BARBAROSSA, the name given by the Christians to a fam ily of Turkish admirals and sea rovers of the 16th century—Arouj and Khizr (alias Khair-ed-Din) and Hassan the son of Khair-ed Din. In 184o Capt. Walsin Esterhazy, author of a history of the Turkish rule in Africa, ventured the guess that "Barbarossa" ("Redbeard") was simply a mispronunciation of Baba Arouj. The contemporary Arab chronicle published by S. Rang and F. Denis in 1837 says explicitly that Barbarossa was the name ap plied by Christians to Khair-ed-Din. The founder of the family was Yakub, a Roumeliot, probably of Albanian blood, who set tled in Mitylene after its conquest by the Turks. He was a coast ing trader and had four sons—Elias, Isaak, Arouj and Khizr, all said to have been born after 1482. Khizr became a potter and Isaak a trader. Elias and Arouj took to sea roving. In an action with a galley of the Knights of St. John, then established at Rhodes, Elias was killed and Arouj taken prisoner ; the latter was ransomed by a Turkish pasha and returned to the sea. For some time he served the Mamelukes who still held Egypt. Dur ing the conflict between the Mamelukes and the sultan Selim I., he went to Tunis. The incessant conflicts among the Berber princes of northern Africa gave him employment as a mercenary, which he varied by piratical raids on the trade of the Christians. At Tunis he was joined by Khizr, who took, or was endowed with, the name of Khair-ed-Din. Isaak soon followed his broth ers. Arouj and Khair-ed-Din joined the exiled Moors of Granada in raids on the Spanish coast. They also pushed their fortunes by fighting for, or murdering and supplanting, the native African princes. Their headquarters were in the island of Jerba in the Gulf of Gabes. They attempted in 1512 to take Bougie from the Spaniards, but were beaten off, and Arouj lost an arm, shattered by an arquebus shot. In 1514 they took Jijelli from the Genoese, and after a second beating at Bougie in 1515 were called in by the natives of Cherchel and Algiers to aid them against the Spaniards. They occupied the towns and murdered the native ruler who called them in. The Spaniards still held the little rocky island which gives Algiers its name and forms the harbour. In 1518 Arouj was drawn away to take part in a civil war in Tlemcen. He promptly murdered the prince he came to sup port and seized the town for himself. The rival party then called in the Spaniards, by whom Arouj was expelled and slain while fleeing at the Rio Salado. Khair-ed-Din clung to his possessions on the coast and appealed to the sultan, Selim I. He was named beylerbey by the sultan, and with him began the establishment of Turkish rule in northern Africa. For years he was engaged in subduing the native princes, and in carrying on warfare with the Christians. In 1519 he repelled a Spanish attack on Algiers, but he could not expel his enemies from the island till 1529.
As a combatant in the forefront of the war with the Christians he became a great hero in Islam, and dreaded by its enemies under his name of Barbarossa. In 1534 he seized Tunis, acting as Kapitan pasha for the Sultan Suleiman. The emperor, Charles V., intervened on behalf of the native prince, retook the town, and destroyed a great part of Barbarossa's fleet. He was absent from Algiers when it was attacked by Charles V. in 1541. In he commanded the fleet which Suleiman sent to the coast of Provence to support Francis I. Barbarossa would not allow the bells of the Christian churches to be rung while his fleet was at anchor in the ports. He plundered the coast of Italy on his way back to Constantinople. When he died in his palace at Constan tinople he was succeeded as beylerbey of Africa by his son Hassan. Hassan Barbarossa, like his father, spent most of his life in the Levant.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-J. von Hammer-Purgstall, The History of the Bibliography.-J. von Hammer-Purgstall, The History of the Ottoman Empire, French trans. by J. J. Hellert contains accounts of the Barbarossas, but requires to be corrected by other authorities. See La Fondation de la regence d'Alger, histoire des Barberousse, chronique arabe du XVIefne siecle, published by Sander Rang and Ferdinand Denis (1837) for a curious Moslem version of their story. H. D. de Grammont has collected later evidence in his Histoire d'Alger (1887) ; and he discusses the origin of the name in a paper contributed to the Revue Africaine, No. 171. For the campaigns, see Ad. Jurien de la Graviere in Les Corsaires barbaresques et la marine de Soliman le Grand (1887) , and Doria et Barberousse (1886) . Hajji Khalifa, History of the Maritime Wars of the Turks, trans. by J. Mitchell for the Oriental Translation Fund (1831) , is said to have been founded on evidence collected by order of the Sultan Suleiman.