As part of Sharjah's activities as guest of honor at the 37th edition of Libre International Book Fair - Madrid 2019, the Sharjah Book Authority organized a panel discussion at «Arab House», entitled «Spanish travelers in the Arab countries», during which the UAE academic Dr. Hamad bin Saray, and the Spanish researcher Fernando Rodriguez Mediano, managed by Emirati poet Sheikha Al Mutairi.
Bin Saray started the session by introducing the Spanish travelers he reached during his research, pointing out that he still believed that many Spaniards had traveled in the Arab region, but he was able to find only three of them, namely, Adolfo Rivadinera, Benjamin Tattili and Dominico Badia.
On the impact of these travelers on the Arab countries, bin Saray said: «The East became the focus of the ambitions of Western colonial powers; because some travelers presented inaccurate images of the Arab countries, and described it as underdeveloped and colonial and exploitation, as did the traveler Domingo Badia, who is close to Sultan Morocco, and tried to convince him to accept Spanish tutelage on Moroccan territory ».
While the Spanish researcher Fernando addressed the different intentions of the Spanish traveler in the Arab countries, he said: «We have two contradictory models of travelers, in terms of goals and intentions, there is the famous traveler Lawrence of Arabia, who arrived in the hearts of people sincerity and love for them, and was able to affect the conscience of the Arabs and their culture, and in In contrast, the traveler Domingo Badia, who moved to Morocco after the Napoleon campaign against Egypt, which is the beginning of the era of Orientalism and Western ambitions in the Arab countries, as Badia began dreaming of the invasion of Morocco and North Africa and control of the Arabs ».