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Background Oruç was one of four brothers: Ishak, Oruç, Ilyas and Hızır who were born in the 1470s on the island of Lesbos (Λέσβος) to their Muslim Turkish father, Yakup Ağa, and a Christian Greek mother, Katerina, who some say was the widow of a Christian priest. According to Ottoman archives Yakup Ağa was a Tımarlı Sipahi, i.e. a Turkish feudal cavalry knight, whose family had its origins in Eceabat and Balıkesir, and later moved to the Ottoman city of Vardar, near Selanik. Yakup Ağa was among those appointed by Sultan Mehmed II to capture Lesbos from the Genoese in 1462, and he was granted the fief of Bonova village as a reward for fighting for the cause. He married a local Greek girl from Mytilene named Katerina, and they had two daughters and four sons: Ishak, Oruç, Hızır and Ilyas. Yakup became an established potter and purchased a boat of his own to trade his products. The brothers helped the father out with his business but not much is known about the sisters. At first Oruç helped with the boat while Hızır helped with pottery. Early career All four brothers became seamen engaged in marine affairs and international sea trade. The first brother to be involved in seamanship was Oruç, who was joined by his brother Ilyas. Later, obtaining his own ship, Hızır also began his career at sea. The brothers initially worked as sailors, and then turned privateers in the Mediterranean to counteract the privateering of the Knights of St. John of the Island of Rhodes. Oruç and Ilyas operated in the Levant, between Anatolia, Syria, and Egypt. Hızır operated in the Aegean Sea and based his operations mostly in Selanik. Ishak the eldest son remained on Mytilene and was involved with the financial affairs of the family business. Death of Ilyas, captivity and liberation of Oruç Oruç the second son was a very successful seaman. He also learned to speak Italian, Spanish, French, Greek and Arabic in the early years of his career. While returning from a trading expedition in Tripoli, Lebanon with his younger brother Ilyas, they were attacked by the Knights of St. John who were based in Rhodes at that time, and Ilyas was killed during combat. Their father's boat was captured and Oruç, who was wounded while fighting, was taken as a prisoner and detained in the Bodrum Castle, which was controlled by the knights, for nearly three years. Upon learning the location of his brother, Hızır went to Bodrum and managed to help Oruç escape from Bodrum Castle. Oruç Reis the corsair Oruç later went to Italy and from there to Egypt, where he managed to get an audience with the Sultan Qansuh al-Ghawri, who gave him a ship which Oruç Reis used on raids against the shores of Italy and the islands of the Mediterranean that were controlled by Christians, from his base in Alexandria. Oruç Reis was later given 18 more galleys by Shehzade Korkud, Ottoman prince and governor of Antalya, who appointed him with the task of fighting against the Knights of St. John in Rhodes who inflicted serious damage on Ottoman shipping and trade. In the following years, when Shehzade Korkud became the governor of Manisa, he gave a larger fleet of 24 galleys to Oruç Reis at the port of Izmir and wanted him to participate in the Ottoman naval expedition to Italy, where Oruç raided many coastal castles, captured many ships and took them back to Lesbos. Djerba, La Goulette, Cherchell and Jijel In 1503 Oruç Reis managed to seize three more ships and made the island of Djerba his base, thus moving his operations to the Western Mediterranean. Hızır also joined Oruç Reis at Djerba. Oruç, being more experienced, assumed the overall command of their combined fleet. In 1504 they contacted Abu Abdullah Mohammed Hamis, sultan of Tunisia from the Beni Hafs dynasty, and asked the permission to use the strategically located port of La Goulette for their operations, and were granted the right with the condition of leaving 1/3 of their gains to the sultan. Oruç Reis, in command of small galliots, captured two much larger Papal galleys near the island of Elba. Later, near Lipari, the two brothers captured a Sicilian warship, the Cavalleria, with 380 Spanish soldiers and 60 Spanish knights from Aragon on board, on their way from Spain to Naples. In 1505 they raided the coasts of Calabria. Their success increased their fame and they were joined by seven other well-known Turkish corsairs, including Kurtoğlu (known in the West as Curtogoli.) In 1508 they raided the coasts of Liguria, particularly Diano Marina. In 1509 Ishak also left Mytilene and joined his brothers at La Goulette. The fame of Oruç Reis increased when between 1504 and 1510 he transported Muslim Mudejars from Christian Spain to North Africa. His efforts of helping the Muslims of Spain in need and transporting them to safer lands earned him the name Baba Oruç (Father Aruj), which eventually evolved in Spain and France into Barbarossa (Redbeard in Italian). In 1510 the three brothers raided Cape Passero in Sicily and repulsed a Spanish attack on Bougie, Oran and Algiers. In August 1511 they raided the areas around Reggio Calabria in southern Italy. Still in August 1512, the exiled ruler of Bougie invited the brothers to drive out the Spaniards, and during the battle Oruç Reis lost an arm. This incident earned him the nickname Gümüş Kol (Silver Arm in Turkish) in reference to the sliver prosthetic device which he used in place of his missing limb. In that same year the three brothers raided the coasts of Andalusia in Spain, capturing a galliot of the Lomellini family of Genoa who owned the Tabarca island in that area. They later landed on Minorca and captured a coastal castle after fighting against the local cavalry force, and later headed towards Liguria and captured four Genoese galleys near Genoa. The Genoese sent a fleet to liberate their ships but the brothers captured their flagship as well. After capturing a total of 23 ships in less than a month, the brothers sailed back to La Goulette. There they built 3 more galliots and edificed a gunpowder production facility in order to improve their resources of firepower. In 1513 they captured 4 English ships on their way to France, and raided Valencia where they captured 4 more ships before heading for Alicante and capturing a Spanish galley near Malaga. In 1513 and 1514 the three brothers and their men engaged the Spanish fleet in several other occasions and moved to their new base in Cherchell, east of Algiers. In 1514, with 12 galliots and 1,000 Turks, they destroyed two Spanish fortresses at Bougie, and when the Spanish fleet under the command of Miguel de Gurrea, viceroy of Majorca, arrived for assistance, they headed towards Ceuta and raided the city before capturing Jijel in Algeria, which was under Genoese control. They later captured Mahdiya in Tunisia. Afterwards they raided the coasts of Sicily, Sardinia, the Balearic Islands and the Spanish mainland, capturing 3 large ships there. In 1515 they captured several galleons, a galley and 3 barques at Majorca. Still in 1515 Oruç Reis sent precious gifts to the Ottoman Sultan Selim I who, in return, sent him 2 galleys and 2 swords embellished with diamonds. In 1516, joined by Kurtoğlu (Curtogoli), the brothers sieged the Castle of Elba Island, before heading towards Liguria where they captured 12 ships and damaged 28 others. Rulers of Algiers In 1516 the three brothers succeeded in liberating Jijel and Algiers from the Spaniards, but eventually assumed control over them, causing the ruler Abu Hamo Musa III of the Beni Ziyad dynasty to flee. The local Spaniards in Algiers had to seek refuge in the island of Peñón near Algiers, and asked Charles V, who had only recently become the King of Spain, to intervene, but the Spanish fleet failed to force the brothers out of Algiers. Algiers joins the Ottoman Empire After consolidating his power and declaring himself the new Sultan of Algiers, Oruç Reis sought to enhance his territory inlands and took Miliana, Medea and Tenes. He became known for attaching sails to cannons for transport through the deserts of North Africa. In 1517 the brothers raided Capo Limiti and later the Island of Capo Rizzuto in Calabria. The best protection against Spain for Oruç Reis was joining the Ottoman Empire, his homeland and Spain's main rival. For this he had to relinquish his title of Sultan of Algiers to the Ottomans. Befitting his name of Baba Oruç, he did this and stepped down in 1517. In response, the Ottomans accepted Algiers as an Ottoman Sanjak (Province) and appointed him Governor of Algiers and Chief Sea Governor of the Western Mediterranean, and promised to support him with janissaries, galleys and cannons. Final engagements and death of Oruç Reis and Ishak The Spaniards ordered Abu Zayan, whom they had appointed as the new ruler of Tlemcen and Oran, to attack Oruç Reis from land; but Oruç Reis learned the plan and pre-emptively striked against Tlemcen, capturing the city. There he executed Abu Zayan who had organized a combined force of Spanish soldiers and the local Muslim population to fight him. The only survivor of Abu Zayan's dynasty was Sheikh Buhammud, who escaped to Oran and called for Spain's assistance. On May 1518 Charles V arrived at Oran and was received at the port by Sheikh Buhammud and the Spanish governor of the city, Diego de Cordoba, marquess of Comares, who commanded a force of 10,000 Spanish soldiers. Joined by thousands of local Bedouins, the Spaniards marched on Tlemcen through land. Oruç Reis and Ishak encountered them in the city with 1,500 Turkish and 5,000 Moorish soldiers. Under siege, they defended Tlemcen for 20 days, but were eventually killed while combatting the forces of Garcia de Tineo. Hızır Reis, now given the title of Beylerbey by Selim I, along with janissaries, galleys and cannons, took his brother's place, his name (Barbarossa) and his mission. Legacy Oruç Reis established the Turkish presence in North Africa which lasted 4 centuries, de facto until the loss of Libya to Italy in 1912 and de jure until the official loss of Egypt to the United Kingdom in 1914, after the Ottoman Empire joined World War I on the side of the Central Powers. The Republic of Turkey officially renounced the remaining disputed Turkish rights in some territories of Egypt with the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. Several submarines of the Turkish Navy have been named after Oruç Reis. | |||||||||
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