Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean: The grand period of the Moslem corsairsCurrey, E. Hamilton (Edward Hamilton)
History
Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean: The grand period of the Moslem corsairs
Currey, E. Hamilton (Edward Hamilton)
Africa, North -- History; Pirates
Of Mahomedi we possess no record save the remark concerning him to
the effect that “el qual fue gran marinero”: in what way he displayed
his gifts as a seaman we are not told. We have remarked before on the
curious fact of how the “renegado,” or Christian turned Mohammedan,
became the most implacable foe of his former co-religionists. We see in
the case of the two Barbarossas that they had no drop of Moslem blood
in them, as both parents came from Christian stock: and yet no greater
scourges ever afflicted the people from whom both their father and
mother originally sprang than did Uruj and Khizr Barbarossa.
[Illustration: URUJ AND KHEYR-ED-DIN BARBAROSSA.]
The characters of the two brothers were widely different. The elder was
no doubt a “first-class fighting man,” a fine seaman, a born partisan
leader; but here his qualities came to an end. Rough, cruel, imperious,
brutal, he imposed himself upon those who became his followers; but
in him were to be found none of the statesmanlike qualities which
distinguished his far greater younger brother. His was the absolutely
finite intellect of the tactician as opposed to the strategist, who,
seeing his objective, was capable of dealing with circumstances as they
immediately arose; but, partly no doubt from defective education, but
principally from the lack of intellectual appreciation of the problems
of the time in which he lived, could never rise to the heights which
were scaled by Khizr, better known by the title conferred upon him
later on by the Grand Turk as “Kheyr-ed-Din,” or “The Protector of
Religion.”
The sons of Mahomed, that “gran marinero,” naturally took to the sea,
and as a young man Uruj became possessed of a ship—how we do not know,
and it were better perhaps not to inquire. In this small craft he
repaired to the coast of Caramania to make war upon the Christians; or,
in other words, to begin an independent piratical career. Uruj in these
days was young and inexperienced, or he would not have chosen this
locality for his first venture, as this coast was in close proximity to
the island of Rhodes, from whence the great galleys of the Knights of
Saint John of Jerusalem set forth to exterminate the enemies of their
faith.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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