Ottoman Guns

[Codger Craig Wilcox]

From the Marine Corps Hymn: "To the shores of Tripoli..."

Not sung because it rhymed, but because they fought and won there.

Semper Fi

Would have disliked being the guy detailed to polish those firearms - and they sure did believe in long rifles!

 

[TobJohn]

You may notice that the men in these photos look more European than North African/Arabic. Algeria was a hot bed for piracy and the Barbary Slave Trade, where European Christians were captured at sea or by raids. It was also a place European pirates could find safe haven, if they converted to Islam. The most famous of which was the English pirate Jack Ward, whom Jack Sparrow is supposedly based on. There were around a million European slaves in the 17th century, many of whom were freed after converting to Islam as well and going on to be important member of society.
The Barbary Pirates attacks led to the USA fighting their first major war in the Arab world.

The pirate raiding in the Mediterranean is a particularly interesting subject. For the vast majority of navies in the Mediterranean, galleys essentially use manpower as an expendable resource. Galleys are needed to raid and to power galleys, you need captives from raids, so it’s a self perpetuating need.

The Christians also raided across the Mediterranean, but the Muslims were undeniably more successful. One of the major driving forces for conflict between the Knights of Rhodes/Malta and the Ottoman Empire is that the knights frequently raided the water routes used for the Hajj and as the defender of Islam, the sultan obviously needed to respond.

There are many possible reasons for the Muslims dominance in piracy in the early periods. One of which is that the reconquista’s ethnic cleansing forced a lot of Spanish Muslims into western North Africa. This provided a population that were familiar with their raiding targets in Spain and had grudge. The Muslims also benefitted from a more unified purpose, with the pirate states and the ottomans having similar goals (the pirate states were often ottoman vassals, too), while the Christians, despite Hapsburg dominance, were just as likely to be in conflict with each other. The Venetians, despite multiple famous conflicts with the ottomans, were just as likely to trade with them, much to the frustration of other Christian states. Infamously, the French even offered Muslim fleets access to French ports to fight their common enemy of the Hapsburgs. Muslim raiding was so catastrophic along the Mediterranean that whole communities would be depopulated in Italy.

As Cyten mentions, there was the possibility of advancement for non Turks and converted Christians, with several of the most famous pirates and admirals belonging to this group. Hayreddin Bararossa was Greek and born to a Christian mother and became one of histories most successful pirates and later grand admiral of the ottoman fleet. Occhiali/Giovanni Dionigi Galeni was an Italian that was captured as a galley slave, but converted to Islam and became a successful Corsair, later admiral, and commanded a portion of the Ottomans fleet at Lapento.

 

[Rudyard]

The pirate raiding in the Mediterranean is a particularly interesting subject. For the vast majority of navies in the Mediterranean, galleys essentially use manpower as an expendable resource. Galleys are needed to raid and to power galleys, you need captives from raids, so it’s a self perpetuating need.

The Christians also raided across the Mediterranean, but the Muslims were undeniably more successful. One of the major driving forces for conflict between the Knights of Rhodes/Malta and the Ottoman Empire is that the knights frequently raided the water routes used for the Hajj and as the defender of Islam, the sultan obviously needed to respond.

There are many possible reasons for the Muslims dominance in piracy in the early periods. One of which is that the reconquista’s ethnic cleansing forced a lot of Spanish Muslims into western North Africa. This provided a population that were familiar with their raiding targets in Spain and had grudge. The Muslims also benefitted from a more unified purpose, with the pirate states and the ottomans having similar goals (the pirate states were often ottoman vassals, too), while the Christians, despite Hapsburg dominance, were just as likely to be in conflict with each other. The Venetians, despite multiple famous conflicts with the ottomans, were just as likely to trade with them, much to the frustration of other Christian states. Infamously, the French even offered Muslim fleets access to French ports to fight their common enemy of the Hapsburgs. Muslim raiding was so catastrophic along the Mediterranean that whole communities would be depopulated in Italy.

As Cyten mentions, there was the possibility of advancement for non Turks and converted Christians, with several of the most famous pirates and admirals belonging to this group. Hayreddin Bararossa was Greek and born to a Christian mother and became one of histories most successful pirates and later grand admiral of the ottoman fleet. Occhiali/Giovanni Dionigi Galeni was an Italian that was captured as a galley slave, but converted to Islam and became a successful Corsair, later admiral, and commanded a portion of the Ottomans fleet at Lapento.

My that's quite a piece ,well done to research all that, but accords with my limited study & understanding Wandering round that area 60 years ago gave me a better appreciation of that regional culture and I think it stayed with me. Where as the European Soldiers regarded such people as awfull thieves . But they only saw the villanous rogues you expect round an Army base .Sailors too could never really absorb the culture each haveing his Watch could only go a limited way beyound the Bars in Ports like Casablanca .Not so with unsceduled tramps of my sort & I got on fine from my first stay with a roadside Night watchman on my first days hitch south of Ciuta /Tanger off the ferry from Algersera Spain. We conversed in a mix of Spanish & French just a hovel complete with a rat hopping on old box for a table I nodded to my hoste like" wheres a stick ?" But he just nodded and said "Me Ratta" his pet . A great philosopher told me Agadir was a wicked city so Allah sent his wroth on it . Some years earlier .& I later spent 6 weeks in Agadir only the old Medena survived destruction. sort of 'Soddam & Gamorrah 'I was a 20 year old alone but never came to harm & got on well and mostly very well . It is a tenant of Islam to be hospitable to strangers When I rode a truck across the Sahara to Mali the motley passenger's seemed cautious but by the time we camped a few nights & shared the digging us out of soft snuff like sand It was all amicable .& the two unformed soldiers swopped them for their traditional Tuareg blue robes as we neared Mali . My only regret was I couldn't get a lift to Timbuctoo no road & no traffic & me sicker than any dog with bowel maladies. twas only 140 miles upstream on the Niger river from Gao . Cheers Rudyard