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ADVENTURER, ORIENTALIST, SPY: the remarkable story of Spanish explorer Ali Bey al-Abbassi is to be told on the silver screen for the first time, two centuries after his death.
Born in Catalonia in 1767, Domingo Badia y Leblich posed as an exiled Arab prince and became one of the first Europeans to set foot in Mecca.
Yet despite mixing with the Spanish royal family, Napoleon’s top officials and some of the most notable European intellectuals of his age, he has been all but forgotten since he died in 1818.
“It’s surprising that no film has yet been made on Ali Bey,” Moroccan filmmaker Souheil Ben Barka said during a break on set.
The Spaniard “was a seducer. No one could resist him,” he said.
With a budget of $17 million (€15 million), the veteran director’s dramatisation of the explorer’s life is set for release in five languages and 40 countries in late 2018.
Pilgrimage
After learning Arabic and serving in the Spanish army, Ali Bey was charged by Spain’s King Charles IV with overthrowing the Sultan of Morocco.
On the suggestion of Napoleon’s great diplomat and foreign minister Talleyrand, he posed as an exiled Abbasid prince, born in Syria, raised in Europe, his father persecuted by the Ottomans.
The explorer spent two years in Morocco, but he was exposed and had to flee. He set out across North Africa, posing as a Muslim on pilgrimage.
After meeting Romantic-era French writer Chateaubriand in Cairo, in 1807 he reached Mecca, some half a century before British explorer Richard Burton’s famous journey there.
‘Courageous, enterprising, cunning’
Ali Bey spent time in the Holy Land and Constantinople before heading back to Spain, where he worked for Napoleon.
But he was seen as a traitor and forced to take refuge in France.
He published a French memoir of his travels before setting off for Mecca again, apparently as a spy working for French King Louis XVIII.
He only made it as far as Syria, where he died suddenly in 1818.
Historian Christian Feucher said dysentery was probably to blame, with a remedy based on roasted rhubarb prescribed by a French doctor in Damascus having little effect.
But others believe he was poisoned by his mistress, Lady Hester Stanhope, a British aristocrat who had converted to Islam.
“She could not cope with learning that her hero was a spy, not a descendant of the caliph and the prophet as he claimed to be,” said Ben Barka.
There is little doubt, however, that Ali Bey was “courageous, enterprising, cunning and adventurous”, Feucher wrote in a 2012 book on the explorer.
“He captivated the great scholars of the time in Paris and London,” Feucher told AFP.
Yet despite his extraordinary life and mysterious death, Ali Bey has received little recognition apart from a street in Barcelona bearing his name.
Ben Barka hopes to change that with his film starring Spanish actor Rodolfo Sancho.
Writing the screenplay for his film took more than three years, he said.
Shooting started in Italy in February, but much of the film was shot in May in Morocco — in the desert dunes of Merzouga, the Roman ruins of Volubilis and the sumptuous houses of Rabat and Casablanca.
Director of seven feature-length dramas, Ben Barka has already been contacted by producers hoping to adapt the drama for television.
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18 year old boy. Sad really. He should have been back in England studying or starting in a new job, but was sent here to die to hold onto the last remnants of a dying empire.
@Seán Ó Briain: it was 1921 .Not many college or job opportunities back than other than joining the army ,I’d say .
@Seán Ó Briain:
How many brave IRA did it take to murder him?
@JayK: grow up!
@Ted Logan: Some people will never grow up.
@Sam Alexander: to be fair, it was 15,000 IRA against 42,100 British combatants. You can’t say he was out numbered.
@Sam Alexander: was that saracasm? You are actually standing up for British soldiers fighting against the Irish in our war of independence? And sneering about the IRA? What the hell is wrong with people, do you think Britain was kind to the Irish? They weren’t even kind to their own working class.
@Sam Alexander: it would only take one brave IRA member to kill a cowardly pawn from the tyrannical british regime. You will never understand the bravery and pride those great IRA members had to defeat the brits at there own game and set our beautiful little country a bright and independent future.
I praise the men that killed the brit that day without these sort of people on our amazing island we would never have got a chance to taste the sweet flavour of Irish Independence.
Hopefully our next land battle to get the north of Ireland back will be more peaceful
@Sam Alexander: “How many brave IRA did it take to murder him?”
He was a soldier killed during a war. I would say that all of the men involved in the Irish war of Independence were very brave. They were willing to give up their lives to ensure their country controlled its own affairs.
@Seán Ó Briain: he wasn’t sent here to die he was sent to kill
@You Can’t Say That: I have the upmost respect for british people, once they stay in britain and don’t try invade other countries.
If we are to unite I will have a respect for the unionist community only if the respect is shown back to the nationalist community.
@Seán Ó Briain: who controls our affairs now??
@Karen Wellington: 15,000??? nowhere near it… 5000 max… With weapons for 3000..much more than 42,000 British too.
@Raymond Power: I’ve always heard the IRA figure given as 15,000 enlisted members, I think you’re right about active combatants and weapons being around the 3,000 mark, but lets not discount the spies/informers and all the others who did their bit. The figure I gave for the British is the one I was always taught but I’ve heard 50,000 as well.
@Raymond Power: I was just about to say that. The number sticks in my head because there were only 5000 medals with comrac bars issued in 1966. My grandfather’s is one of them…
@Sam Alexander: He was an enemy combatant and not only did the guys who took him out get medals for it they would have gotten a handy pension too…
@Sherodon: yeah, me made a great stab at independence. As soon as we were ‘free’ we fought among ourselves in the civil war, we handed our independence over to the Catholic Church where we were ruled from the archbishops palace in Drumcondra rather than London. Except from a brief period in the Celtic tiger our youngest and educated left for London, Liverpool, Manchester etc to find work because there was none in independent Ireland.
We read British newspapers, watch UK TV, follow English soccer teams and our high streets are no different than any other in the UK..
I suppose the main difference we do pay more tax than those in the UK. And we now answer to Brussels rather than London..
Oh and our women fly to the UK for abortions because there is ‘no’ abortion in Ireland.
@You Can’t Say That:
If there was a war on it was a war crime to murder prisoners. One standard for the IRA and the opposing forces have to maintain squeaky clean standards.
The Unionists were right Rome Rule. The inmates of the industrial schools and mother-and-child homes reaped the benefits of the war.
@Sam Alexander: are you referring to the Third Geneva Convention? First enacted in 1929?
@Karen Wellington: best not to feed a troll, especially one this obvious.
@Sherodon: cowardly pawn ? Your evidence please? Wonder what sort of a coward you would have been in the same circumstances?
@Karen Wellington: I’d say it was 15,000 during the war but not all at the same time.
@Vigo The Carpathian: Worth remembering that by 1923 these IRA men would probably have been executed by the Free State army.
@Sam Alexander: Same amount as it took to murder Pearse, Connolly and the rest of the signatories. It was a war Sam. Bad things happen. And it wasn’t the same IRA that it was in later years. The were true freedom fighters and you should thank them men for giving you your freedom instead of making stupid comments.
@Sam Alexander: probably 1 !!
@Sam Alexander: brainwashed clown lmao
@Sherodon: The Unionists are particularly bigoted…Anti nationalist ..no respect for those that want to speak the Irish language..Anti gay marriage etc… They are caught in the past..I’m believe their own attitudes will lead to their own unravelling
@Sam Alexander: and help win the freedom that you enjoy today Muppet.
@Seán Ó Briain:
Lads, ‘Sam Alexander’ is actually a pro-Brexit Brit who rather pathetically poses as Irish to try and pretend Britain knows what they’re doing. He’s one of several.
And to answer your question Sam, it just took one brave IRA man to kill him.
Most people liked your comment because they thought it was a dark joke .
Ha ha. Cheerio. Take him away?
Let’s not try and rewrite history here for the sake of the PC Brigade, he took up arms to fight for King and Country and was killed for his troubles. I am glad to see his body has been recovered for the sake of his family but war is war. He was not an innocent victim…….
@Sean Higgins: it’s called compassion. I don’t see any rewrite of history. The kid was murdered by the IRA rest his soul.
@Palbears: but it’s not murder is it? He was an active member of an armed forced engaged in a war. It’s sad that an eighteen year old was in that situation in the first place but he wasn’t the only one, there were younger casualties on the IRA side and younger still among the civilian population.
@Palbears: You don’t see any rewrite of history, but then go on to describe his death as murder ? He was a combatant in a war.
@Tommy Roche: captured and executed by an illegal organisation sounds like murder to me. Buy hey. Whatever you say. Right.
@Sean Higgins: if he surrendered and was killed then he is a victim and those that killed him are war criminals
@SFLounyTouny: which war crime specifically?
@Karen Wellington: 3rd Geneva Convention Article 3
Article 3 has been called a “Convention in miniature.” It is the only article of the Geneva Conventions that applies in non-international conflicts.[1] It describes minimal protections which must be adhered to by all individuals within a signatory’s territory during an armed conflict not of an international character (regardless of citizenship or lack thereof): Non-combatants, members of armed forces who have laid down their arms, and combatants who are hors de combat (out of the fight) due to wounds, detention, or any other cause shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, including prohibition of outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment. The passing of sentences must also be pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognised as indispensable by civilised peoples. Article 3′s protections exist even if one is not classified as a prisoner of war. Article 3 also states that parties to the internal conflict should endeavour to bring into force, by means of special agreements, all or part of the other provisions of GCIII.
@Karen Wellington: plus just basic human decency not to kill a person who has surrendered…funny how when the ‘Brits’ do it it is called murder and war crime, but when the IRA (old or new) does it it is not.
@Palbears: you can’t murder a soldier. Otherwise all soldiers in wars would be ‘murderers’…isn’t that not the way it goes?
@SFLounyTouny: Third Geneva Convention wasn’t enacted until 1929, but *good effort*. Are you familiar with the work of the Black & Tans? No one is claiming that war is s beautiful thing, but the army and soldiers of all people know exactly what they’re getting into.
@Palbears:
murdered by the IRA? How many of my fellow Irish men, women and children were murdered by the British Army for not speaking English
@Karen Wellington: yes Black and Tans were vile murderous thugs, but dont kid yourself that the IRA werent just as bad.
@SFLounyTouny: it was a war, what did you want hugs & kisses?
You’re technically wrong in your assessment of events but entitled to you opinions, though your research skills need work and you do seem to comment without any information or knowledge of the topic, so there’s little point in engaging with you further.
@Karen Wellington: There were thousands of young men (teenagers) killed during WW1 and little thought of them in this country apart from the work of CWGC who have maintained their graves down through the years. It is not for us to judge but most of them would have had families of loved ones left to grieve. I never realised until recently that some of my own gr. uncles died in the trenches and were never identified and have no graves, just names on a list somewhere. God help them rip.
@Chris Kirk: ok…..Why are you addressing that to me? What does it have to do with any one of my comments?
@Karen Wellington: do you hear yourself…you think it is ok to shoot a teenage soldier who has surrendered? Regardless of the convention being in place or not, it is a vile and murderous thing to do. But hey you be happy.
@Karen Wellington: No particular reason Karen other than I was following on with your conversation.
@SFLounyTouny: whose comment are you misreading as mine? I didn’t take delight in any death on either side, I’m just trying to get across to that there is a difference between murder and fatalities sustained in an armed conflict. You can believe that it’s murder but the international community would disagree with you.
Someone signed up to and getting paid by the British army was aware of the risks when deployed to an armed engagement. The 35 people shot (4 deaths, 26 casualties) on Bachelor’s Walk in 1914 did not sign up (or get paid), at what point do you think it would have been acceptable for the Irish people to defend themselves?
@Chris Kirk: fair enough so.
Irish troops in the British Army were treated quite harshly. They were two per cent of the of the force, but they received eight per cent (271) of all death sentences imposed by its courts-martial. 26 have since been retroactively pardoned. But they are doing a better job of showing their gratitude to those soldiers these days.
The Irish National War Memorial Gardens commemorates the near 50,000 Irish soldiers who died fighting (for both sides) during WW1. It’s a nice place to visit, particularly if you get the weather.
@SFLounyTouny: Did you ever hear of kevin Barry. I can’t understand the stupidity of some people. Spouting rubbish just to be seen as P.C. The British were the most vile murderous nation in history. They invaded countless nations with extreme brutality but god forbid us irish would defend ourselves against them. You should be ashamed of yourself.
@SFLounyTouny: And for the record it didn’t say he surrendered. It said he was captured.
@Palbears: They were not an illegal organisation in 1921. Except to the British that is.
@Palbears: He was a British solider! Legitimate target! Next thing you will say is that the UK RAF planes ‘murdered’ ISIS fighters in Syria. Crazy P.C. stuff!
@Palbears: yes .. and it was war.. killed in the line of duty..
@Palbears: you stupid cnt. British army were illegally in ireland
@Karen Wellington: execution of a captured enemy combatant is a war crime.
@Dermot Lane: since 1929, we’ve covered this.
Only fit and proper
Hard to believe we are so close to such a huge piece of our history. He was only a kid at 18 too.
@Cheryl Mellett: kids 14 years old and 6 journalists clearly marked shot dead today in Gaza. All unarmed. Hope history is kind to their memories. Israel is calling the murder victims terrorists and comparing their deaths to those of Nazi soldiers. Its getting worse instead of better.
@Cal Mooney: It’s a scary world we live in. At times I wonder how much the human race has even evolved between child soldiers and child bride’s, suicide bombers being hailed as hero’s to victims of rape being sentenced to death. The daily news is like a bad movie….life imitating art.
As a German soldier would have no business killing and oppressing people in England nor did this soldiers government have any business sending him to kill and oppress in Ireland. Every life lost in war is sad but Ireland was fighting for its freedom not to oppress another country.
@Mentis Green: Also not that long ago british soldiers still in the 6 counties murdered six innocent unarmed 17 year old kids protesting for their civil rights during their second bloody sunday.
@Mentis Green: Correct!
@Mentis Green:
Yes we were fighting for our so called freedom..
What we got was a crowd of gangsters in power and mass immigration..i was one of thousands that HAD to immigrate
..cos work didnt exist .unless of course you spoke irish ..
Freedom my ass…
@Larry Whelan: would you rather be in Afghanistan or Iraq fighting for the British Larry? The men that fought for freedom had nothing to do with what followed.
Good to see. At 18 he was only a child. Rip. I say this as a descendent of people who fought for our freedom.
He was an enemy combatant in a war that formed our nation. He deserves a proper respectable military funeral. It would be a lot better than the lime-pit that his commanders placed our 1916 leaders in when they were executed.
Irish people often sing “The Green Fields of France”….this song also relates to this poor young man. Its not a rebel song, its a song of loss and death.
Regardless of their side, young men, women and kids die in war.
Only the dead have seen the end of war.
How was his burial site identified? Just wondering.
Isi’n't amazing all the same folks, how many people’s have been trodden under foot all through history in order too keep some inbreds fat arse sitting on a decorated sate.
He was an enemy combatant of the war that defined our nation. He deserves a dignified military funeral. Something that wasn’t given to our executed leaders of 1916. This young soldiers commanders felt that a hurried burial in a lime-pit was more fitting.
Don’t poison my boys
as we were poisoned
with dreams of freedoms
that never occur.
Heroes puddled in blood.
Monuments, graves to visit,
murals to the dead.
The notion that they
can gain by sacrificing
themselves for a nation,
as if any scrap of ground
is worth their beautiful lives.
He was an enemy combatant in a war that was pivotal in our country’s history. He deserves a dignified military funeral. It’s more than the lime pit that our leaders got in 1916!
I cant ever understand why they could leave his body on the side of the road.
Then it could be returned to his family
@Ned O Mahony: Probably because there were just to many to send home for burial, so instead they were buried in a convenient graveyard close to where they died. I imagine that if they bought home every soldier who died in Flanders there would have been riots to stop the war and polliticians would not have liked that.
@Ned O Mahony: The process of returning the dead to their homeland is post WWII. Before this is wasnt logistically possible.
@Jonathan Morgan: You only have to look at the national response to American war dead from Vietnam, being brought home in body bags to see how unpopular the war was with people. War would be fine if people didn’t get killed.
I’m sure we all know others who got caught up in the emotional spirit of the Time. War is just horrible, a poem I read: ‘ Who made my enemy’ .
have your say