Domingo Francisco Jorge Badía y Leblich; 1767–1818), better known by his pseudonym Ali Bey el Abbassi[4] (Arabic: علي باي العباسي, Alī Bay al-Abasī), was a Spanish explorer, soldier, and spy in the early 19th century.

He supported the French occupation of Spain and worked for the Bonapartist administration, but he is principally known for his travels in North Africa and the Middle East.

[citation needed][n 1] After receiving a liberal education, he devoted particular attention to the Arabic language,[5] which he learned in Vera, Almería, where his father was a military accountant, and in London.

Under the assumed name of Ali Bey el Abbassi, Badía spent the two years from 1803 to 1805 in Morocco, entertained by its king while pretending to be a descendant of the Abbasid caliphs.

Bankes, writing in 1830, roundly asserted that he was a Jew, and many later writers have thought that he was a genuine Muslim of Moroccan origin but of Spanish education.