The Barbarossa Brothers
The Barbarossa brothers came to dominate the Barbary Coast during the late 15th century. Named after the eldest brother’s infamous blood-red beard, they made their fortune defending the Ottoman Empire from the Knights of St John, who were nowhere near as saintly as their name suggests.
The Barbarossa brothers were pirates known as ‘corsairs’ who operated off the coast of North Africa. From the 15th to the 18th century, the corsairs were a threat to shipping of all kinds. They built Muslim fortresses in the ports of Algiers, Tripoli and Tunis, along what was, at that time, known as the Barbary coast, and made their raids with the tacit approval of the sultan of Tunisia, who received a share of the booty in return for allowing them to use Tunis as their headquarters. The most famous of the Barbary corsairs, as these Muslim pirates became known, were Aruj Barbarossa (also called Oruc or Aroudj) and his brother Khayreddin (also known as Heyreddin or Hizir).
The red-haired pirate
Aruj and Khayreddin were born on the island of Lesbos, to Yaqub, a soldier, and his wife, Katerina. Yaqub was a member of the Janissaries, the private troops who worked for the Ottoman sultan as household protectors and bodyguards. The boys’ mother, Katerina, was the widow of a former Christian priest. She went on to have a total of six children with Yaqub, Aruj was the eldest and Khayreddin the youngest. There were two other sons, Ishak and Ilyas, and two daughters. The exact dates of the children’s births are not known, but they appear to have been born during the 1470s.
As well as working as a soldier for the Sultan, Yaqub was also an artisan, making pots and selling them by boat around the islands. His sons helped him in his business, until they grew old enough to make a living of their own. Aruj was noticeable because of his red hair and beard, and he soon earned the nickname ‘Barbarossa’ – Redbeard – a name that also came to be used for his brother Khayreddin, although Khayreddin was dark-haired.
The Knights of St John
With their knowledge of the sea, the brothers began their adult lives as sailors, plying the waters of the Mediterranean as traders in various commercial enterprises. They then bought their own boats and began to make a living as privateers, emerging as a sizeable force against the Knights of St John, a Christian order that ruled the island of Rhodes during this period. Despite their pious religious doctrines, the Knights were actually pirates, attacking Ottoman ships on a regular basis and inflicting a great deal of damage on the merchant shipping of the Ottoman empire. The Barbarossa Brothers, as they became known, acted as a counterbalance to the Knights, protecting the Muslim ships from attacks by the Christians. Aruj in particular became famous as a leading opponent of the Knights, and was known as an educated man who spoke several languages including Arabic, Greek, Italian, Spanish and French.
It was not long before the Knights and the Barbarossa Brothers crossed swords, since both factions were trying to control the same area of the Mediterranean. On a trip back from Tripoli, Lebanon, where he had been trading goods, Aruj’s ship was captured by the Knights. Aruj was wounded and his brother Ilyas killed. Aruj was taken prisoner and remained at Bodrum Castle, now in Turkey, for three years until his brother Khayreddin came to his rescue and helped him to escape.
Bombing raids
Not surprisingly, when Aruj came out of jail, he had a strong antipathy towards the Knights, and began to redouble his efforts against them. He was supported by Prince Shehzade Korkud, who made him an admiral in the Ottoman navy and gave him a fleet of 24 ships. As part of the Ottoman fleet, Aruj made bombing raids on Christian bases around Italy. When Shehzade was ousted in a dynastic dispute, he managed to continue a successful career working for the Mamluks, a powerful military caste who had seized power in Egypt. Aruj continued to hound the Christian crusaders, backed by an ever-changing array of Muslim potentates, until he and his brothers became one of the richest families in the Mediterranean.
The Barbary corsairs
In 1512, while fighting against the Spanish, Aruj sustained a serious wound in his left arm from a cannon. He was rushed to Tunis for urgent medical attention, and managed to survive the injury. However, in 1518, he was finally killed in battle, while trying to escape a siege in the town of Tlemcen, north-western Algeria. His younger brother Khayreddin took over as head of the family, and went on to become the ruler of Algiers, backed by the Ottomans.
Under Khayreddin’s regime, the Spanish were expelled from Algiers, and the city became the base for all the corsairs of the region, a situation which persisted long after his death in 1547. Successive European powers attempted to quell the Barbary corsairs, but they remained in control of the region for centuries, until the French finally captured Algiers in 1830.