THE BARBAROSSA BROTHERS – PART 3

This week, we continue the story of the Barbarossa brothers—those (in)famous pirates—as recounted by Father Pierre Dan in his book Histoire de Barbarie.

Once again, Father Dan’s text requires some background explanation to make clear sense of the events he describes, so there are quite a few explanatory footnotes in this post. Some of them are a little long, but they really do help in understanding the history Father Dan is presenting.

Last week’s post ended, remember, with the death of Aruch Barbarossa, (the elder of the two brothers).

We pick up the story from there.

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The prince [Cheredin Barbarossa, the younger brother][1] who was seen as a man of great heart and mind, realized that he could maintain sovereignty over Algiers only with difficulty if he were not powerfully supported, and so he sought the protection of the Great Lord of the Ottomans,[2] to whom he wrote for this purpose and sent a man he thought fitting to Constantinople with some presents for the Emperor there.

Cheredin Barbarossa wrote that his late brother, Aruch, had become Lord of Algiers, a part of Barbary, that he had the good fortune to succeed his brother, but that he was somewhat apprehensive about maintaining his position and therefore prayed humbly that his Highness and Imperial Majesty [the Sultan] might protect him and his state against the Christian forces, protesting that all his ambition was to support such a great monarch so that the boundaries of the Turkish Empire would expand even more in Barbary.

The Great Lord willingly granted him this request and sent him for this purpose two thousand native-born Turks. He also granted permission to all others who might want to travel to Barbary to assist the same Barbarossa, giving them leave to enjoy in future in the State of Algiers all the liberties and privileges granted to the janissaries[3] in Turkey. Since then, the Great Lord has always sent to Algiers kings or viceroys, otherwise called Bâchas, whom he usually changes every year, or whenever he feels like it.[4]

The Kingdom of Algiers increased gradually by means of these kings. In the year 1517 [a year before his death], Aruch Barbarossa conquered the cities and the Kingdoms of Tenez, and of Tremecen, one situated 30 leagues from Algiers, on the Ponant[5] side, and the other 52 leagues in the same direction.

His brother Cheredin took Cole and the city of Bône, then Sala, and then Rays and Bacha[6] in the year 1555.[7] Having created an army of three thousand Turks and thirty thousand Moors, he seized Bougie,[8] which was surrendered to him in return for sparing the life of Alphonse de Peralte, who commanded the place. However, when de Peralte returned to Spain after such a cowardly act, the King his master had him beheaded, to teach those who are entrusted with an important place that it is their duty to die there with weapons in hand rather than surrender shamefully and without any resistance.

After these successes, the Algerians had others, even greater, and lifted up their state to a high point of greatness, where it has remained to this day.[9]

Cheredin Barbarossa extended his control over one hundred and seventy leagues along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, bounding the north shore, on the side of the Levant to Tabarque, near the Kingdom of Tunis, and westwards to Oran, near the Kingdom of Fez.[10]

Cheredin Barbarossa’s conquests took him as far as the land of the Negroes, which is sandy and uninhabited almost everywhere.

In this way, he had all Caesarean Mauritania, and a bit of Numidia, where there are a few cities, towns and villages, such as Tremecen, Constantine, Bône, Bougie, Tenez, Gigery, Cole, Lestore, Tadelis, and a few others.[11]

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And so ends Father Dan’s version of the careers of the Barbarossa Brothers—Aruch and Cheredin (more commonly known as Aruj and Hayreddin).

As you can see from Father Dan’s account, the Barbarossas weren’t “pirates” in the ordinary sense of that word. That is, they weren’t rogue actors out for simple personal gain. Rather, they were ambitious opportunists who used their piratical skills to carve out a dynasty for themselves in Algiers.

See the next post here in this blog for a continuation of the Barbarossa story.

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For those who may be interested…

The story of the Barbarossa brothers presented in this series of bog posts so far can be found in the second edition (published in 1649) of Father Pierre Dan’s Histoire de Barbarie, Livre second, chapitre premier, pp. 77-81. To my knowledge, nobody else has yet translated Father Dan’s work into English.

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[1]  “Cheredin” (more commonly spelled “Hayreddin”) is a rendering of the Arabic Khayr ad-Din, which can be variously translated as “the pious,” “the fruit of the [Islamic] religion,” “the best of the [Islamic] religion,” or “the goodness of the [Islamic] faith.” The name was an honorary title given the younger Barbarossa brother by the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, for whom he served as Kapudan-i Derya (also rendered as Kapudan Pasha), the Admiral of the Ottoman navy.

[2]  The “Great Lord of the Ottomans” was the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I, known as Suleiman the Magnificent, who ruled 1520-1566.

[3]  Janissaries were the elite troops of the Ottoman Empire. The term derives from yeniçeri, Turkish for “new soldier.” Traditionally, Janissary troops were created through a process known as devşirme, the systematic culling of teenage Christian boys from villages in the Balkans (then under Ottoman rule). These young conscripts were converted to Islam and trained to become warriors. At first, they served as a sort of Praetorian Guard for the Ottoman Sultans but then became more generally used as ordinary soldiers.

[4]  The Bâchas (also commonly known as Pashas) served as Ottoman Governors in Algiers for close to a century (from 1577 until 1659). It is often said that they served three-year terms, but in fact things were far less regular than that.

[5]  In French, the word “ponant” (Father Dan’s original French text reads “du côté du Ponant”) is a general term indicating the western part of the European continent, or the west in general. It can also refer to the west wind that blows across the Mediterranean. In this context, “on the Ponant side” simply means westwards.

[6]  “Cole” likely corresponds to modern Koléa, located only about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southeast of Algiers. “Bône” corresponds to the modern city of Annaba (known as Hippo Regius in Classical times), a seaport on the Mediterranean near Tunis. “Sala” might possibly correspond to the modern city of Dar-Sala, another Mediterranean seaport, west of Oran. “Rays” likely corresponds to modern Bir Mourad Raïs, just south of Algiers. “Bacha” could conceivably be modern Tarhit Bacha, an inland town a considerable distance southeast of Algiers. Cole (Koléa) and Rays (Bir Mourad Raïs) make perfect sense as places that Cheredin Barbarossa would need to overrun in order to increase Algerian hegemony in the region, since they both are located close to Algiers. Bône (Annaba) is also close enough to have been clearly within Algiers’ sphere of influence. Sala (Dar-Sala) makes less sense, since it is located considerably west of Algiers. Bacha (Tarhit Bacha) makes less sense still, being located quite far inland, southeast of Algiers, as it is. Perhaps, with Sala and Bacha, Father Dan intended different cities than the obvious modern cognates, or perhaps he was relying for information on local tradition, which was inaccurate, or he might possibly have misunderstood, misinterpreted, or misremembered details.

[7]  Father Dan’s date is wrong here. Cheredin Barbarossa could not have conquered these cities in 1555, for he died in 1546 in Istanbul.

[8]  Bougie (modern Béjaïa) had been in Spanish possession since 1510.

[9]  Under Cheredin (Hayreddin) Barbarossa, Algiers became the capital of an Ottoman sanjak (province or district). Over time, the city was transformed from a relatively minor port town to one of the major administrative and military centers of Ottoman North Africa—and the premier corsair capital of North Africa.

[10]  “Tabarque” corresponds to the modern city of Tarbarka, in present-day Tunisia. The Kingdom of Fez was the name by which the northern part of present-day Morocco was known from the eighth century CE until it became a French protectorate on the early twentieth century.

[11]  “Caesarean Mauritania” and “Numidia” are Roman names. Caesarean Mauritania (Mauretania Caesariensis) was a wide stretch of territory along the Mediterranean coast covering much of present-day Algeria westwards to the border with present-day Morocco. Numidia covered the northeastern part of present-day Algeria and northwestern Tunis. “Lestore” likely corresponds to modern Testour, in present-day Tunis. It is not clear what modern city “Tadelis” might refer to.