Pirates have chosen the Mediterranean Sea since time immemorial. Even Dionysus once became their captive, according to ancient Greek myths: having turned into a lion, he then tore his captors to pieces (with the exception of the helmsman, who recognized him as a god). According to another legend, the famous poet Arion was thrown overboard (but saved by a dolphin) by sea robbers, about whom Ovid will write about 700 years later: "What sea, what land of Arion does not know?" In the city of Tarentum, from where the poet set off, a coin was issued with the image of a human figure sitting on a dolphin.
In the 1st century BC. the pirates of the Mediterranean were so numerous and so well organized that they had the opportunity to put on their ships a significant part of the army of Spartacus besieged by the troops of Crassus (most likely, the leader of the rebels wanted to land troops behind enemy lines, and not evacuate the army to Sicily).
Gaius Julius Caesar himself was captured by the pirates, and Gnaeus Pompey inflicted a number of defeats on the pirates, but did not completely eradicate this "trade".
Barbarian Coast
The northwest coast of Africa (often called the "Barbary coast" by Europeans) was no exception in the Middle Ages. The main pirate bases here were Algeria, Tripoli and Tunisia.
However, Muslim pirates of the Maghreb are much less "promoted" than filibusters (corsairs operating in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico), although their "exploits" and "achievements" are no less striking, and in many ways they even surpassed their Caribbean "colleagues".
The fantastic careers of some of the Maghreb pirates, who received a significant part of their income from the slave trade, cannot fail to surprise.
When they talk about the slave trade, Black Africa and the famous slave ships sailing from its shores to America are immediately remembered.
However, at the same time in North Africa, white Europeans were sold like cattle. Modern researchers believe that from the 16th to the 19th centuries. more than a million Christians were sold in the slave markets of Constantinople, Algeria, Tunisia, Tripoli, Sale and other cities. Recall that Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (from 1575 to 1580) also spent 5 years in Algerian captivity.
But to this million unfortunate people must be added hundreds of thousands of Slavs sold in the markets of Kafa by the Crimean Tatars.
After the Arab conquest, the Maghreb ("where the sunset" - the countries to the west of Egypt, in Arabic now only Morocco is called so) became a frontier where the interests of the world of Islam and the Christian world collided. And pirate raids, attacks on merchant ships, mutual raids on coastal settlements became commonplace. In the future, the degree of confrontation only increased.
The balance of power on the Mediterranean chessboard
Piracy and the slave trade were the traditional trades of all kinds of Barbary states in the Maghreb. But on their own, of course, they could not oppose the Christian states of Europe. Help came from the East - from the rapidly gaining strength of the Ottoman Turks, which wanted to completely own the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Her sultans viewed the Barbary pirates as a useful tool in the big geopolitical game.
On the other hand, the young and aggressive Castile and Aragon showed an increasing interest in North Africa. These Catholic kingdoms will soon conclude a union that marked the beginning of the formation of a unified Spain. This confrontation between the Spaniards and the Ottomans reached its peak after the Spanish king Carlos I received the crown of the Holy Roman Empire (becoming Emperor Charles V): the forces and resources that were in his hands were now such that he could throw huge squadrons into battle and army. For a short time, it was possible to seize the pirate ports and fortresses on the Maghreb coast, but their strength was no longer enough.
However, the strengthening of Charles V frightened the French: King Francis I was even ready for an alliance with the Ottomans, just to weaken the hated emperor - and such an alliance was concluded in February 1536.
The Venetian and Genoese republics were at enmity with the Ottomans for the trade routes, which, however, did not prevent them from regularly fighting with each other: the Venetians fought with the Turks 8 times, with the Genoese - 5.
The traditional and implacable enemy of Muslims in the Mediterranean were the knights of the Order of the Hospitallers, who, having left Palestine, fought stubbornly first in Cyprus (from 1291 to 1306) and Rhodes (from 1308 to 1522), and then (from 1530) entrenched in Malta. The Portuguese Hospitallers fought mainly with the Moors of North Africa, the main enemies of the Hospitallers of Rhodes were Mameluk Egypt and Ottoman Turkey, and in the Maltese period - the Ottomans and pirates of the Maghreb.
Expansion of Castile, Aragon and Portugal
As early as 1291, Castile and Aragon agreed to divide the Maghreb into "zones of influence", the border between which was to be the Muluya River. The territory to the west of it (modern Morocco) was claimed by Castile, the lands of the modern states of Algeria and Tunisia "went" to Aragon.
The Aragonese acted persistently and purposefully: having consistently subdued Sicily, Sardinia, and then the Kingdom of Naples, they received powerful bases for influencing Tunisia and Algeria. Castile was not up to Morocco - its kings completed the Reconquista and finished off the Granada Emirate. Instead of the Castilians, the Portuguese came to Morocco, who captured Ceuta in August 1415 (the Hospitallers were their allies then), and in 1455-1458. - five more Moroccan cities. At the beginning of the 16th century, they founded the cities of Agadir and Mazagan on the Atlantic coast of North Africa.
In 1479, after the wedding of Isabella and Ferdinand, the aforementioned union was concluded between the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon. In 1492 Granada fell. Now one of the main goals of the Catholic kings and their heirs was the desire to move the border line in order to exclude the very possibility of an attack by the Muslims of the Maghreb on Spain, and the fight against the Barbary pirates, who sometimes inflicted very painful blows along the coast (these raids, mainly aimed at the capture of captives, the Arabs called "razzies").
The first fortified city of the Spaniards in North Africa was Santa Cruz de Mar Pekenya. In 1497 the Moroccan port of Melilla was captured, in 1507 - Badis.
Pope Alexander VI in two bulls (from 1494 and 1495) called on all Christians in Europe to support the Catholic kings in their "crusade." Treaties were concluded with the Portuguese in 1480 and 1509.
Ottoman offensive
The large-scale expansion of the Ottomans in the western Mediterranean began after Sultan Selim I Yavuz (Terrible) stood at the head of their empire and continued under his son, Suleiman Qanuni (Legislator), who became probably the most powerful ruler of this empire. In Europe, he is better known as Suleiman the Magnificent, or the Great Turk.
In 1516 Selim I started a war against Mameluk Egypt, in 1517 Alexandria and Cairo were captured. In 1522 the new sultan, Suleiman, decided to put an end to the Hospitallers of Rhodes. Mustafa Pasha (who was later replaced by Ahmed Pasha) was appointed commander-in-chief of the Ottoman port forces. Kurdoglu Muslim-ad-Din - a very famous and authoritative corsair and privateer, whose base was previously Bizerta, went with him. By this time, he had already accepted the offer to go to the Turkish service and received the title of "Reis" (usually this word was called the Ottoman admirals, translated from Arabic it means "head", chief "). The famous Khair ad-Din Barbarossa, which will be described a little later, also sent part of his ships. In total, 400 ships with soldiers on board approached Rhodes.
In December of that year, the desperately resisting Hospitallers were forced to surrender. On January 1, 1523, the surviving 180 members of the order, led by Master Villiers de l'Il-Adam, and another 4 thousand people left Rhodes. Kurdoglu Reis became the sandjakbey of this island.
Knights of Malta
But on March 24, 1530, the Hospitallers returned to the arena of the great war: Emperor Charles V of Habsburg gave them the islands of Malta and Gozo in exchange for recognizing themselves as vassals of the Kingdom of Spain and the Two Sicilies, the obligation to defend the city of Tripoli in North Africa and the annual "tribute" in the form of a hunting falcon.
The Maltese took part in the famous naval battle at Lepanto (1571), in the first half of the 17th century they themselves won 18 naval victories off the coast of Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco. These knights did not disdain piracy (corsa, hence - "corsairs"), seizing other people's ships and raiding the lands of Muslims.
But the opponents of Christians had their own heroes.
Great pirates and admirals of the Maghreb
In the early 16th century, the stars of the two great pirate admirals of the Islamic Maghreb rose. They were the brothers Aruj and Khizir, natives of the island of Lesbos, in whom there was more Greek blood than Turkish or Albanian. They are both known by the nickname "Barbarossa" (red-bearded), but there is good reason to believe that only Khizira was nicknamed by the Christians. And everyone called his older brother Baba Uruj (Papa Uruj).
Papa Urouge
The first to become famous was Uruj, who at the age of 16 volunteered on an Ottoman warship. At the age of 20, he was captured by the Hospitallers and was brought by them to Rhodes, but managed to escape. After that, he decided not to bind himself to the conventions of military discipline, preferring to the Turks' naval service the hard lot of a free hunter - a pirate. Having rebelled the crew of "his" ship, Urouge became its captain. He set up his base on the now widely known "tourist" island of Djerba, which the emir of Tunisia "leased" to him in exchange for 20% of the captured booty (later Aruj managed to reduce the "commission" to 10%). In 1504, Urouge, commanding a small galiot, took turns one after the other, captured two battle galleys of Pope Julius II, which made him a hero of the entire coast. And in 1505, he somehow managed to capture a Spanish ship carrying 500 soldiers - all of them were sold in slave markets. This prompted the Spanish authorities to organize a naval expedition, which managed to capture the fortress of Mers el-Kebir near Oran - but that was the end of the Spanish successes. Only in 1509, the Spaniards managed to capture Oran, and then, in 1510 - the port of Bougia and Tripoli, but were defeated on the island of Djerba. It was during an attempt to free Bougia, in 1514, that Urouge lost his arm, but some skillful craftsman made a silver prosthesis for him, in which there were many moving parts, and Urouge continued to harass opponents with endless raids. Next to him were his brothers - Iskhak, who would die in battle in 1515, and Khizir, whose loud glory was still ahead.
In 1516, Uruj came to the aid of the ruler of Mauritania, Sheikh Selim at-Tumi: it was required to seize the Peñon fortress built by the Spaniards. It was not possible to take it then - the task was only within the power of his younger brother Khair ad-Din. But Urouge decided that he himself would be a good emir. He drowned an overly trusting ally in the pool, then executed those who expressed indignation about this - only 22 people. Having proclaimed himself Emir of Algeria, Uruj prudently recognized the authority of the Ottoman Sultan Selim I.
After that, on September 30, 1516, he, feigning retreat, defeated a significant Spanish corps under the command of Diego de Vera - the Spaniards lost three thousand soldiers killed and wounded, about 400 people were captured.
In 1517, Urouge intervened in the internecine war that engulfed Tlemcen. Having defeated the army of the main contender - Mulei-bin-Hamid, he proclaimed Mulai-bu-Zain as sultan, but after a few days he hanged himself and his seven children on their own turbans. In May 1518, when the troops of Mulei ben Hamid, supported by the Spaniards, approached Tlemcen, an uprising broke out in the city. Urouj fled to Algeria, but his detachment was overtaken by the Salado River. Uruj himself had already crossed to the other side, but returned to his comrades-in-arms and died with them in an unequal battle. His head was sent to Spain as a valuable trophy.
In the 20th century in Turkey, the submarine class “Aruj Rais” was named after this pirate.
The Spaniards did not rejoice for long, because Uruj's younger brother Khizir (more often called Khair ad-Din) was alive and well. His friend, by the way, was the already mentioned Kurdoglu Reis, who even named one of his sons after him - he gave him the name Khizir.
Khair ad-Din Barbarossa
Brother Uruja immediately proclaimed himself a vassal of Turkey as Sultan of Algeria, and Selim I recognized him as such, appointed him a beylerbey, but, just in case, sent two thousand janissaries - both to help in battles with the "infidels" and to control: so that this young, and the early corsair, in fact, did not feel too independent.
In 1518, a storm helped Barbarossa protect Algeria from a Spanish squadron under the command of the Viceroy of Sicily, Hugo de Moncada: after 26 enemy ships sank (on board which killed about 4 thousand soldiers and sailors), he attacked the remnants of the Spanish fleet, almost completely destroying it. After that Khair ad-Din not only conquered Tlemcen, but also occupied a number of other cities along the North African coast. It was under Barbarossa that shipyards and foundries appeared in Algeria, and up to 7 thousand Christian slaves took part in strengthening it.
The confidence of the Sultan Barbarossa was fully justified. In fact, he was not just a pirate, but an admiral of the "private" ("privateer") fleet, acting in the interests of the Ottoman Empire. Dozens of ships took part in sea voyages under his command (only in his "personal fleet" the number of ships reached 36): these were no longer raids, but serious military operations. Soon Khizir - Khair ad-Din surpassed his older brother. In his subordination were such authoritative captains as Turgut (in some sources - Dragut, about him will be discussed in the next article), a certain Sinan, nicknamed the "Jew from Smyrna" (to "persuade" the governor of Elbe to release him from captivity, Barbarossa in 1544 ruined the entire island) and Aydin Reis, who had the eloquent nickname "Devil Breaker" (Kakha Diabolo ").
In 1529, Aydin Reis and a certain Salih led a squadron of 14 Galiots: having ravaged Mallorca and striking the shores of Spain, on the way back they boarded 7 of the 8 Genoese galleys of Admiral Portunado. And at the same time, several dozen rich Moriscos were "evacuated" to Algeria, who wished to get rid of the power of the Spanish kings.
In the same year, Barbarossa finally managed to capture the Spanish fortress on the island of Peñon, which was blocking the harbor of Algeria, and 2 weeks after its fall, he defeated the approaching Spanish squadron in which there were many transport ships with supplies, about 2,500 sailors and soldiers were taken prisoner. After that, for 2 years, Christian slaves built a grandiose protective stone pier, which connected this island with the mainland: now Algeria has become a full-fledged base for pirate squadrons of the Maghreb (before that, they had to drag their ships to the harbor of Algeria).
In 1530, Barbarossa once again surprised everyone: having ravaged the coasts of Sicily, Sardinia, Provence and Liguria, he remained for the winter in the captured castle of Cabrera on one of the Balearic Islands.
Returning to Algeria, the following year, he defeated the Maltese squadron and devastated the shores of Spain, Calabria and Apulia.
In 1533, Barbarossa, at the head of a squadron of 60 ships, sacked the Calabrian cities of Reggio and Fondi.
In August 1534, Khair ad-Din's squadron, supported by the Janissaries, captured Tunisia. This also threatened the Sicilian possessions of Charles V, who instructed the Genoese admiral Andrea Doria, who had passed into the service of the empire in 1528, to knock out the invaders. Doria had already had a good fight with the Turks: in 1532 he captured Patras and Lepanto, in 1533 he defeated the Turkish fleet at Corona, but he had not yet met Barbarossa in battle.
Funding for this grandiose expedition was carried out at the expense of funds received from Francisco Pizarro, who conquered Peru. And Pope Paul III forced Francis I to promise to refrain from war with the Habsburgs.
The forces were clearly unequal and in June 1535 Barbarossa was forced to flee Tunisia to Algeria. The new ruler of Tunisia, Mulei-Hassan, recognized himself as a vassal of Charles V and promised to pay tribute.
Barbarossa responded with an attack on the island of Minorca, where a Portuguese galleon returning from America was captured and 6 thousand people were taken prisoner: he presented these slaves to Sultan Suleiman, who, in response, appointed Khair ad-Din the commander-in-chief of the empire's fleet and the "emir of emirs" of Africa …
In 1535, King Carlos I of Spain (aka the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V) sent a whole fleet against Barbarossa under the command of the Genoese admiral Andrea Doria.
Andrea Doria managed to win in several battles, near the island of Paxos, he defeated the squadron of the governor of Gallipoli, capturing 12 galleys. In this battle, he was wounded in the leg, and Barbarossa, meanwhile, acting as an ally of France, captured the port of Bizerte in Tunisia: this Turkish naval base now threatened the security of Venice and Naples. Many islands of the Ionian and Aegean Seas, which belonged to the Republic of Venice, also fell under the blows of the “emir of the emirs”. Only Corfu managed to resist.
And on September 28, 1538, Khair ad-Din Barbarossa, having at his disposal 122 ships, attacked the fleet of the Holy League assembled by Pope Paul III (156 warships - 36 papal, 61 Genoese, 50 Portuguese and 10 Maltese) and defeated it: he sank 3, burned 10 and captured 36 enemy ships. About 3 thousand European soldiers and sailors were captured. Thanks to this victory, Barbarossa actually became the master of the Mediterranean Sea for three years.
In 1540, Venice withdrew from the war, giving the Ottoman Empire the islands of the Ionian and Aegean Seas, Morea and Dalmatia, as well as paying an indemnity in the amount of 300 thousand gold ducats.
Only in 1541, Emperor Charles managed to assemble a new fleet of 500 ships, which he entrusted to the Duke of Alba to lead. Together with the Duke were Admiral Doria and the notorious Hernan Cortes, the Marquis del Valle Oaxaca, who returned to Europe from Mexico just a year ago.
On October 23, as soon as the troops had time to land near Algeria, "such a storm arose that it was not only impossible to unload the guns, but many small ships simply capsized, thirteen or fourteen galleons too" (Cardinal Talavera).
This storm did not subside for 4 days, the losses were terrible, more than 150 ships sank, 12 thousand soldiers and sailors were killed. The depressed and discouraged Spaniards no longer thought about the battle in Algeria. On the remaining ships, they went to sea, and only at the end of November the battered squadron barely reached Mallorca.
In the fight against both the Ottomans and the Barbary pirates, European monarchs did not demonstrate unanimity. There are cases when the Turks freely hired the ships of the Italian states to transport their troops. For example, Sultan Murad I paid the Genoese one ducat for each person transported.
And King Francis I literally shocked the entire Christian world, not only entering into an alliance with the Ottomans, but also allowing Khair ad-Din Barbarossa in 1543 to place his fleet for wintering in Toulon.
At that time, the local population was evicted from the city (with the exception of a certain number of men left to guard the abandoned property and service the crews of pirate ships). Even the city cathedral was then converted into a mosque. On the part of the French, this was an act of gratitude for their help in the capture of Nice.
A special piquancy to this alliance with the Ottomans was given by the fact that before that Francis was an ally of Pope Clement VII, and the king of France and the Roman pontiff were “friends” against Charles V, whom many in Europe considered the stronghold of the Christian world in opposition to the “Mohammedans”. And who, as the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, was crowned by Clement VII himself.
Having overwintered in hospitable Toulon, Khair ad-Din Barbarossa in 1544 brought down his squadron on the coast of Calabria, reaching Naples. About 20 thousand Italians were captured, but then the admiral overdid it: as a result of his raid, the prices of slaves in the Maghreb fell so low that it was not possible to sell them profitably.
This was the famed pirate and admiral's last naval operation. Khair ad-Din Barbarossa spent the last years of his life in his own palace in Constantinople, built on the shores of the Golden Horn. The German historian Johann Archengolts claims that a Jewish doctor advised the old admiral to treat his ailments with "the warmth of the bodies of young virgins." This aesculapius, apparently, learned about this method of treatment from the Third Book of the Old Testament Kings, which tells how the 70-year-old King David was found a young girl Avisag, who “warmed him in bed”. The method was, of course, very pleasant, but also very dangerous for the aging admiral. And the "therapeutic dose" was clearly exceeded. According to contemporaries, Khair ad-Din Barbarossa quickly became decrepit, unable to withstand the pressure of the numerous bodies of young girls, and died in 1546 (at the age of 80). He was buried in a mosque-mausoleum built at his expense, and the captains of the Turkish ships entering the port of Constantinople, sailing past it, for a long time considered it their duty to salute in honor of the famous admiral. And at the beginning of the 20th century, a squadron battleship (formerly "Elector Friedrich Wilhelm"), bought from Germany in 1910, was named after him.
The second battleship, bought by the Turks from Germany at that time ("Weissenburg"), was named in honor of Turgut-Reis, an associate of Barbarossa, who at various times was the governor of the island of Djerba, the commander-in-chief of the Ottoman fleet, the beylerbey of Algeria and the Mediterranean Sea, Sandjakbei and Pasha Tripoli
We will talk about this successful pirate, who became the kapudan-pasha of the Ottoman fleet, and other great Islamic admirals in the next article.
