Known as the lion of the Mediterranean, Hayreddin Barbarossa or Hayreddin Pasha, on whose life the Turkish series Barbaros: Sword of the Mediterranean or Barbaroslar: Akdeniz’in Kılıcı is based, was the Grand Admiral of the Ottoman Navy in the early 16th-century who changed the maritime borders of three continents.
Barbarossa’s naval victories secured Ottoman dominance over the Mediterranean, increasing their naval strength by many folds.
Born on the Island of Lesvos in what is today modern Greece, in 1478, Hayreddin’s real name was Khidr.
He was nicknamed ‘Barbarossa’ because of his red beard.
Sultan Selim I gave him the name ‘Hayreddin’, which means ‘best of the faith’.
Hayreddin along with his brother Oruç were corsairs in the Mediterranean when Spain conquered Granada in 1492, defeating the last vestige of Islamic rule in the region.
Enraged by the Muslim defeat and repeated attacks on the coastal cities of North Africa, the Barbarossa brothers declared loyalty to Ottoman Prince Korkut, who was the brother of Selim I.
In 1504, the brothers emerged victorious in a struggle for naval dominance against Spain, Genoa and France in the Mediterranean.
They then took over Algiers from the Spanish state in 1516.
Hayreddin offered the conquered land to Selim I and Algeria became part of the Ottoman state.
While Oruç died battling the Spanish in 1518, Hayreddin continued his fight, ending the Venetian hegemony in the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean.
Following the death of Selim I, his son Suleiman the Magnificent was crowned as the sultan.
Suleiman made Hayreddin the Kapudan Pasha (Grand Admiral) of the Ottoman Empire, making him the most powerful sea lord of the time.
Perhaps Hayreddin’s most famous battle was his victory at Preveza in Greece in 1538 over a combined fleet of Venice, Genoa, Spain, Portugal, Malta, and the Papal States.
His victory opened Tripoli and the eastern Mediterranean to Ottoman rule and enabled its expansion for years to come.
Hayreddin Barbarossa died in Istanbul in 1546.
British historian Edward Keble Chatterton considered him the “cleverest tacticians and strategists the Mediterranean ever bore on its waters”.
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