Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Badia y Leblich, Domingo

BADIA Y LEBLICH, Domingo, a celebrated Spanish traveller, better known under his assumed name of Ali Bey, was born in Biscay in the year 1766. After receiving a liberal education he devoted particular attention to the Arabic language, and made special preparation otherwise for his Oriental travels. Under the name of Ali Bey and in Mussulman costume, he visited Egypt, Marocco, Tripoli, Arabia, and Syria, and was received as a person of high rank wherever he appeared. On his return to Europe in 1807 he declared himself a Bonapartist, and was made Intendant, first of Segovia, and afterwards of Cordova. When the French were driven from Spain, Badia was compelled to take refuge in France, and there, in 1814, published an account of his travels under the title of Voyage d'Ali Bey en Asie et en Afrique, &c., in 3 vols. 8vo. A few years later he set out again for Syria, under the assumed name of Ali Othman, and, it is said, accredited as a political agent by the French Government. He only reached Aleppo, and there died, 30th August 1818, not without suspicion of having been poisoned.