Hayreddin Barbarossa (Arabic: خير الدين بربروس, romanized: Khayr al-Dīn Barbarūs; Turkish: Barbaros Hayrettin Paşa), also known as Hayreddin Pasha, Hızır Hayrettin Pasha, and simply Hızır Reis (c. 1466/1483 – 4 July 1546), was an Ottoman corsair and later admiral of the Ottoman Navy. Barbarossa's naval victories secured Ottoman dominance over the Mediterranean during the mid-16th century.
Born on Lesbos, Khizr began his naval career as a corsair under his elder brother Oruç Reis. In 1516, the brothers captured Algiers from Spain, with Oruç declaring himself Sultan. Following Oruç's death in 1518, Khizr inherited his brother's nickname, "Barbarossa" ("Redbeard" in Italian). He also received the honorary name Hayreddin (from Arabic Khayr ad-Din, "goodness of the faith" or "best of the faith"). In 1529, Barbarossa took the Peñón of Algiers from the Spaniards.
In 1533, Barbarossa was appointed Kapudan Pasha (grand admiral) of the Ottoman Navy by Suleiman the Magnificent. He led an embassy to France in the same year, conquered Tunis in 1534, achieved a decisive victory over the Holy League at Preveza in 1538, and conducted joint campaigns with the French in the 1540s. Barbarossa retired to Constantinople in 1545 and died the following year.
Background
Khizr was born sometime between 1466 and 1483 in Palaiokipos, Midilini, in the Ottoman Empire (now Gera, Lesbos), a son of an Ottoman sipahi father, Yakup Ağa, of Turkish or Albanian origin from Giannitsa (now in Central Macedonia, Greece), and a Greek Orthodox mother of Greek origin, Katerina, also from Lesbos, the widow of a Greek Orthodox priest. The Gazavat-ı Hayreddin Pasha, written by Seyyid Muradî from the accounts personally narrated by Barbarossa himself, explicitly identifies his father as a Turk descended from those who had migrated from Anatolia to Greece. The couple married and had two daughters and four sons: Ishak, Oruç, Khizr and Ilyas. Yakup had taken part in the Ottoman conquest of Lesbos in 1462 from the Republic of Genoa's House of Gattilusio, which held the hereditary title of Lord of Lesbos between 1355 and 1462, and as a reward was granted the fief of the village of Bonova on the island. He became an established potter and purchased a boat to trade his products with.
The four sons helped their father with his business, but not much is known about the daughters. At first Oruç helped with the boat, while Khizr helped with the pottery.
Early career
All four brothers became seamen, engaged in marine affairs and international sea trade. The first brother to become involved in seamanship was Oruç, who was joined by his brother Ilyas. Later, obtaining his own ship, Khizr also began his career at sea. The brothers initially worked as sailors, but then turned privateers in the Mediterranean to counteract the privateering of the Knights Hospitaller (Knights of St. John) who were based on the island of Rhodes (until 1522). Oruç and Ilyas operated in the Levant, between Anatolia, Syria, and Egypt. Khizr operated in the Aegean Sea and based his operations mostly in Thessaloniki. Ishak, the eldest, remained on Mytilene and was involved with the financial affairs of the family business.
Death of Ilyas, captivity, and liberation of Oruç
Oruç was a very successful seaman. He also learned to speak Italian, Spanish, French, Greek, and Arabic early in his career. While returning from a trading expedition in Tripoli, Lebanon, with his younger brother, Ilyas, they were attacked by the Knights Hospitaller. Ilyas was killed in the fight, and Oruç was wounded. Oruç rowed as a galley slave for the Order of Saint John for four years, until his father paid the ransom to release him.
Oruç, the corsair
Oruç 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 of St John, who were inflicting serious damage on Ottoman shipping and trade. In the following years, when Korkut became governor of Manisa, he gave Oruç a larger fleet of 24 galleys at the port of İzmir and ordered him to participate in the Ottoman naval expedition to Apulia in Italy, where Oruç bombarded several coastal castles and captured two ships.
On his way back to Lesbos, he stopped at Euboea and captured three galleons and another ship. Reaching Mytilene with these captured vessels, Oruç learned that Korkut, who was the brother of the new Ottoman sultan Selim I, had fled to Egypt to avoid being killed because of succession disputes – a common practice at that time.
Fearing trouble due to his well-known association with the exiled Ottoman prince, Oruç sailed to Egypt, where he met Korkut in Cairo and managed to get an audience with the Mamluk Sultan Qansuh al-Ghawri, who gave him another ship and entrusted him with the task of raiding the coasts of Italy and the islands of the Mediterranean that were controlled by Christians. After spending the winter in Cairo, he set sail from Alexandria and frequently operated along the coasts of Liguria and Sicily.
Khizr's career under Oruç
In 1503, Oruç managed to seize three more ships and made the island of Djerba his new base, thus moving his operations to the Western Mediterranean. Khizr joined Oruç at Djerba. In 1504, the brothers contacted Abu Abdallah Muhammad IV al-Mutawakkil, ruler of Tunis, and asked permission to use the strategically located port of La Goulette for their operations.
They were granted the right to do so on the condition of giving one-third of their spoils to the sultan. Oruç, in command of small galiots, 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 exploits increased their fame, and they were joined by several other well-known Muslim corsairs, including Kurtoğlu (known in the West as Curtogoli). In 1508, they raided the coasts of Liguria, particularly Diano Marina.
In 1509, Ishak also left Mytilene and joined his brothers at La Goulette. The fame of Oruç increased when, between 1504 and 1510, he transported Muslim Mudéjars from Christian Spain to North Africa. His efforts of helping the Muslims of Spain in need and transporting them to safer lands earned him the honorific name Baba Oruç (Father Oruç), which eventually – due to the similarity in sound – evolved in Spain, France, and Italy into Barbarossa (meaning "Redbeard" in Italian).
In 1510, the three brothers raided Capo Passero in Sicily and repulsed Spanish attacks on Bougie, Oran and Algiers. In August 1511, they raided the areas around Reggio Calabria in southern Italy. In August 1512, the exiled ruler of Bougie invited the brothers to drive out the Spaniards, and during the battle Oruç lost his left arm. This incident earned him the nickname Gümüş Kol ("Silver Arm" in Turkish), in reference to the silver prosthetic device that he used in place of his missing limb.
Later that same year, the brothers raided the coasts of Andalusia, capturing a galiot of the Lomellini family of Genoa, which owned Tabarca island. They subsequently landed at Menorca and captured a coastal castle and then headed towards Liguria, where they captured four Genoese galleys near Genoa. The Genoese sent a fleet to liberate their ships, but the brothers captured their flagship as well. After capturing a total of 23 ships in less than a month, the brothers sailed back to La Goulette, where they built three more galiots and a gunpowder production facility.
In 1513, they launched a raid on Valencia, where they captured four ships, and then headed for Alicante and captured a Spanish galley near Málaga. In 1513–14, the brothers engaged the Spanish fleet on several other occasions and moved to their new base to Cherchell, east of Algiers. In 1514, with 12 galiots and 1,000 Turks, they destroyed two Spanish fortresses at Bougie, and when the Spanish fleet under the command of Miguel de Gurrea, viceroy of Majorca, arrived as reinforcement, they headed towards Ceuta and raided that city before capturing Jijel in Algeria, which was under Genoese control. They later captured Mahdiya in Tunisia. Afterwards they raided the coasts of Sicily, Sardinia, the Balearic Islands and the Spanish mainland, capturing three large ships there.
In 1515, they captured several galleons, a galley and three barques at Mallorca. Still in 1515, Oruç sent precious gifts to the Ottoman Sultan Selim I, who, in return, sent him two galleys and two swords encrusted with diamonds. In 1516, joined by Kurtoğlu (Curtogoli), the brothers besieged the Castle of Elba, before heading once more towards Liguria, where they captured 12 ships and damaged 28 others.
Rulers of Algiers
In 1516, the three brothers succeeded in capturing Jijel and Algiers from the Spaniards and eventually assumed control over the city and surrounding region, forcing the previous ruler, Abu Hamo Musa III of the Beni Ziyad dynasty, to flee.
The Spaniards of Algiers sought refuge on the island of Peñón and asked Charles V, King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor to intervene, but the Spanish fleet failed to expel the brothers from Algiers.
For Oruç, the best protection against Spain was to join the Ottoman Empire, his homeland and Spain's main rival. For this, he had to relinquish his title of Sultan of Algiers to the Ottomans. He did this in 1517 and offered Algiers to the Ottoman Sultan Selim I. The Sultan accepted Algiers as an Ottoman sanjak ("province"), appointed Oruç Governor of Algiers and Chief Sea Governor of the Western Mediterranean, and promised to support him with Janissaries, galleys and cannons.
Final engagements and death of Oruç and Ishak
The Spaniards ordered Abu Zayan, whom they had appointed the new ruler of Tlemcen and Oran, to attack Oruç Reis overland, but Oruç learned of the plan and pre-emptively attacked Tlemcen, capturing the city and executing Abu Zayan in the fall of Tlemcen. The only survivor of Abu Zayan's dynasty was Sheikh Buhammud, who escaped to Oran and called for Spain's assistance.
After consolidating his power and declaring himself Sultan of Algiers, Oruç sought to expand his territory inland and took Miliana, Medea and Ténès. He became known for fitting sails to cannons for transport through the deserts of North Africa. In 1517, the brothers raided Capo Limiti, and, later, Capo Rizzuto, Calabria.
In May 1518, Emperor Charles V arrived at Oran and was received at the port by Sheikh Buhammud and the Spanish governor of the city, Diego de Córdoba, marquis of Comares, who commanded a force of 10,000 Spanish soldiers. Joined by thousands of local Bedouins, the Spaniards marched overland towards Tlemcen. Oruç and Ishak awaited them in the city with 1,500 Turkish and 5,000 Moorish soldiers. They defended Tlemcen for 20 days, but were eventually killed in combat by the forces of Garcia de Tineo.
Algiers joins the Ottoman Empire
After the death of his older brother and feeling that his position was under threat, Khizr contacted Selim I, offered his allegiance and obtained Ottoman assistance in 1519. Given the title of Beylerbey by Sultan Selim I, along with janissaries, galleys and cannons, he inherited his brother's position, his name (Barbarossa) and his mission.
Later career
Pasha of Algiers
With a fresh force of Turkish soldiers sent by the Ottoman sultan, Barbarossa recaptured Tlemcen in December 1518. He continued the policy of bringing mudéjars from Spain to North Africa, thereby assuring himself of a sizable following of grateful and loyal Muslims who harbored an intense hatred for Spain. He captured Bône, and in 1519, he defeated a Spanish-Italian army that tried to recapture Algiers. In a separate incident, he sank a Spanish ship and captured eight others. Still in 1519, he raided Provence, Toulon and the Îles d'Hyères in southern France. In 1521, he raided the Balearic Islands and later captured several Spanish ships returning from the New World off the coast of Cádiz.
In 1522, he sent his ships, under the command of Kurtoğlu, to participate in the Ottoman conquest of Rhodes, which resulted in the departure of the Knights of St John from that island on 1 January 1523.
In June 1525, he raided the coasts of Sardinia. In May 1526, he landed at Crotone in Calabria and sacked the city, sank a Spanish galley and a Spanish fusta in the harbor, then assaulted Castignano in Marche on the Adriatic Sea and later landed at Cape Spartivento. In June 1526, he landed at Reggio Calabria and later destroyed the fort at the port of Messina. He then appeared on the coasts of Tuscany, but retreated after seeing the fleet of Andrea Doria and the Knights of St John off the coast of Piombino.