[Domingo Badia y Leblich]

Travels of Ali Bey in Morocco, Tripoli, Cyprus, Egypt, Arabia, Syria, and Turkey, between the years 1803 and 1807. Written by himself. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1816

FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, 2 volumes, 4to (267 x 205mm.), engraved frontispiece portrait, 4 folding engraved maps (of Morocco, Northern Africa, the eastern Mediterranean, and the Red Sea), engraved Arabic text on p.1, and 86 plates (including letterpress sheet of Greek printing in vol.1 between pp. 304-305), some double-page or folding, contemporary half calf, marbled boards, flat spines gilt, without half-titles and advertisement leaf, some foxing and browning, minor tears to maps (some repaired), spines slightly worn with loss from upper section of spine of volume 1, bindings rather rubbed and bumped, covers loose

The first English edition of Badia y Leblꩵich's account of his travels across the Muslim world, from Morocco to Mecca, disguised as an a Arab called Ali Bey el Abbassi. His disguise (he was even circumcised) enabled him to access places forbidden to non-believers, including Mecca, though his real identity was suspected by the time he reached Constantinople. His expedition was supported by the Spanish authorities, to whom he made reports on his travels.

LITERATURE:

Blackmer 62; Cobham-Jeffery, p.1; Tobler, p.14✨0; Rohricht 1607