Domingo Badía y Leblich aka Ali Bey el Abbassi: a Godoy's spy in Morocco (1803-1805)

Abstract

The documentation on the spy traveller Domingo Badía y Leblich aka Ali Bey el Abbassi plunges us into the complicated ramifications of the Spanish intelligence services at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Under the guise of a scientific research voyage and supported by Godoy, Domingo Badía y Leblich will carry out his espionage mission in Morocco from 1803 to 1805. Thanks to a Muslim costume, he will manage to attain the top of the society alongside the greatest of the Sultanate and infiltrate into the deepest of power in order to retake inestimable political and scientific information. This initiation into the world of espionage will apparently transform him into a real professional spy.