Hayreddin Barbarossa

Hayreddin Barbarossa was one of the most successful naval commanders of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. He was born Khizr, around 1478, on the island of Lesbos in the Ottoman Empire, which is now part of Greece. His father, Yakup Ağa, was a Turkish cavalry soldier of Albanian origin, and his mother, Katerina, was an Orthodox Christian and the widow of a Greek Orthodox priest. He had three brothers and two sisters. He and his brothers helped their father with his pottery business and later became seamen on international trade routes. They also turned to privateering on the Mediterranean Sea to counter the Knights Hospitaller, who were hostile to the Ottomans. His brother Ilyas was killed by the Knights of St. John, and another brother, Oruç, was captured and held at the Knight's castle in Bodrum, until he was rescued by Khizr. Oruç later gained the support of the Ottoman prince and was given 18 galleys to fight against the Knights of St. John, who were disrupting the Ottoman trade routes. Khizr joined his brother Oruç and went to Egypt, following the exile of the Ottoman prince who had given them his support. They were given more ships and made responsible for operations against Italy and the islands in the Mediterranean Sea. In 1516, they captured Algiers from Spain, with Oruç declaring himself Sultan. Following Oruç's death in 1518, Khizr inherited his brother's nickname, "Barbarossa" (meaning "Redbeard" in Italian). He also received the honorary name Hayreddin (meaning "Goodness of the faith" or "Best of the faith" in Arabic). 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. He was buried in his mausoleum near the ferry port of Beşiktaş, where his fleet used to assemble. He is regarded as a hero and a legend in Turkish and Muslim history.