Lords of the Sea

A History of the Barbary Corsairs

Alan G. Jamieson

• Publisher: Reaktion Books
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN:
  9781861899071
• eBook ISBN:
  9781861899460
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

Escalating piracy in the seas off Somalia has led commentators to designate the region the ‘new Barbary’. But the seizures and killings made to date by Somali pirates cannot compare with the three centuries of terror unleashed on Europeans by corsairs in the Mediterranean and beyond. From 1500 to 1800, murderous Muslim pirates from North Africa’s Barbary coast seized and enslaved more than a million Christians. Lords of the Sea gives us the full history of these pirates, first examining their dramatic impact as the violent seaborne vanguard of an expanding Ottoman empire in the early 1500s through to their break from Ottoman authority a century later.

Alan Jamieson explores how the corsairs of Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli and other fortified coastal ports rose to the apogee of their powers, extending their activities from the Mediterranean into the Atlantic, raiding as far as the British Isles and Iceland. Rescuing captive Christians touched everyone in a Western state, from ambassadors obliged to negotiate to rural communities directed by Sunday sermons to contribute to the fund required to buy back their enslaved countrymen and women. While corsair activities declined in the 18th century, it was only a series of naval wars prosecuted into the early years of the 19th by various European states as well as a determined USA that finally ended the menace, culminating in the French conquest of Algiers in 1830.

A welcome addition to nautical military history, Lords of the Sea is an engrossing tale of piracy, enslavement and the rise of the great powers.

INDEX

A Christian Turn’d Turke 90

Aachen 206

Abd al-Malik 71

Abdallah, ruler of Morocco 185

Abdallah ben Aicha 160

Abderrahman, ruler of Morocco 190

Abid al-Bukhari 158

Acre 202

Acton, Sir John 200

Aden, gulf of 219, 221

Admiralty, the 159

Adriatic Sea 65–7, 89, 98–9, 190, 196

Aegean Sea 34, 101, 124, 135, 138, 149, 151, 153, 206

Afghanistan 220

Africa 18, 20, 31, 39, 128, 178, 219

Ahmad al-Mansur 71, 81, 103, 106, 122, 129, 158

Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Qadi 122

Ahmed, governor of Constantine 214

Ahmed I, Ottoman sultan 96

Ahmed ben Abdallah 126

Ahmed el-Haddad 195

Ahmed Karamanli 184

Aicha 126

Aix-la-Chapelle, congress of 206

Alawite dynasty 111, 158

Alba, duke of 24

Albania 67, 99, 100, 112, 194

Alberoni, Cardinal 169–70

Albornoz, José Carrillo de, count of Montemar 171

Alcaudete, count of (I) 52

Alcaudete, count of (II) 56

Alcazarquivir 71, 84, 122

Aldersey, Lawrence 123

Alexandria 39, 58, 62, 66, 89, 99, 125, 207

Algarve 79

Algeria 20, 37, 71, 96, 157, 159, 204, 208, 209, 210, 212–15

Algiers (city & regency) 12, 16–18, 20, 23–8, 33, 36–41, 43, 46–7, 49, 51–2, 56, 58, 62–3, 66–7, 69, 71–3, 75–81, 83–5, 87–9, 91–108, 111–23, 129, 131–5, 137–159, 162, 165–82, 184, 190, 192–215, 218, 220, 221

Ali al-Mandari 103

Ali Bitchin 98–101, 117

Ali Zayde 85

Alicante 79, 93, 171

Allin, Sir Thomas 143–4

Almaden 127

Almohads 30

Almoravids 30

Alps, the 24

Alpujarras mountains 62

Alwin, Elizabeth 102

American independence, war of 176

Amsterdam 144

Anatolia 16, 34, 38, 47, 67, 94, 124, 184, 194, 211

Andalusia 25, 31, 62–3, 65, 83, 85, 105, 107, 109, 110

Anglo-Dutch wars 136, 143, 145

Annaba 29

Arab revolt (2011) 220

Arabia 28

Arabic 12, 29

Arabs 16, 84, 158, 194

Aragon 28–32, 36, 82–3

d’Aramon, Gabriel 49

Argentina (captive) 126

Arnaut Mami 112

Aruj see Barbarossa (I)

Asbjarnarson, Jon 77

Asilah 159

Atahualpa 42

Atlantic Ocean 18, 20, 31, 72, 75–6, 78–80, 86–7, 89, 91–2, 103, 105, 107–8, 115, 123, 140, 142, 158, 160, 167, 189, 193, 195, 219

Atlantic/African slave trade 18, 20, 188, 202

Augsburg, league of 152

Austria 18, 23, 94, 149, 150, 152, 156, 170, 190–93, 197, 204, 214

Aydin Reis 40

Azores 75, 86, 160

Bab al Mandab strait 219, 221

Baba Hassan 132–3

Baghdad 100

Bainbridge, William 165–9, 189, 200, 217

Baker, Francis 150

Baker, Thomas 150–51, 153–4

Bakri family 207

Bakri, Jacob 208

Balearic Islands 30, 39, 40, 43, 51, 144

Balkans, the 16, 38, 194

Baltimore (Ireland) 78, 106

Bandiera, Francesco 190

Barbarigo, Agostino 66

Barbarossa (I) (Aruj) 33–8, 40

Barbarossa (II) (Khizr) 23–4, 33–49, 51–2, 59–62, 64, 84, 114–15, 153, 176, 194

Barbary wars (of USA) 12–13, 165–9, 200–2, 217

Barcelo, Antonio 176

Barcelona 29, 50, 55, 79, 112, 170, 171

Barron, Samuel 200, 201

Bart, Jean 13, 154

Barton, Edward 80

Bastion of France 96–8, 100, 142, 177

Bayezid II, Ottoman sultan 29

Bazan, Alvaro de 56–7, 66, 68, 103

Beach, Richard 144

Beaufort, duc de see Vendôme, François de

Beaulieu-Persac 92, 96

Beirut 167

Beja 63

Bejaia 29

Berbers 14, 16, 27, 63, 84, 142–3, 157, 158

Besiktas 47

Bessastadir 76

Birgu 58–9

Biscay, bay of 160

Bishop, Richard 89

Bizerta 35–6, 64, 70, 179, 194

‘Black Hawk Down’ 221

Black Sea 14–15, 72, 153...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• MAPS
• Introduction: The Barbary Legend
• ONE: Vanguard of the Sultan, 1492–1580
• TWO: Lords of the Sea, 1580–1660
• THREE: Facing the Sea Powers, 1660–1720
• FOUR: Decline, Revival and Extinction, 1720–1830
• Conclusion: A New Barbary?
• GLOSSARY OF PLACE NAME CHANGES
• CHRONOLOGY
• REFERENCES
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• PHOTO ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• INDEX