Alí Bey: el espía que conquistó corazón del islam

Domingo Badía y Leblich was a Spanish Enlightenment figure, scholar, scientist, draftsman, adventurer, and spy born in Barcelona in 1767. His incredible life and extensive travels are still remembered, especially his stay in Morocco, when he was sent on a secret mission by Minister Manuel Godoy, disguised as an Abbasid prince and taking the name Ali Bey. After being expelled from that country, he traveled to Mecca, where he arrived on January 23, 1807. He was one of the first Europeans to do so and produced precise descriptions of Islam's holy city, risking his life in the process. Badía returned to Europe after six years of absence, and when he arrived in Paris, Napoleon ordered him to go to Madrid and place himself under the command of his brother Joseph I, the new King of Spain. Badía was appointed Intendant General for the province of Segovia and later Prefect of Córdoba, but following the definitive Spanish victory, Badía and his family went into exile in France as pro-French sympathizers. There he was granted a pension and devoted himself to writing the account of his journey. Later, the French government accepted his proposal to undertake a new pilgrimage to Mecca and from there join a caravan heading for Timbuktu. But everything went wrong. This biography, one of the few written about the figure, revives the memory of the charismatic and multifaceted Domingo Badía, alias Alí Bey, and reconstructs his life and extraordinary journeys. An experience that immerses the reader in the traveler's era through his original illustrations and portraits of the characters he would encounter on his adventures.