[Domingo Francisco Jorge Badía y Leblich]. THE TRAVELS OF ALI BEY, IN MOROCCO, TRIPOLI, CYPRUS, EGYPT, ARABIA, SYRIA, AND TURKEY, BETWEEN THE YEARS 1803 AND 1807. 2 vols. (complete). Philadelphia: M. Carey, 1816. Stated first American edition. Tree calf, re-backed with gilt ruling and gilt-titled red labels on spine, with fresh endpapers. 8vo; [2], [i]-xvi, [17]-402pp.; [i-iii], iv-vi, [vii-viii], [9]-388pp. With all (9) engraved plates, including large folding map.

8 3/4 x 5 1/2 in.

Domingo Francisco Jorge Badía y Leblich (1767-1818), known by his pseudonym Ali Bey el Abbassi, traveled under disguise through the Middle East and beyond. He first published his account of his travels in French in 1814. The first English and American editions were both published in 1816. This first American edition is extremely scarce.

Boards with rubbed corners, edgewear, small chips, a couple of small repairs, and expected dry-cracking to leather, light rubbing to gilt on spines; grime on paste-downs and rectos of first free endpapers with the rest of the endpapers near pristine; all plates present but some bound out of order, all with library blind stamps, all intact but with damp staining, grime, repairs, offsetting, and/or fraying; titles with small repair and writing at upper margin; occasional library stamp; pages toned and foxed with spotting occasionally quite dark in both volumes, with occasional offsetting, light grime, and edge chip or tear, vol. I has (2) leaves with top corner trimmed not impacting text and fairly frequent damp staining; small area of insect damage to some corners in vol. II; a good, well-bound set though age-worn, with all plates as listed.