Portal:Piracy/Selected biography/August 2007



Aruj or Oruc Reis (Turkish: Oruç Reis) (c. 1474 – 1518) was a Turkish privateer and Ottoman Bey (Governor) of Algiers and Beylerbey (Chief Governor) of the West Mediterranean. He was born on the island of Midilli (Lesbos) in today's Greece and was killed in a battle with the Spaniards in Algeria. He became known as Baba Aruj or Baba Oruç (Father Aruj) when he transported large numbers of Mudejar refugees from Spain to North Africa; in the Christian countries of the Mediterranean he was known as Barbarossa, which meant Redbeard in Italian. He was the older brother of the famous Turkish privateer and Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa.

Oruç was one of four brothers who were born in the 1470s on the island of Lesbos (Λέσβος) to their Muslim Turkish father, Yakup Ağa, and his Christian Greek wife, Katerina. All four brothers became seamen, engaged in marine affairs and international sea trade. Oruç was the first brother to be involved in seamanship, soon joined by the youngest brother Ilyas. Hızır initially helped their father in the pottery business, but later obtained a ship of his own and also began a career at sea. Ishak, the eldest, remained on Mytilene and was involved with the financial affairs of the family business. The other three brothers initially worked as sailors, but then turned privateers in the Mediterranean, counteracting the privateering of the Knights of St. John of the Island of Rhodes. (more...)