Aruj Barbarossa
Aruj Barbarossa | |
---|---|
Born | c. 1474 |
Died | May 1518 (aged 43–44) |
Piratical career | |
Nickname | Barbarossa Red Beard Baba Aruj |
Years active | c. 1495 – 1518 |
Rank | Sultan of Algiers |
Base of operations | Mediterranean |
Battles/wars |
Aruj Barbarossa (c. 1474 – 1518), known as Oruç Reis (
He became known as Baba Aruj (Father Aruj) when he transported large numbers of Morisco, Muslim and Jewish refugees from Spain to North Africa; folk etymology in Europe transformed that name into Barbarossa (which means Redbeard in Italian).[1]
Background
His father, Yakup Ağa, was an Ottoman official[2][3][4][5] of Turkish[6][7][8] or Albanian[9][10][11] descent. Yakup Ağa took part in the Ottoman conquest of Lesbos (Midilli) from the Genoese in 1462, and as a reward, was granted the fief of the Bonova village in the island. He married a local Christian Greek woman (from Mytilene), named Katerina, who was the widow of an Eastern Orthodox priest.[9][12][13][14][15]
They had two daughters and four sons: Ishak, Aruj, Hızır and Ilyas. Yakup became an established potter and purchased a boat to trade his products. The four sons helped their father with his business, but not much is known about the daughters. At first Aruj helped with the boat, while Hızır helped with pottery.[citation needed]
Early career
All four brothers became seamen, engaged in marine affairs and international sea trade. Aruj was the first brother to be involved in seamanship, soon joined by the youngest brother Ilyas. Hızır initially helped their father in the pottery business, but later obtained a ship of his own and also began a career at sea. Ishak, the eldest, remained on Mytilene and was involved with the financial affairs of the family business. The other three brothers initially worked as sailors, but then turned
Aruj was a very successful seaman. He also learned to speak Italian, Spanish, French, Greek and Arabic in the early years of his career. During a trading expedition in Tripoli, Lebanon, he and Ilyas were attacked by a galley of the Knights Hospitaller. Ilyas was killed in the fight, and Aruj was wounded.[16] Their father's boat was captured, and Aruj was taken prisoner and detained in the Knights' Bodrum Castle for nearly three years. Hizir tried to help Oruc by ransoming but failed and Oruc was tortured for the first few years of captivity and later he worked as a slave on the Rhodes Ship which transported prisoners. One night when conditions were favorable[clarification needed] he managed to escape from the ship and was able to flee to a village where he lived for ten days. Later he joined Captain Ali.[who?] [17]
Aruj the corsair
Aruj later went to Antalya, where he was given 18 galleys by Şehzade Korkut, an Ottoman prince and governor of the city, and charged with fighting against the Knights Hospitaller who inflicted serious damage on Ottoman shipping and trade.[16]
In the following years, when
In 1503, Aruj managed to seize three more ships and made the island of
Aruj, in command of small galliots, captured two much larger Papal galleys near the island of Elba. Later, near Lipari, the two brothers captured a Sicilian warship, the Cavalleria, with 380 Spanish soldiers and 60 Spanish knights from Aragon on board, who were on their way from Spain to Naples. In 1505, they raided the coasts of Calabria. These accomplishments increased their fame and they were joined by a number of other well-known Muslim corsairs, including Kurtoğlu (known in the West as Curtogoli) a Turkish corsair from Kayseri. In 1508, they raided the coasts of Liguria, particularly Diano Marina.[citation needed]
In 1509, Ishak also left Mytilene and joined his brothers at La Goulette. The fame of Aruj increased when, between 1504 and 1510, he transported Muslims from Spain to North Africa. His helping the Muslims of Spain in need and transporting them to safer lands earned him the honorific name Baba Aruj (Father Aruj), which eventually—due to the similarity in sound—evolved in Spain, Italy and France into Barbarossa (Redbeard in Italian).[citation needed]
In 1510, the three brothers raided Cape Passero in
There they built three more galliots and a gunpowder production facility. In 1513, they captured four English ships on their way to France, raided
Ruler of Algiers
In 1516 the three brothers succeeded in liberating Jijel and Algiers from the Spaniards, but eventually assumed control over the cities and surrounding region, forcing the previous ruler, Abu Hammu Musa III of the Zayyanid dynasty, to flee.[20] The local Spaniards in Algiers sought refuge in the Peñón of Algiers and asked Emperor Charles V, King of Spain, to intervene, but the Spanish fleet failed to force the brothers out of Algiers.
After consolidating his power and declaring himself the new Sultan of Algiers, Aruj sought to enhance his territory inlands and took Miliana, Medea and Ténès. He became known for attaching sails to cannons for transport through the deserts of North Africa. In 1517, the brothers raided Capo Limiti and later the town of Isola di Capo Rizzuto in Calabria.
Aruj Barbarossa made conquests in the eastern lands of Morocco, in 1518 he conquered and garrisoned Oujda and Tibda, he submitted the Beni Amer and Beni Snassen and imposed a tribute on them.[21][22] He entered negotiations and concluded an alliance with the sultan of Morocco who was extremely frightened by the progress of the Turks.[22]
Final engagements and death of Aruj and Ishak
The Spaniards ordered Abu Zayan, whom they had appointed as the new ruler of Tlemcen and Oran, to attack Aruj by land, but Aruj learned of the plan and pre-emptively struck against Tlemcen, capturing the city and executing Abu Zayan during the Fall of Tlemcen in 1518. The only survivor of Abu Zayan's dynasty was Sheikh Buhammud, who escaped to Oran and called for Spain's assistance.
In May 1518, Emperor
He broke through the enemy and crossed the river with some of his levents. However, about twenty levents (sailors) remained on the enemy's side. Aruj Barbarossa, knowing that he had no hope of salvation, plunged into his enemies again in order not to leave his levents alone. While trying to cross the river, most of his levents died. One-armed Aruj Barbarossa died as a result of the spear wound he received after seeing the last levent next to him die.
The Spaniards, who wanted to prove the death of Aruj Barbarossa to the King of Spain, cut off the head of the corpse and put it in a bag full of honey and took it to Spain. The reason they did this was because the Spaniards, who had clashed with Aruj Barbarossa many times, reported to the Spanish King that they had killed him, but none of this turned out to be true.[16][17]
The last remaining brother, Hızır (Hayreddin Barbarossa), inherited his brother's place, his name (Barbarossa) and his mission and became the most powerful and famous Ottoman admiral by securing the Ottoman dominance over the Mediterranean Sea during the 16th century.
Legacy
Aruj established the Ottoman presence in North Africa which lasted four centuries, de facto until the loss of Algeria to France in 1830, of Tunisia to France in 1881, of Libya to Italy in 1912.
Three submarines (
In 2018, a statue of Aruj Barbarossa was inaugurated in Aïn Témouchent, Algeria.[23]
See also
- Ottoman Navy
- Oruç Reis-class submarine
- TCG Oruçreis (F-245)
References
- ^ "World Monument Photography". worldmonumentphotos.com. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
- ^ Cervantes y su mundo, Eva Reichenberger, page 134, 2005
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica, page 147, 1963
- ^ Islam in the Balkans: religion and society between Europe and the Arab world, H. T. Norris, page 201, 1993
- ^ Piri Reis & Turkish mapmaking after Columbus: the Khalili Portolan atlas, Svatopluk Soucek, Muʾassasat Nūr al-Ḥusayn, page 11, 1996
- ISBN 978-0-87661-540-9.)
Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa (son of a Turkish sipahi [fief-holder in the cavalry service]) from Yenice-i Vardar in Macedonia and a Greek woman from Lesvos/Mytilini...
{{cite book}}
:|work=
ignored (help - ISBN 978-1861899460.
Desperate to find some explanation for the sudden resurgence of Muslim sea power in the Mediterranean after centuries of Christian dominance, Christian commentators in the sixth century (and later) pointed to the supposed Christian roots of the greatest Barbary corsair commanders. It was a strange kind of comfort. The Barbarossas certainly had a Greek Christian mother, but it now seems certain their father was a Muslim Turk.
- ^ * İsmail Hâmi Danişmend, Osmanlı Devlet Erkânı, pp. 172 ff. Türkiye Yayınevi (Istanbul), 1971.
- "Barbarossa", Encyclopædia Britannica, 1963, p. 147. "Khiḍr was one of four sons of a Turk from the island of Lesbos."
- Angus Konstam, Piracy: The Complete History, Osprey Publishing, 2008, ISBN 978-1-84603-240-0, p. 80.
- ^ a b Bozbora, Nuray (1997), Osmanlı yönetiminde Arnavutluk ve Arnavut ulusçuluğu'nun gelişimi, p. 16
- ISBN 978-3-99012-125-2.
Hisir was the later Ottoman Chief Admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa. His profile almost exactly matches that of the numerous anonymous Christian and convert sailors just mentioned. His mother was Greek, and his father was a convert from the Albanian lands who had fought in the Sultan's armies.
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol 1, Encyclopædia Britannica, 1972, p. 147.
- ISBN 978-0-521-81764-6, p. 106.
- ^ Their father was former Muslim soldier, probably from a recent converted family of the European Provinces. Their mother is said to have been the widow of a Greek priest., Frank Ronald Charles Bagley et al., The Last Great Muslim Empires: History of the Muslim World, Brill Academic Publishers, 1997, p. 114.
- ISBN 978-0-521-45908-2, p. 145.
- ^ Die Seeaktivitäten der muslimischen Beutefahrer als Bestandteil der staatlichen Flotte während der osmanischen Expansion im Mittelmeer im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert, p.548, Andreas Rieger, Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1994
- ^ ISBN 979-97-53-89455-4. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
- ^ a b Gazavat-ı Hayrettin Paşa (PDF) (in Turkish), Tercüman Kitapçılık, 1973, pp. 39–52
- ISBN 9781472815446.
- ^ "Mallorca Days Out | Famous People, Structures, Events and Organisations | Watchtowers & Pirates". www.mallorcadaysout.com. Archived from the original on 2017-09-30. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
- ISBN 9781845112516.
- ^ de Grammont, Henri-Delmas. "Chapitre Deuxième-Les Barberousse et la fondation de l’Odjeac." Histoire du Maghreb (2002): 41-46.
- ^ a b Öztuna, Yılmaz. Yavuz Sultan Selim. Vol. 12. Ötüken Neşriyat AŞ, 2006.
- ^ "Ottoman sailor's monument inaugurated in Algeria". aa.com. 21 November 2018.
Sources
- Seyyid Muradi, Gazavat-ı Hayrettin Paşa, Turkey, 1973
- E. Hamilton Currey, Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean, London, 1910
- Bono, Salvatore: Corsari nel Mediterraneo (Corsairs in the Mediterranean), Oscar Storia Mondadori. Perugia, 1993.
- Corsari nel Mediterraneo: Condottieri di ventura. Online database in Italian, based on Salvatore Bono's book.
- Bradford, Ernle, The Sultan's Admiral: The life of Barbarossa, London, 1968.
- Wolf, John B., The Barbary Coast: Algeria under the Turks, New York, 1979; ISBN 0-393-01205-0
- The Ottomans: Comprehensive and detailed online chronology of Ottoman history in English.
- Comprehensive and detailed online chronology of Ottoman history in Turkish. Archived 2012-12-05 at archive.today
- Turkish Navy official website: Historic heritage of the Turkish Navy (in Turkish)
- [1]