Travels of Ali Bey in Morocco, Tripoli, Cyprus, Egypt, Arabia, Syria, and Turkey, between the years 1803 and 1807.

£8,500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

An essential book on Mecca, all the more important for being the first European account of the city under Wahhabi rule. The author of this work was a Spaniard by the name of Domingo Badia y Leblich, who adopted the pseudonym of ‘Ali Bey before setting off for Arabia. Equipped with exceptional spoken Arabic, a deep knowledge of Islam and a revised backstory — which painted him as a descendant of the Abbasid Caliphs — he gained access to Mecca. After Varthema and Pitts, he became the third European to do so and contributed an account far exceeding those of his forebears in sympathy and tolerance. He came upon the first dwellings of the Holy City in late January 1807, arriving roughly a week before the Hajj of 1221 AH. Having withstood the scrutiny of the Sharif of Mecca he was allowed access to the Great Mosque, where he saw the Ka’aba for the first time: “We had already traversed the portal or gallery, and were upon the point of entering the great space where the house of God, or El Kaaba, is situated, when our guide arrested our steps, and pointing with his finger towards it, said with emphasis, ‘Schouf, Schouf, el beit Allah el Haram!’ (Look, look, the house of God, the Prohibited!) The crowd that surrounded me; the portico of columns half hid from view; the immense size of the temple; the Kaaba, or house of God, covered with the black cloth from top to bottom, and surrounded with a circle of lamps or lanterns; the hour; the silence of the night; and this man speaking in a s

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