Tunis, Ottoman eyalet of

The Muslim privateer brothers Aruj and Khair ad Din—the latter known to Europeans as Barbarossa, or Red Beard—had been operating successfully off Tunisia at about the time Spain was establishing its presidios in the Maghrib.

Aruj had moved his base of operations to Algiers in 1516 but was killed in 1518.

Khair ad Din had succeeded him as military commander of Algiers, and the Ottoman sultan had given him the title of beylerbey (provincial governor)and a contingent of some two thousand janissaries, well-armed Ottoman soldiers.

With the aid of this force, Khair ad Din had subdued the coastal region between Constantine and Oran (although the city of Oran will remain in Spanish hands until 1791).

Under Khair ad Din's regency, Algiers becomes the center of Ottoman authority in the Maghreb, from which Tunis, Tripoli, and Tlemcen will be overcome and Morocco's independence will be threatened.

So successful was Khair ad Din at Algiers that he had been recalled to Constantinople in 1533 by the sultan, Suleyman I (r. 1520-66), known in Europe as Suleyman the Magnificent, and appointed admiral of the Ottoman fleet.

The next year, he mounted a successful seaborne assault on Tunis.

The next beylerbey is Khair ad Din's son Hasan, who assumes the position in 1544.

Until 1587 the area is governed by officers who serve terms with no fixed limits.

Subsequently, with the institution of a regular Ottoman administration, governors with the title of pasha rule for three-year terms.

Turkish is the official language, and Arabs and Berbers are excluded from government posts.

The pasha is assisted by janissaries, known in Algeria as the ojaq and led by an agha.

Recruited from Anatolian peasants, they are committed to a lifetime of service.

Although isolated from the rest of society and subject to their own laws and courts, they depend on the ruler and the taifa for income.

In the seventeenth century, the force numbers about fifteen thousand, but it is to shrink to only thirty-seven hundred by 1830.

Discontent among the ojaq rises in the mid-1600s because they are not paid regularly, and they repeatedly revolt against the pasha.

As a result, the agha charges the pasha with corruption and incompetence and seizes power in 1659.

The taifa has the last word, however, when in 1671 it rebels, killed the agha, and places one of its own in power.

The new leader receives the title of dey, which originated in Tunisia.

Privateering is an age-old practice in the Mediterranean.

North African rulers engage in it increasingly in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century because it is so lucrative, and because their merchant vessels, formerly a major source of income, are not permitted to enter European ports.

Although the methods vary, privateering generally involves private vessels raiding the ships of an enemy in peacetime under the authority of a ruler.

Its purposes are to disrupt an opponent's trade and to reap rewards from the captives and cargo.

Privateering is a highly disciplined affair conducted under the command of the rais (captains) of the fleets.

Several captains become heroes in Algerian lore for their bravery and skill.

The captains of the corsairs band together in a self-regulating taifa (community) to protect and further the corporate interests of their trade.

The taifa comes to be ethnically mixed, incorporating those captured Europeans who agree to convert to Islam and supply information useful for future raids.

The taifa also gains prestige and political influence because of its role in fighting the infidel and providing the merchants and rulers of Algiers with a major source of income.

Algiers becomes the privateering city-state par excellence, especially between 1560 and 1620, and it is two privateer brothers who are instrumental in extending Ottoman influence in Algeria.

The Ottoman Empire is a world power when Suleyman dies in 1566.

Most of the great cities of Islam—Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, Damascus, Cairo, Tunis, and Baghdad— are under the sultan's crescent flag.

The Porte exercises direct control over Anatolia, the sub-Danubian Balkan provinces, Syria, Palestine, and Mesopotamia.

Egypt, Mecca, and the North African provinces are governed under special regulations, as are satellite domains in Arabia and the Caucasus, and among the Crimean Tartars.

In addition, the native rulers of Wallachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, and Ragusa (Dubrovnik) are vassals of the sultan.

Spanish authorities, knowing that exiling so many will be problematic, decides to start with Valencia, where the Morisco population is greatest.

Preparations are taken in the strictest secrecy.

Starting in September, tercio battalions arrive from Italy, taking took up positions in the main ports of Valencia: Alfaques, Dénia, and ...

Alicante.

On September 22, the Moriscos are ordered to depart "under the pain of death and confiscation, without trial or sentence... to take with them no money, bullion, jewels or bills of exchange... just what they could carry."

Adult Moriscos are often assumed to be covert Muslims (i.e., crypto-Muslims), but the arrangements for expulsion of their children presents Catholic Spain with a dilemma.

As the children have all been baptized, the government cannot legally or morally transport them to Muslim lands.

Some authorities propose that children should be forcibly separated from their parents, but sheer numbers show his to be impractical.

Consequently, the official destination of the expellees is generally stated to be France (more specifically, Marseille).

The first of the exiles are taken on September 30 to the ports, where, as a final insult, they are forced to pay their own fare for the trip.

The initial groups of Moriscos are transported to North Africa, where in some cases they are attacked as invaders by the people of the recipient countries.

In other cases, small revolts have broken out on the ships, causing some of the exiles to be slain in battle with the crew.

This causes fears in the Morisco population remaining in Valencia, and on October 20 there is a rebellion against the expulsion.

The rebels number six thousand and hold the remote valley of Ayora and Muela de Cortes.

The Morisco rebels, defeated by November, are sent to the ports for expulsion.

Thirteen thousand seven hundred and forty of the Morioscos exiled from Spain are sent over the Pyrenees Mountains to France.

The exasperated French send most of them to the port of Agde, and those who take the land route are charged both the transit fee and the sea fare.

One hundred and sixteen thousand Moriscos have been transported to North Africa from Valencia in only three months.

The start of 1610 sees the expulsion of the Moriscos of Aragon (the specific area of Aragon, not all the lands of the old Crown of Aragon).

Forty-one thousand nine hundred and fifty-two are sent to North Africa via Alfaques.