page_title: Ottoman Tunisia
section_title: Corsair enterprise
hierarchical_section_title: Ottoman Tunisia / Corsair enterprise
caption_attribution_description: "les musulmans, armés de tout ce tout ce qui leur tombe sous la main, fondent sur les chrétiens"
context_page_description: Ottoman Tunis refers to the episode of the Turkish presence in Ifriqiya during the course of three centuries from the 16th century until the 18th century, when Tunis was officially integrated into the Ottoman Empire as the Eyalet of Tunis. Eventually including all of the Maghrib except Morocco, the Ottoman Empire began with the takeover of Algiers in 1516 by the Ottoman Turkish corsair and beylerbey Oruç Reis. The first Ottoman conquest of Tunis took place in 1534 under the command of Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha, the younger brother of Oruç Reis, who was the Kapudan Pasha of the Ottoman Fleet during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. However, it wasn't until the final Ottoman reconquest of Tunis from Spain in 1574 under Kapudan Pasha Uluç Ali Reis that the Turks permanently acquired the former Hafsid Tunisia, retaining it until the French occupation of Tunisia in 1881.
  Initially under Turkish rule from Algiers, soon the Ottoman Porte appointed directly for Tunis a governor called the Pasha supported by janissary forces. Before long, however, Tunisia became in effect an autonomous province, under the local Bey.
context_section_description: Piracy may be called "an ancient if not always honorable activity" which has been practiced at different times and locations by a wide variety of peoples. A wikt:corsair (or privateer) may be distinguished from a pirate in that the former operates under explicit government authority, while the later carries no papers. The Mediterranean region during the late Middle Ages and renaissance became the scene of wide-scale piracy (and privateering) practiced both by Christians (aimed more at Muslim shipping in the east) and by Muslims (more active out of the Barbary Coast in the west, with its many targets of Christian merchant ships).
  The first "great age of the Barbary corsairs" occurred in the 16th century, between 1538 and 1571. Ottoman sea power in the Mediterranean was supreme during these decades, following their naval victory at the Preveza. Ottoman supremacy, however, was effectively broken at Lepanto, although Ottoman sea power remained formidable. In the early 17th century corsair activity again peaked. Thereafter Algiers began to rely more on 'tribute' from European nations in exchange for safe passage, rather than attacking merchant ships one by one. Ottoman Empire treaties with European states added a layer of conflicting diplomacy. Lastly, during the wars following the French Revolution (1789–1815), Barbary corsairs activity briefly spiked, before ending abruptly.
  In 16th-century Algiers under the new Ottoman regime, the customs and practices of the pre-existing Barbary corsairs were transformed and made into impressive institutions. The activity became highly developed, with modes of recruitment, corps hierarchies, peer review, private and public financing, trades and materials support, coordinated operations, and resale and ransom markets. The policies developed in Algiers provided an exemplary model of corsair business (often called the taife reisi, or "board of captains"), a model latter followed by Tunis and by Tripoli, and independently by Morocco.
  Crews came from three sources: Christian renegades (including many famous or notorious captains), foreign Moslems (many Turkish), and a few native maghribans. Seldom did a native attain high rank, the exception being Reis Hamida a Kabyle Berber during the last years of the corsair age. Captains were selected by the ship's owners, but from a list made by a Diwan of the Riesi, an authoritative council composed of all active corsair captains. Also regulated was location of residence. "Captains, crews, and suppliers all lived in the western quarter of Algiers, along the harbor and docks."
  Private capital generally supplied the funds for corsair activity. Investors essentially bought shares in a particular corsair business enterprise. Such investors came from all levels of society, e.g., merchants, officials, janissaries, shopkeepers, and artisans. The financing made money available for the capital and expenses of ship and crew, i.e., naval stores and supplies, timbers and canvas, munitions.
  "Because of the potential profits to be made from corsair prizes, the underwriting of expeditions was an attractive proposition. Shareholding was organized in the same manner as that of a modern stock company, with the return to individuals dependent on their investment. This type of private investment reached its peak in the seventeenth century, the 'golden age'."
  After the corsair "golden age", the state of Algiers, mainly under the control of its Turkish janissaries, came to own many of the corsair vessels and to finance many of their expeditions. Strict rules governed the division of the prizes captured at sea. First came Algiers as the state representative of Allah; next came the port authorities, the custom brokers, and those who kept the sanctuaries; then came that portion due the ship owners, and the captain and crew. The merchant cargo seized was sold "at auction or more commonly to European commercial representatives resident in Algiers, through whom it might even reach the port of its original destination."
  Ransom or sale of captured prisoners (and auction of cargo) was
caption: Barbary corsair leader Aruj [Oruç] taking a galley
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