The Barbarossa Pirates of the 15th and 16th Century

Barbarossa Pirates is still a famous name in few areas of the modern world. (McNeill, 6-9) The reason is very common, which I felt we should know. In an important cases, the enterprising Admirals were Muslims, whose names and exploits Western historians, the present source of our knowledge, had purposefully kept unknown. Rather, in the case of one who was supreme over the Europeans, his name was thoroughly maligned in their chronicles.

The first, Chen Ho the Chinese Admiral, who in 15th c AD, on orders of his king emperor, devastated the Dakkan (the area south of Hindusthan) origin kingdoms that had come up during 5th and 6th c. AD in the Spice Islands (South East Asia). The Chinese fleet and soldiers under him were sent to assist the newly established Muslim trading city of Malaika. Thereafter, Chen-Ho made six voyages into the Indian Ocean, which took him to far off places like Jeddah in Arabia and Madagascar in Africa. A brief history of his exploits, more diplomatic than naval, has been narrated in my last article in Globe magazine.

The second important naval event was the extension of Muslim seafarer's hegemony to Western Mediterranean by two brothers Aruj and Khizr, the latter better known as Khair-ud-Din, which extended Islamic influence to the whole of the Mediterranean from the Levant to Gibraltar. Even the largest European naval power at that time Spain found its ships, some carrying gold from the newly discovered Americas plundered with impunity (Pérotin-Dumon, 197-226). Aruj, himself who became a Sultan in North Africa, was killed in 1518 during a land battle against Spanish forces near Tlemcen in Northwest Algeria near Morocco. After that, at the invitation of the great Sultan of Turkey, Khizr the younger brother, accepted to build a navy for Turkey that later ruled the Mediterranean till the later half of 16th century. Simultaneously, Aruj's bold exploits were, in the words of Ernle Bradford in his book 'The Sultan's Admiral', 'To determine the pattern of life and trade in the Mediterranean until the early nineteenth century.' This article pertains to the era of Aruj.

Not many in the world know the above mentioned facts that it were two Barbarossa brothers who emblazoned their names on the Mediterranean Sea; nor that it was the younger one who became the legend in Turkish history. Further, that it was Aruj the elder who had the red beard, which became their nickname and not the younger Khizr, who became better known as Khair-ud-Din and carried a brown or an auburn beard. Both were born on the island of Lesbos to a Janisary soldier Yaqub, who had been granted land on the island, and the widow of a Christian priest.

Yaqub had four sons of whom Aruj was the eldest and Khizr the youngest, and two daughters. The father became an established potter and had a boat of his own to trade his products. Aruj helped with the boat while Khizr helped with ...