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Domingo Badía
Domingo Badía y Leblich | |
|---|---|
 Engraving of Domingo Badía dressed as Alí Bey | |
| Born | Domingo Francisco Jorge Badía y Leblich |
| Died | |
| Notable work | Viajes de Ali Bey |
| Spouse | María Luisa Burruezo y Campoy |
| Children | María de la Asunción Badía Burruezo |
| Parent(s) | Pedro Badía and Catalina Leblich |
Domingo Francisco Jorge Badía y Leblich (Barcelona, April 1, 1767 – Damascus, August 30, 1818) was a Spanish military officer, spy, Arabist and adventurer, also known as Alí Bey or Alí Bey el-Abbassi.
Biography
He was the son of Pedro Badía and Catherine Leblich, a native of Wavre (Belgium). He had a sister named Gregoria María del Carmen, wife of Antonio del Rosal y Henríquez de Luna.
In 1778 he moved to Cuevas de Almanzora (Almería) because of his father's appointment as war accountant and Treasurer of the judicial district of Vera. There he began to take an interest in the Muslim world. In 1791 he married María Luisa Burruezo y Campoy, and they had a daughter named María de la Asunción. In 1792 he moved, together with his wife Mariquita, to Córdoba to take up his post as administrator of tobacco revenues. In Córdoba he studied Arabic and became interested in the aerostat. This led him to bankruptcy, so in 1793 he decided to leave for the court together with his whole family.
In 1803, commissioned by Manuel Godoy (first minister of Charles IV), he undertook a long journey through Muslim territories, traveling disguised as a Syrian Muslim Prince descended from the Abbasids, educated in Europe, under the name of Alí Bey el-Abbasí. His travels took him to Morocco, Algeria, Libya and various regions of the Ottoman Empire (Egypt, Arabia, Syria, Turkey and Greece), visiting regions where no Westerner had ever been before, and even the Greek island of Patmos, where Saint John wrote the Apocalypse. He made this journey as a spy in Godoy's pay, with the aim of winning the trust of Mulay Sulayman and convincing him to accept Spain as a protector against his enemies and, failing that, to contact those enemies and push them into a civil war so that Spain could then invade them.[1]
In 1808, after having had a conversation with Charles IV and encouraged by the dethroned King, on May 10 he presented himself to Napoleon Bonaparte to offer him his services. Napoleon, after initially distrusting him, sent him with a letter of recommendation to his brother Joseph, who occupied the throne of Spain as Joseph I.
On April 5, 1810, he was appointed Mayor of Córdoba by Joseph I, where he introduced the cultivation of cotton, sugar beet and the potato. He authorized the creation of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Fine Letters and Noble Arts of Córdoba. He held this office for 15 months, until July 14, 1811.
Around 1812–1813, after Napoleon's defeat in Spain and the fall of Joseph Bonaparte, he went into exile in France.
In 1814 his work Voyages d'Ali Bey en Afrique et en Asie was published in France in two volumes, recounting his travels through the Arab world between 1803 and 1807; it soon spread throughout Europe, with editions in England and Germany.
In 1818, after changing his former name to Ĥãŷŷ 'Ali Abu 'Uțmãn, he set out for Damascus. He left Paris under the name of Alí-Othman but was discovered by the British secret services, who poisoned him in Damascus. Invited to a meal by a pasha in the pay of the British, he drank his last cup of coffee.
A man of broad culture, he left behind the written account of his travels mentioned above, with magnificent drawings, translated as Viajes en Marruecos, Trípoli, Chipre, Arabia, Siria y Turquía (Travels in Morocco, Tripoli, Cyprus, Arabia, Syria and Turkey), in which, along with detailed descriptions of the cities he visited, he set down his observations on geography, botany, zoology, entomology, geology and meteorology. One of the most notable episodes of his journey is the pilgrimage to Mecca, making him probably the first non-Muslim Spaniard to set foot in these regions and to enter the sanctuary of the Kaaba. The first non-Muslim European to enter Mecca was the Italian Ludovico de Verthema in 1503, and a few years later the Portuguese Pedro da Covilhã would enter that sacred place. But to Domingo Badía is owed the first determination of its geographical position and the drawings of the temples, as acknowledged by the English explorer Richard Francis Burton.
His travels were read throughout Europe and fostered curiosity about Islamic culture. He was admired, albeit with certain reservations, by Francis Burton, who accomplished a similar feat, and by Alexander von Humboldt.
A street in Barcelona has been named calle Ali Bei in his memory.
See also
References
- ↑ "Crónicas sarracinas" Juan Goytisolo, 1989 ed. Alfaguara (originally published by ed. Ruedo Ibérico in 1981)
Bibliography
- Alí-Bey, Viajes por Marruecos, Ed. by Salvador Barberá, Ediciones B, Barcelona, 1997.
- Domingo Badia "Ali Bey", Viajes de Ali Bey, Ed. Optima, Barcelona, 2001.
- Peregrino a la Meca, Ed. Javier Rodríguez, Ediciones Jaguar, Madrid M-44253-1998.
- Joan Mercader, Domènec Badia, Ali-Bey, Rafael Dalmau Editor, Barcelona, D.L.- B-21710-1960, 1960.
- Los mensajes del Corán. Gerardo Muñoz Lorente. Editorial Club Universitario, 2001 – 187 pages
- Annual 1921: el desastre de España en el Rif. Manuel Leguineche. Alfaguara, 1996 – 387 pages
- Alí Bei: un pelegrí català per terres de l'Islam: [catàleg]. [Compilation and coordination of the articles: Alberto López]. Barcelona: Proa, 1996. ISBN 8482563092
- Badia, Domènec, "Alí Bei". Viatges d'Alí Bei. Complete ed. with all the journeys, plates and maps made by the author himself. Barcelona: Llibres de l'Índex, 2004. ISBN 8495317796
- Madrid del Cacho, Manuel. Un Barcelonés Prefecto de Córdoba con José Bonaparte: Domingo Badia (Alí Bey). Tipografía Artística, Córdoba, 1972.
External links
- Bibliography in the Semanario Pintoresco Español, March 5, 1839 [dead link]
- Viajes de Ali Bey el Abbassi (Don Domingo Badía y Leblich) por Africa y Asia durante los años 1803, 1804, 1805, 1806 y 1807, Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3, 1836, Valencia.
- De diplomático español a príncipe sirio (in Spanish)
- Alí Bey, un español en La Meca, audio documentary by Radio Nacional de España.
- «El primer ensayo científico de aerostación en España», Juan Pérez de Guzmán. La España Moderna, July 1910, pp. 61 ff.
- Victor Balaguer. Las calles de Barcelona. Barcelona: Establecimiento Tipográfico Editorial de Salvador Manero, 1865. Vol. 1 pp. 36–49, vol. 2 pp. 651–737. [1]
