Azor

Azor , Arabic: Arouj , French: Barberousse (German: Rotbart) was a Greek-Ottoman captain (rice) and pirate of the 15th and 16th centuries.

details

Born the son of a potter from Mytilene named Jakob, who settled there after the Ottomans took possession of the island, Azor began his professional life as a boy on the ship of an Ottoman pirate in the Mediterranean. He converted to Islam and later received his first command of a pirate ship in the Aegean Sea . At the beginning of his career he succeeded in capturing two galleons of Pope Julius II near Elba in 1504 , whereupon he no longer submitted to the Sublime Porte and continued to work on his own account in the western Mediterranean . During this time he got his nickname Barberousse because of his red hair . At first he operated from Tunis and ceded a fifth of the booty to the ruling Bey . Later, when Azor no longer needed his benevolence, he imposed his own conditions on him.

In the following years he focused on the capture of Spanish ships. King Ferdinand finally had Pedro Navarro carry out a campaign against several North African port cities such as Bougie , Oran and Algiers , all bastions of the pirates. In addition, Ferdinand's troops set up a base on the Penon Peninsula , which was conquered in July 1508 , in order to better control Algiers and the pirate mischief . Azor made attacks on Bougie in 1512 and 1515, which Ferdinand's troops were able to repel. In 1516 the Algerians, under the leadership of the Arab Soliman, managed to recapture the city of Blida. Soliman made an alliance with Azor and marched together against Algiers. Azor's brother Cheireddin followed with the pirate fleet on the coast. Despite their alliance, Azor strangled Soliman near Algiers. The following year Azor defeated the Spaniards under the command of Don Diege de Vera. The fleet sent by Cardinal Ximinéz was almost completely lost in a storm off the North African coast.

In 1529 Arouj succeeded in conquering Algiers, after which its hinterland and the neighboring provinces of Tunis and Tilimsân were subjugated. Finally the pirate made himself king of Algiers. Through his despotic rule, Azor made the Algerians enemy, who asked the Spanish King Charles V for help. Azor's troops surprised Azor in Tilimsân, from where he fled to Algiers, leaving behind most of his fortune. At the Rio Salado there was a decisive battle in which Azor and most of his followers perished.

literature

• Fernand Salentiny: The Lexicon of Navigators and Explorers. Horst Erdmann Verlag for International Cultural Exchange, Tübingen 1974.