On the Mediterranean coast of the sixteenth century, the name barbarossa Heredin could not be avoided, a Turkish pirate who, at the behest of the Ottoman Sultan, carried out bloody ravages on the Christian states along the Mediterranean coast and repeatedly inflicted heavy damage on the European navy. In the eyes of Europeans, Hayreddin was a heinous devil who brought many painful memories to the inhabitants of the European coast, while in the Islamic world, Hayreddin was described as a legendary hero.
Model of Hayreddin's warship
Around the 1670s, Hayreddin was born on the ottoman island of Lesvos to a Turkish craftsman who made pottery and a Greek mother. Growing up, Heereddin and his two brothers became pirates in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas, and later in a war, one of Herreddin's younger brothers was killed by the Knights of St. John, and his older brother Oruch was wounded and captured, and was imprisoned by the Knights of St. John in the prison of Bodrus.
Upon learning of his brother's imprisonment, Hayreddin immediately took his own warship to rescue his brother, and after successfully rescuing his brother Oruch, the two brothers began to build their own pirate fleet in the Mediterranean, specializing in attacking European merchant ships and coastal cities. In addition, Haéredin was also responsible for escorting Moorish refugees fleeing the Iberian Peninsula, and after the end of the Spanish reconquista, a large number of Moors who did not want to convert were forced to leave the Iberian Peninsula, and they returned to North Africa under the escort of Kharedin, many of whom joined the pirate ranks of Haérédin.
As the brothers' career grew, Sultan Selim I of the Ottoman Empire began to pay attention to the Turkish pirates and provided them with much assistance, in return for which Hayreddin dedicated most of his Algerian and Tunisian lands to the Ottoman Empire. After the death of his brother Orucci,
Heredin dyed his beard red as a way to swear to inherit his brother's unfinished business. Since then, Hayreddin has been constantly fighting the European navy, each time defeating the European navy with weak troops.
By 1540, Hayreddin had been appointed commander of the Imperial Navy by Sultan Suleiman I of the Ottoman Empire. In September of that year, in order to punish Hayreddin's ravages on the inhabitants of the European coast, the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire formed a navy and personally led this navy to conquest of Hayreddin's pirate army.
The European navy led by Charles V had more than two hundred warships, and the number of Hayreddin warships was only half theirs. By 20 October, Charles V's army had successfully landed in Algiers, North Africa, a port city that had been home to Hayreddin. Since Hayreddin was helping Suleiman I attack Hungary at the time, the task of defending the city was entrusted to Hayreddin's subordinate Hassan. On 23 October, when heavy rain suddenly fell on Algiers and the Muskets of the European army were too wet to be used, Hassan led his army to rush out and caught the europeans who landed by surprise.
After the Europeans were driven out of Algiers, Hayreddin sent a fleet to attack Charles V's navy, and after a full day of fighting at sea, Charles V's fleet was almost completely destroyed, and Charles V fled in small boats. After this war,
Hayreddin returned to Algiers, and on his ship were loaded with countless plundered European inhabitants, plus 8,000 European soldiers captured by Hassan, and about twenty thousand Europeans entered the slave markets of Algiers.
The Mausoleum of Hayreddin
The victory in this war directly affected the slave market in Algiers, and the price of slaves in Algiers plummeted due to the large number of captured European residents. A sixteenth-century Tunisian historian wrote about it:
"When Redbeard Hae-Redding returned to Algiers, a large number of captured Europeans entered the slave market here, and the inhabitants of North Africa exchanged sheep for white slave girls, a female slave from Europe was only worth two sheep, while male slaves were even cheaper, and it was said that a bag of onions could be exchanged for a strong male slave."
By 1546, Hayreddin had fallen ill and died in Istanbul, and the inhabitants of Europe, whom he had ravaged for years, were finally relieved. After Hereddin's death, his body was buried near the Golden Horn in the Prussian Strait, and the Turks still revere Heredin to this day, and every Turkish ship passing through Herreddin's mausoleum will lower its sails to pay tribute to the initiator of the "holy war at sea".