Hayreddin Barbarossa

16th century Ottoman corsair and later admiral of the Ottoman navy

the Ottoman admiral

Hayreddin Barbarossa (خير الدين بربروس, original name: Khiḍr; 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.

Khizr was born sometime between 1466 and 1483 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 couple married Given the title of Beylerbey by Sultan Selim I, along with janissaries, galleys and cannon, he inherited his brother's position, his name (Barbarossa) and his mission.

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. In July 1526, Barbarossa appeared once again in Messina and raided the coasts of Campania. In 1527, he raided many ports and castles on the coasts of Italy and Spain. In May 1529, he captured the Spanish fort on the island of Peñón of Algiers. In August 1529, he attacked the Mediterranean coasts of Spain, and later, answering Andalusia's requests for help in crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, he transported 70,000 mudéjars to Algiers in seven consecutive journeys. In January 1530, he again raided the coasts of Sicily and, in March and June of that year, the Balearic Islands and Marseilles. In July 1530, he appeared along the coasts of the Provence and Liguria, capturing two Genoese ships. In August 1530, he raided the coasts of Sardinia and, in October, appeared at Piombino, capturing a barque from Viareggio and three French galleons before capturing two more ships off Calabria. In December 1530, he captured the Castle of Cabrera, in the Balearic Islands, and began to use the island as a logistic base for his operations on the area. In 1531, he encountered Andrea Doria, who had been appointed by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor to recapture Jijel and the Peñón of Algiers, and repulsed a Spanish Genoese fleet of 40 galleys. Still in 1531, he raided the island of Favignana, where the flagship of the Maltese Knights under the command of Francesco Touchebeuf unsuccessfully attacked his fleet. Barbarossa then sailed eastwards and landed in Calabria and Apulia. On the way back to Algiers, he sank a ship of the Maltese Knights near Messina before assaulting Tripoli, which had been given to the Knights of St John by Charles V in 1530. In October 1531, he again raided the coasts of Spain. He also pillaged the Îles d'Hyères during the same year. In 1532, during Suleiman I's expedition to Habsburg Austria, Andrea Doria captured Coron, Patras and Lepanto on the coasts of the Morea (Peloponnese). In response, Suleiman sent the forces of Yahya Pashazade Mehmed Bey, who recaptured these cities, but the event made Suleiman realize the importance of having a powerful commander at sea. He summoned Barbarossa to Istanbul, who set sail in August 1532. Having raided Sardinia, Bonifacio in Corsica, and the islands of Montecristo, Elba and Lampedusa, he captured 18 galleys near Messina and learned from the captured prisoners that Doria was headed to Preveza. Barbarossa proceeded to raid the nearby coasts of Calabria and then sailed towards Preveza. Doria's forces fled after a short battle, but only after Barbarossa had captured seven of their galleys. He arrived at Preveza with a total of 44 galleys, but sent 25 of them back to Algiers and headed to Constantinople with 19 ships. There, he was received by Sultan Suleiman at Topkapı Palace. Suleiman appointed Barbarossa Kapudan i Derya ("Grand Admiral") of the Ottoman Navy and Beylerbey ("Chief Governor") of North Africa. Barbarossa was also given the government of the sanjak ("province") of Rhodes and those of Euboea and Chios in the Aegean Sea.

In 1533, Barbarossa sent an embassy to the king of France, Francis I, the Ottoman embassy to France (1533). Francis I would in turn dispatch Antonio Rincon to Barbarossa in North Africa and then to Suleiman the Magnificent in Asia Minor. Following a second embassy, the Ottoman embassy to France (1534), Francis I sent his ambassador Jehan de la Forest to Hayreddin Barbarossa, asking for his naval support against the Habsburg:"Jehan de la Forest, whom the King sends to meet with the Grand Signor [Suleiman the Magnificent], will first go from Marseilles to Tunis, in Barbary, to meet sir Haradin, king of Algiers, who will direct him to the Grand Signor. To this objective, next summer, he [the King of France] will send the military force he is preparing to recover what it unjustly occupied by the Duke of Savoy, and from there, to attack the Genoese. This king Francis I strongly prays sir Haradin, who has a powerful naval force as well as a convenient location [Tunisia], to attack the island of Corsica and other lands, locations, cities, ships and subjects of Genoa, and not to stop until they have accepted and recognized the king of France. The King, besides the above land force, will additionally help with his naval force, which will comprise at least 50 vessels, of which 30 galleys, and the rest galeasses and other vessels, accompanied by one of the largest and most beautiful carracks that ever was on the sea. This fleet will accompany and escort the army of sir Haradin, which will also be refreshed and supplied with food and ammunition by the King, who, by these actions, will be able to achieve his aims, for which he will be highly grateful to sir Haradin".|Military instructions to Jehan de la Forest, by Chancellor Antoine Duprat, 11 February 1534.

In 1534, Barbarossa set sail from Constantinople with 80 galleys, and in April, he recaptured Coron, Patras and Lepanto from the Spaniards. In July 1534, he crossed the Strait of Messina and raided the Calabrian coasts, capturing a substantial number of ships around Reggio Calabria as well as the Castle of San Lucido. He later destroyed the port of Cetraro and the ships harbored there. Also in July 1534, he appeared in Campania and sacked the islands of Capri and Procida before bombarding the ports in the Gulf of Naples, where 7,800 captives were taken. He then appeared in Lazio, shelled Gaeta and in August landed at Villa Santa Lucia, Sperlonga, Fondi, Terracina and Ostia on the River Tiber, causing the church bells in Rome to sound the alarm. In Sperlonga he took 10,000 captives and when he arrived in Fondi the janissaries entered the city through the main gates and completely ransacked the palace of Giulia Gonzaga. He then sacked, torched and destroyed Vallecorsa slaughtering some townspeople and taking others captive. He sailed south, appearing at Ponza, Sicily and Sardinia, before capturing Tunis in August 1534 and sending the Hafsid Sultan Mulay Hassan fleeing. Charles dispatched an agent to offer Barbarossa "the lordship of North Africa" for his changed loyalty, or if that failed, to assassinate him. However, upon rejecting the offer, Barbarossa decapitated the agent with a scimitar. Mulei Hassan asked Emperor Charles V for help in recovering his kingdom, and a Spanish Italian force of 300 galleys and 24,000 soldiers recaptured Tunis as well as Bône and Mahdiya in 1535. Recognizing the futility of armed resistance, Barbarossa had abandoned Tunis well before the arrival of the invaders, sailing away into the Tyrrhenian Sea, where he bombarded ports, landed once again at Capri and reconstructed a fort (which still today carries his name) after largely destroying it during the siege of the island. He then sailed to Algiers, from where he raided the coastal towns of Spain, destroyed the ports of Majorca and Menorca, captured several Spanish and Genoese galleys and liberated their Muslim oar slaves. In September 1535, he repulsed another Spanish attack on Tlemcen. In 1536, Barbarossa was called back to Constantinople to take command of 200 ships in a naval attack on the Habsburg Kingdom of Naples. In July 1537, he landed at Otranto and captured the city, as well as the Fortress of Castro and the city of Ugento in Apulia. In August 1537, Lütfi Pasha and Barbarossa led a huge Ottoman force that captured the Aegean and Ionian islands belonging to the Republic of Venice, namely Syros, Aegina, Ios, Paros, Tinos, Karpathos, Kasos, Kythira, and Naxos. In the same year, Barbarossa raided Corfu and obliterated the agricultural cultivations of the island while enslaving nearly all the population of the countryside. However, the Old Fortress of Corfu was well defended by a 4,000 strong Venetian garrison with 700 guns, and when several assaults failed to capture the fortifications, the Turks reluctantly re embarked and once again raided Calabria. These losses prompted Venice to ask Pope Paul III to organize a "Holy League" against the Ottomans. In February 1538, Pope Paul III succeeded in assembling a Holy League (composed of the Papacy, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, the Republic of Venice and the Maltese Knights) against the Ottomans, but Barbarossa's forces led by Sinan Reis defeated its combined fleet, commanded by Andrea Doria, at the Battle of Preveza in September 1538. This victory secured Ottoman dominance over the Mediterranean for the next 33 years, until the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. In the summer of 1539, Barbarossa captured the islands of Skiathos, Skyros, Andros, and Serifos and recaptured Castelnuovo from the Spanish, who had taken it from the Ottomans after the battle of Preveza. He also captured the nearby Castle of Risan, and with Sinan Reis, later assaulted the Venetian fortress of Cattaro and the Spanish fortress of Santa Veneranda near Pesaro. Barbarossa later took the remaining Christian outposts in the Ionian and Aegean Seas. Venice finally signed a peace treaty with Sultan Suleiman in October 1540, agreeing to recognize the Ottoman territorial gains and to pay 300,000 gold ducats. In 1540 Barbarossa led a crew of 2,000 men and captured and ransacked the town of Gibraltar. He left Gibraltar after taking 75 prisoners which removed a significant percent of Gibraltar’s population, he ultimately eliminated the town of almost an entire generation of Gibraltarians. In the spring of 1544, after assaulting San Remo for the second time and landing at Borghetto Santo Spirito and Ceriale, Barbarossa defeated another Spanish Italian fleet and raided deeply into the Kingdom of Naples. He then sailed to Genoa with his 210 ships and threatened to attack the city unless it freed Turgut Reis, who had been serving as a galley slave on a Genoese ship and then was imprisoned in the city since his capture in Corsica by Giannettino Doria in 1540. Barbarossa was invited by Andrea Doria to discuss the issue at Villa del Principe, his palace in Fassolo, Genoa. The two admirals negotiated the release of Turgut Reis in exchange for 3,500 gold ducats. Barbarossa then successfully repulsed further Spanish attacks on southern France, but was recalled to Istanbul after Charles V and Suleiman had agreed to a truce in 1544. After leaving Provence from the port of Île Sainte Marguerite in May 1544, Barbarossa assaulted San Remo for the third time, and when he appeared before Vado Ligure, the Republic of Genoa sent him a substantial sum to save other Genoese cities from further attacks. In June 1544, Barbarossa appeared before Elba. Threatening to bombard Piombino unless the city's Lord released the son of Sinan Reis who had been captured and baptized 10 years earlier by the Spaniards in Tunis, he obtained his release. after which, he threatened Pozzuoli. Encountering 30 galleys under Giannettino Doria, Barbarossa forced them to sail away towards Sicily and seek refuge in Messina. Due to strong winds, the Ottomans were unable to attack Salerno but managed to land at Cape Palinuro nearby. Barbarossa then entered the Strait of Messina and landed at Catona, Fiumara and Calanna (near Reggio Calabria) and later at Cariati and at Lipari, which was his final landing on the Italian peninsula. There, he bombarded the citadel for 15 days after the city refused to surrender and eventually captured it. He finally returned to Constantinople and, in 1545, left the city for his final naval expeditions, during which he bombarded the ports of the Spanish mainland and landed at Majorca and Menorca for the last time. He then sailed back to Constantinople and built a palace on the Bosphorus, in the present day quarter of Büyükdere in the Sarıyer district.

Barbarossa retired in Constantinople in 1545, leaving his son Hasan Pasha as his successor in Algiers. He then dictated his memoirs to Muradi Sinan Reis. They consist of five hand written volumes known as Gazavat ı Hayreddin Paşa (Conquests of Hayreddin Pasha). Today, they are exhibited at the Topkapı Palace and Istanbul University Library. They are prepared and published by Babıali Kültür Yayıncılığı as Kaptan Paşa'nın Seyir Defteri (The Logbook of the Captain Pasha) by Prof. Dr. Ahmet Şimşirgil, a Turkish academic. They are also fictionalised as Akdeniz Bizimdi (The Mediterranean was Ours) by M. Ertuğrul Düzdağ. Barbarossa is also one of the main characters in Mika Waltari's book The Wanderer (1949). Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha died in 1546 in his seaside palace in the Büyükdere neighbourhood of Istanbul, on the northwestern shores of the Bosphorus. He is buried in the tall mausoleum (türbe) near the ferry port of the district of Beşiktaş on the European side of Istanbul, which was built in 1541 by the famous architect Mimar Sinan, at the site where his fleet used to assemble. His memorial was built in 1944, next to his mausoleum.

The Arabic calligraphy at the top of the standard reads, " نَصرٌ مِنَ اللَّـهِ وَفَتحٌ قَريبٌ وَبَشِّرِ المُؤمِنينَ يَا مُحَمَّد" (nasrun mina'llāhi wa fatḥhun qarībun wa bashshiri'l mu’minīna yā muḥammad), translated as "Victory from Allah and an eminent conquest; and give good tidings to the believers, O Muhammad." The text comes from verse 61:13 of the Quran, with the addition of "O Muhammad", since the last part of the verse addresses the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. Within the four crescents are the names, from right to left, beginning at the top right, of the first four caliphs – Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali – whose rule of the Islamic state after Muhammad is referred to as the Rashidun Caliphate. The two bladed sword represents Dhu'l Fiqar, a famous sword in Islamic history, belonging first to Muhammad and then Ali. To the left of the sword's hilt is a small hand. Between the two blades of the sword is a six pointed star. The star may be confused with the Star of David, a Jewish symbol. However, in medieval times, this star was a popular Islamic symbol known as the Seal of Solomon and was widely used by the Beyliks of Anatolia. The seal was later used by the Ottomans in their mosque decorations, coins and the personal flags of the pashas, including Hayreddin Barbarossa. One of the Turkish beyliks known to use the seal on its flag was the Jandarids. According to the Catalan Atlas of 1375 by A. Cresques, the flag of the Karamanids, another Anatolian beylik, consisted of a blue six edged star.

Hayreddin Barbarossa has been the subject of many Turkish films. In the 2021 Turkish TV series Barbaros: Sword of the Mediterranean, Hayreddin Barbarossa is portrayed by actor Ulas Tuna Astepe. In the 2022 Turkish TV series Barbaros Hayreddin: Sultan's Edict, Hayreddin Barbarossa is portrayed by actor Tolgahan Sayışman. It should also be noted that the name of Hector Barbossa (Barbosa is also a Galician Portuguese surname), a fictional character in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series, is a derivative of Hayreddin Barbarossa's.