Barbarossa Is More Than One Person

The Barbarossa brothers' tale starts on the island of Lesbos, which is now part of Greece but was an Ottoman land from 1462 to 1912.

Barbarossa is Italian for “Red Beard,” a name that the Christian forces gave to the famed pirate who terrorized the Mediterranean for decades. But how exactly did the legend begin? And where does the iconic name of Barbarossa come from?

Brought up by the waves

Khayr ad-Din, Oruç, and their two brothers — Ilyas and Ishak — were born somewhere between 1466 and 1478 to a sipahi (professional cavalryman) father, Albanian or Turkish origins, and an orthodox Christian mother from Greek roots.

Their father took part in the Ottoman conquest of Lesbos in 1462 and proved himself useful. Consequently, he was granted the fief of Bonova (a village on the island) as a reward. He quickly became an established potter and purchased boats to facilitate the trade of his products. This business grew much more significant than he was expecting, thanks to the help of his children.

The four brothers all became seamen and were very engaged in sea trade and international affairs. Oruç was the first to begin his career and was later joined by Ilyas. Khayr ad-Din later obtained a ship and started his career as a seaman too. They initially worked as sailors, but due to the Knights of St John (a gang of privateers based on the island of Rhodes), they turned pirates in the Mediterranean.

Oruç and Ilyas, inseparable, operated in the Levant, from Anatolia to Egypt and Syria. Khayr ad-Din kept his business close to home and didn’t leave the Aegean Sea, basing all his operations in Thessaloniki. Ishak, the eldest, stayed in Lesbos and was in charge of the family finances.

Trouble at sea, trouble in the castle

Out of all his brothers, Oruç was the most successful and most notorious. Early in his career, he learned to speak multiple languages, including all the Mediterranean languages and dialects.

While returning from a trading expedition to Tripoli, Lebanon, his ship was captured by the Knights of St John. His brother Ilyas died in the fight, and Oruç was dangerously wounded and detained as a war prisoner in Bodrum Castle (southwest Turkey). For nearly three years, he was incarcerated before Khayr ad-Din discovered his location and managed to release him.

By that time, Oruç had already built a reputation as a valiant seaman and a fearless corsair. After his brother helped him escape, he went to Antalya, where he was given eighteen galleys by Şehzade Korkut — an Ottoman prince who was a short-time regent of the throne — the governor of the city. The prince charged Oruç with fighting the Knights of St John, who inflicted severe damage to the Ottoman trade routes and ships.

Later, when Korkut became the governor of Manisa, he gave Oruç six more galleys to participate in the Ottoman naval expedition against Apulia (Italy). He bombarded several castles and captured two ships. On his way back to Lesbos, he caught two more enemy ships. However, upon reaching his destination with the captured vessels and booty, he learned that Korkut had fled to Egypt to avoid being killed by succession disputes (being the brother-in-law of the new sultan Selim I).

Naturally, the doubtful logic of Oruç dictated that he should flee to Egypt, too, as his association with the exiled Ottoman prince was well-known. He sailed to Egypt and met with Korkut. He even managed to get an audience with the Mamluk (a reigning dynasty in Egypt) sultan, who gave him more ships and entrusted him with raiding Italy's coasts and the Christian islands.

The Kings of Algiers and the Western Mediterranean

In 1503, Oruç left Egypt for Tunisia and made the island of Djerba his new base of operations and his introduction to the western Mediterranean world.

Soon after, Khayr ad-Din and Ishak also joined him. They contacted the sultan of Tunisia and asked to use the extremely strategic capital port of La Goulette, which was granted to them for the price of a third of their spoils.

Over the following years, the Barbarossa brothers rose to prominence, and their fame increased among the North African communities. This was due to two main reasons.

First, the brothers preyed on various Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian ships as independent corsairs. Second, they were vital in transporting the Andalusian community from Christian Spain to North Africa after the Reconquista.

The latter earned Oruç the honorific title of Baba, which means “father” in Arabic. Due to similarities in the sound, Baba Oruç eventually became Barbarossa.

In 1516, the forces of the Barbarossa brothers attacked Algiers, and the city fell to Oruç. The Ottomans saw this development as an opportunity to expand their Middle Eastern and North African empires and started offering financial and political support to the three brothers. They then named Oruç Governor of Algiers and his brother, Khayr ad-Din, Admiral of Algiers.

The death of Oruç and the transition of power

In 1518, Oruç and Ishak died in a battle against the Spanish forces during the Fall of Tlemcen. The following year, Algiers, the center of power of the Barbarossa brothers, was captured by Spain. Over the next decade, the city would change hands multiple times.

Eventually, Khayr ad-Din, with Ottoman cannons and janissaries' help, managed to take the city back. He inherited his brother's title (Barbarossa) and his mission but was time and time again forced to call upon the Ottomans for protection. Even though Algiers became known as an autonomous corsair state, it was now more dependent on the Ottoman empire than ever.

Barbarossa’s (as there was now only one, who was to be known as the famous pirate) association with the Ottomans grew stronger over the years. After he captured Tunis in 1531, sultan Suleyman made him the kapudan pasha (grand admiral) of the Empire. He also served as the admiral in chief of the navy.

The conquest of the sea

As grand admiral of the Ottoman empire, Barbarossa exhibited remarkable resilience and invaluable experience in all sea matters.

In 1534, he left Constantinople at the head of eighty galleys and terrorized the Spaniards. He bombarded, invaded, and destroyed many ports and coastal cities.

At a particular time during his campaign, most major Mediterranean ports were controlled by Barbarossa's forces. This forced the church bells in Rome to sound the alarm.

The intensity by which he executed this campaign even pushed Emperor Charles of Spain to send a special agent to Barbarossa, offering him the "lordship of North Africa" to switch sides. The corsair refused by decapitating the messenger with his scimitar.

In 1541, after a second attempt to sway Barbarossa, emperor Charles himself laid siege to Algiers, trying to end the corsair's threat to the Spanish domains and Christian trade. It was known that the season was not ideal for such a campaign, and Charles was asked multiple times by his fleet commanders to cancel the operation. Eventually, a violent storm sent much of the Spanish armada around, and Barbarossa still ruled in Algiers.

Khayr ad-Din Barbarossa retired in 1545 in Constantinople, where he built a majestic seaside palace on the Bosphorus's shores, where he died a year later.

He left his son as his successor in Algiers and spent the last year of his life dictating his memoirs to another famous corsair by the name of Sinan, thus creating the Conquests of Khayr ad-Din Pasha. He is now buried in the tall mausoleum by the ferry port of Beşiktaş on the European side of Istanbul.