CORSAIR CAPTAINS OPERATING OUT OF ALGIERS IN 1625-26

In 1612, the republic of the Netherlands negotiated a treaty with the Ottoman Sultan that guaranteed trade privileges for Dutch merchants in the Levant and that made provisions for assuring the safety of Dutch ships and the freeing, without ransom, of all Dutch slaves held in Ottoman territory. Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli were Ottoman regencies, so they should have abided by the terms of this treaty. However, they existed more as independent city states than vassal territories, and they ignored the treaty and continued to prey on Dutch shipping. This left the Dutch in the position of having to negotiate separate treaty arrangements with each city.

In 1622, the States-General of the Netherlands sent Cornelis Pijnacker as a special envoy to Algiers and Tunis to negotiate these new treaty arrangements. Pijnacker was an academic—a Doctor of Law—who spoke Italian and Arabic. His task was to get the authorities of Algiers and Tunis to guarantee the safety of Dutch merchant shipping and to release all the Dutch captives/slaves held in their territories. He was reasonably successful on this first mission, but relations between the Netherlands and the Algerine and Tunisian corsairs deteriorated afterwards, and he was sent out again, in 1625, to renegotiate.

Upon his final return to the Netherlands, he wrote up a report, a detailed, fascinating document about Algiers and Tunis (though with more emphasis on Algiers) that covers in great detail topics such as architecture, the different currencies used, religious practices, the justice system, overall revenues, how captured booty was divvied up, how slaves were bought and sold, the punishments meted out to offenders, funeral arrangements, and much more. Pijnacker was an intelligent, observant, well-educated man, and his observations on Algiers and Tunis are an invaluable aid to understanding these cities, especially Algiers. One chapter in his report is of particular interest.

This chapter, titled “Names and qualities of the foremost raisen, that is ships’ captains, who were alive in 1625 and ’26 during my time there,” consists of a list of 55 corsair captains. This list is unique. Nowhere else do we find such an extensive, detailed itemization. Not only does it include the captains’ names, but also their country of origin and, in some cases, brief details about their lives.

The list is given below in its entirety (translated from the original Dutch). It is taken from Gérard van Krieken, ed., Dr. Cornelis Pijnacker, Historysch verhael van den steden Thunes, Alger ende andere steden en Barbarien gelegen (Historical Account of the Cities of Tunis, Algiers and other Cities of Barbary). ‘s-Gravenhage : Marinus Nihoff, 1975, pp. 86-88.

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Names and qualities of the foremost raisen, that is ships’ captains,
who were alive in 1625 and 1626 during my time in Algiers

1. Mustaffa Rais, Admiral of Algiers, a native-born Turk.
2. Serra Mustaffa Rais, a native-born Turk.
3. Muriate Francese Rais, a renegado from Rouen, one of the most famous and courageous captains.
4. Mamet Tagarino Rais, a Granadian who was driven from Granada in the year 1613.
5. Tabacca Rais, a Turk.
6. Calefata Assan Rais, who is thought to be Polish, a renegado.
7. Assain Rais, called Meinart Dircxen Veenboer [1] the younger, son of an old perch fisherman in the town of Haarlem.
8. Mamet Anglese, a renegado.
9. Mamy Anglese, a renegado.
10. Dalli Hamet Rais, otherwise known as Hamet the Crazy, a Turk.
11. Mussa Ladino Rais, a native-born Turk.
12. Corto Rais Greco, a renegado.
13. Mamy Rais from Denmark, a renegado.
14. Cara Baili Rais, also known as Jobarten Baili Turck.
15. Jaffer Montes Collole, who is also called after his father, Mustaffa Rais, son of a renegado. I believe that one should say Sapher, the second month of the year of the Turks, because many of them bear the names of the months like saaban, ramedan, regeb.
16. Welli Rais, a native-born Turk.
17. Dant Aremou Turck, who was with Deuris Rais in Vlissingen in the year 1623.
18. Ali Rais, a Greek from Smyrna, who visited me in The Hague in the year 1623, a storm having blown his ship from Salé to Vlissingen.
19.  Murate Flamenco, from Antwerp, a renegado.
20. Scheele Murat, from Hamburg, a renegado. Because he is squint faced [cross‑eyed], he is called this by both the Turks and the Dutch.
21. Saffer Rais, alias Thomas the Swindler, believed to be a Frisian from Harlingen.
22. Seliman Rais, otherwise known as Captain Guascon, a French renegado, a valorous young man, decent and courteous.
23. Mustaffa Rais Walon, a renegado.
24. Assain Bassa, from Algiers, a Turk.
25. Assam Rais, alias Jan Marinus van Sommelsdijck.
26. Mamet Hoggi Rais Tagarino.
27. Cara Mamy, that is Black Mamy, an upright Turk, honest, devout, and valiant, a wealthy man.
28. Regeb Rais Hagenaer, a renegado, whose mother lives in The Hague.
29. Behir Rais, a native-born Turk.
30. Cara Hoggy, a native-born Turk, a wealthy and pious man.
31. Seliman Rais, a French renegado.
32. Assain Francese Rais, a renegado.
33. Saaban Rais, a French renegado.
34. Hamza Rais, a native-born Turk, who captured Jan Tarixsen van Staveren’s ship, which set in motion events which caused, in the year 1624, the Dutch Console to receive the bastinado. [2]
35. Cortzuck Hamza Rais, a Turk.
36. Cortzu Mamet Rais, a Turk.
37. Mustaffa Saccoli i. Chroto.
38. Mamet Rais Gallego, a renegado.
39. Cotzuck Mamet, a Turk.
40. Cotzuck Mustaffa, a Turk.
41. Montalva Tagarino Rais.
42. Mamet, a Portuguese renegado.
43. Babba Ali, a Portuguese renegado.
44. Paisasle Rais, a native-born Turk.
45. Ali Rais, alias Culo Bronzo Tagarino, currently, in the year 1625, banished because he is… the ship of… [3]
46. Halil Rais Turco Sine Chalil.
47. Cara Apta Rais, a native-born Turk.
48. Regeb Bassa Rais, a Turk.
49. Alder Aman, a native-born Turk, currently banished.
50. Ramedan Rais, an Englishman, commonly called Winter.
51. Mamet Moro Rais, a Moor.
52. Brem Rais Tagarino.
53. Haggi Mamy Rais, from Ackersloot, born Pieter Janssen. His father, named Jan Janssen, became the Trugeman [the official Interpreter in Algiers] for the Netherlands on 25 January, 1626.
54. Seliman Buffoen, a renegado from Rotterdam. He kept an inn at [the village of] Schoonderloo, outside Rotterdam, commonly known as Jacob den Hoerenwaert, was… [4]
55. Colole, from Algiers, son of a renegado, a Sicilian.

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This list of Algerine corsair captains tells us several interesting things.

To begin with, the list serves as a sort of census that allows us to determine what the makeup of the corsair captain community in Algiers was at this time. Four different groups are represented: native-born Turks, [5] renegados (i.e., renegades, Europeans who had converted to Islam], Tagarinos, [6] and Moors. [7] Renegado captains make up the largest portion. Out of a total of 55 captains, 28 (just under 51%) are renegados. [8] The next largest group is the Turks, with a total of 21 captains (38%). There are 5 Tagarino captains (9%). Finally, there is one lone Moorish captain (just under 2%). The dominance of the European renegado community is clear: just over half of all Algerine corsair captains listed are renegados.

The breakdown of this community is also revealing:

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN	NUMBER OF CAPTAINS	PERCENTAGE
The Netherlands	7	25%
France	5	17.85%
Spanish Netherlands	3	10.7%
England	3	10.7%
Greece	2	7.14%
Italy	2	7.14%
Portugal	2	7.14%
Poland	1	3.57%
Denmark	1	3.57%
Spain	1	3.57%
Germany	1	3.57%

This breakdown makes two things clear. First, there was a surprisingly varied renegado population, representing no less than eleven different European countries ranging from Denmark in the north to Greece in the south. Populous seafaring Northern European countries (the Netherlands, France, the Spanish Netherlands, England) account for almost two thirds (just over 64%) of the corsair captains, with the Netherlands contributing the largest number.

It is well known that European renegados were an important influence in North Africa, but this list makes it clear that it was not just Europeans in general but northern Europeans and, especially, the Dutch, who predominated.

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[1]  Assain Rais/Meinart Dircxen Veenboer was a nephew of the famous corsair captain Soliman Reis, aka Ivan Dirkie de Veenboer.

[2]  Jan Tarixsen van Staveren was a Dutch seacaptain whose ship was captured by Algerian corsairs. Wijnant de Keyser, the Dutch Consul in Algiers at the time, managed to successfully negotiate the release of both the ship and the crew (but not the ship’s cargo). Keyser’s interference angered powerful factions in Algiers. As a result, he was sentenced to receive the bastinado: a standard form of corporal punishment in Algiers in which the victim was hoisted upside-down and the soles of his bare feet caned unmercifully.

[3]  The original entry in Pijnacker’s list is incomplete here.

[4]  The original entry in Pijnacker’s list is incomplete here.

[5]  The term in the original Dutch text is “gebooren Turck” (modern Dutch: “geboren Turks”), meaning “born Turkish.”

[6]  “Tagarino” was one of the terms used to describe the Muslim inhabitants of al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) who had been driven out at the turn of the sixteenth century when the last Muslim kingdom, the Emirate of Grenada, was overrun by the forces of King Ferdinand V and Queen Isabella I (the monarchs who financed Christopher Columbus’ famous voyage across the Atlantic). The term was also used to designate Spanish Morisco expulsados, (descendants of Muslims, whom had been forcibly driven out of Spain in an act of ethnic cleansing in 1609-1614). A significant number of these expulsados settled in Algiers. So a name like Mamet Tagarino can be thought of as meaning Mamet from Spain.

[7]  The term “Moor” referred to the indigenous inhabitants of North Africa.

[8]  Not all the renegado captains in the list are explicitly designated as such. However, entries like “Jaffer Montes Collole… son of a renegado,” “Ali Rais, a Greek from Smyrna,” “Assam Rais, alias Jan Marinus van Sommelsdijck,” “Muriate Francese Rais” or “Mamy Anglese” make it clear that such men belong in the renegado group.