Oruç Reis
Ottoman Bey (governor) of Algiers and Beylerbey (chief governor) of the West Mediterranean
1474 CE to 1518 CE
Oruç Reis (Spanish: Arrudye; c. 1474–1518) is Ottoman Bey (governor) of Algiers and Beylerbey (chief governor) of the West Mediterranean and the elder brother of Hayreddin Barbarossa.
He was born on the Ottoman island of Midilli (Lesbos in modern Greece) and is killed in a battle with the Spanish at Tlemcen in the Ottoman Eyalet of Algeria.
He becomes known as Baba Oruç or Baba Aruj (Father Oruç) when he transports large numbers of Morisco and Jewish refugees from Spain to North Africa; he is known through folk etymology in Europe as Barbarossa (which means Redbeard in Italian).
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The Spanish have conquered numerous possessions on the North African coast since 1496: Melilla (1496), ...
…Mers-el-Kebir (1505), …
...Oran (1509), ...
…Bougie (1510), …
…Tripoli (1510), …
…Cherchell, …
…Dellys, …
…Tenes, and …
…Algiers.
Around the same time, the Ottoman privateer brothers Oruç and Hayreddin—both known to Europeans as Barbarossa, or "Red Beard"—are operating successfully off Tunisia under the Hafsids.
The Spaniards have established themselves on a small island—the Peñón of Algiers—in front of Algiers, and forced the local ruler Sālim al-Tūmī (Selim-bin-Teumi) to accept their presence through a treaty and pay tribute.
Fortifications have been built on the islet, and a garrison of two hundred men had been established.
Sālim al-Tūmī had had to go to Spain to take an oath of obedience to Ferdinand of Aragon.
In 1516, the amir invites the corsair brothers to expel the Spaniards in 1516.
Oruç comes to Algiers, orders the assassination of Selim, seizes the town and ousts the Spanish in what will come to be called the Capture of Algiers.
After consolidating his power and declaring himself the new Sultan of Algiers, …
…Oruç, seeking to enhance his territory inland, takes Miliana, …