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Hayreddin Barbarossa’s Story – The Greatest Ottoman Naval Admiral

Hello everyone, this is the Historiographer. Today we will continue the legendary storyof Hayreddin Barbarosssa, where we shall see the ways Barbarossa defined the naval strugglebetween Spain and the ottomans and the way his actions led to a build up to the battlewhich would seal the fate of the mediterannean sea for the next third of a century, the staggeringbattle of Preveza. Barbarossa used his new powers as a Pasha and Berlerbey of Algiers and continued theevacuation of muslim Andalusians from Spain to North Africa,

thus he gained a sizeableand grateful manpower pool. Hayreddin, seeking to secure his domain, finallyrecaptured Tlemcen from Spain in December 1518 , the city of Annaba the next year and,with a fresh force of Turkish soldiers sent by the Ottoman sultan, he defeated a Spanishforce sent to capture Algiers. In response to the Habsburg attacks, Barbarossawent on the offensive . He sank a Spanish ship and captured eight others near the straightsof Gibraltar. A new SultanBy late 1520, Sultan Selim had died and was succeeded by his son ,

Hayreddin Barbarossa History In English

Suleiman the first. The new 26 year old Sultan, energetic andcunning, was determined to prove himself. Thus, after defeating a minor rebellion bythe governor of Syria and securing his rule, he led his armies to the serbo-hungarian cityof Belgrade which lied on the banks of the Danube river, the city which had successfullydefended against an attack by Mehmed the Conqeror , Suleiman’s great grandfather in 1456 andhad for so long acted as a barrier to ottoman expansion in the Hungarian plateau . Nevertheless,Belgrade was captured in august of 1521, earning the young Sultan a great deal of prestigeand fame. When Suleiman returned to Constantinople, he started working with his Vizier and trustedfriend, Ibrahim Pasha, on a plan to conquer the impregnable Island of Rhodes and rid theeastern mediterannean of the piracy of The knights which were a thorn in the ottomanside for more than a century.

History Of Khairuddin Barbarossa In English || Hayreddin Barbarossas In English || Ottoman Empire History In English

In the ottoman court’s eyes, Rhodes hadto be captured in order to secure the empire’s back and finally establish full control overthe eastern mediterannean. After a year of meticulous planning, Suleimanlanded with a fleet of more than 400 ships and 100000 men on the island. Barbarossa, seeking to finally oust his oldfoes from the island, did not miss the chance to contribute to the war efforts. Indeed, he sailed from Algiers with a fleetof 20 warships to Rhodes. After a grueling siege of 5 months, the fortressof Rhodes was finally captured by December 1522, ending a century of piracy in the easternmediterannean basin. In the subsequent years, Barbarossa strengthened his position in Algeria and crushed minorrebellions while simultaneously sending his admirals to raid Spanish coastal cities andto transport the thousands of andalusians hiding in the Spanish hinterlands. After fully securing his position ,

Barbarossa History In English : Urdu

he finallyset his sight on the rock of Penon, which was only 300 meters away from the city ofAlgiers and presented a major threat to the citiy’s inhabitants. In May 1529, he succeeded in capturing theSpanish fort on the island of Peñón after bombarding it for 20 days. The 700 strong Spanish garrison surrenderedand he used the rubble to construct fortifications on the harbor of Algiers. Barbarossa then spent the rest of 1529 transportingthousands of Andalusians . In total, 7 sorties were conducted by Barbarossa. Many sources agree that the total number ofAndalusians that were transported to Algiers was over 70000 people. Barbarossa later settled these people in Algeriaand gave them agricultural land to cultivate. Due to these relentless expeditions , thepeople of Andalusia and North Africa bestowed upon him the nickname “ Khayreddin” , meaningthe good of the faith, which is another title he would become known by. The fall of Penon came as a shock to Spanishefforts and by now, Charles V,

the Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain was sick of Barbarossaand his constant raids and resistance. In 1530, Seeking to eliminate Barbarossa andrecapture Algiers, the emperor sent Andrea Dorea , a Genoese admiral, at the head ofa combined Spanish-Genoese fleet of 40 galleys .Andrea Dorea’s fleet was intercepted by Barbarossa who had expected such a move andDorea was forced to retreat. In response to the attacks, Hayreddin raidedthe coasts of southern Italy and liberated the town of Tripoli in Libya from the knightsHospitallier who now made of the island of malta their new base of operations after beingexpelled from Rhodes in 1522 .

He then proceeded to raid the coast of Andalusia and finallyreturned to Algiers by mid 1531. During Suleiman I’s expedition to Habsburg Austria in 1532, Andrea Doria captured manycities from the ottomans on the coast of southern Greece. These greek cities were retaken by Suleiman,but the event made the sultan realize the importance of having a powerful commanderat sea. He thus summoned Barbarossa to Istanbul, whoarrived at the imperial city later that year after leaving his adopted son Hasan reis,in his place. Upon arriving,

Barbarossa was made : Kapudan-i-Deryaof the ottoman fleets, the highest possible naval rank. As the captain of the fleet, he became a memberof the (Diwan of the Sultan) or the Council of Ministers of the Ottoman Empire, and theSultan granted him wide powers with regard to shipbuilding and the organization of thefleet – the sources mention that hayreddin became the Sultan’s closest advisor. Relying on his experience, Hayreddin startedby ordering the shipbuilding factories in Istanbul to build sixty-one ship hulls ina short period of time. Sultan Suleiman greatly supported Hayreddin with his naval strategy.

Hayreddin’s policy was summarized in Qualityover quantity. He thus revolutionized the ottoman arsenalby building warships with cannons that have a greater range and selling the old ones. This has been part 2 of the Barbarossa series,where we have seen the build up to the battle of Preveza, thank you for watching.

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