 1803 and 1807: in two volumes / [Domingo Badia y Leblich]. Reprint of the ed. London 1816. Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main.

Ali Bey al-Abbasi in the German National Library catalogue (German)

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