Arkam
Arkam. An early Meccan convert to Islam.
Arkam. An early Meccan convert to Islam.
Arkoun, Mohammed
Arkoun, Mohammed (b. February 1, 1928). Algerian Islamic scholar and writer. One of the leading Arab Muslim intellectuals of his time, Arkoun was involved in the sensitive task of re-interpreting and recasting the classical religious, legal, and philosophical traditions through a sophisticated hermeneutical system inspired by contemporary Western critical methodologies, a task that made him a controversial participant in the creation of a modern Arabo-Islamic critical discourse.
Arkoun was born on January 2, 1928, in the Berber village of Taourirt-Mimoun in Kabylia. From his modest beginnings as the son of a spice merchant, Arkoun went on to become a highly successful international scholar and thinker. He began Arabic studies in his native country and completed them in Paris. He was associated with the Sorbonne where he was the Professor of the History of Islamic Thought and was formerly Director of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies there. He was also the editor in chief of the French scholarly journal Arabica for many years. Arkoun’s international visibility has brought lectures and visiting appointments at academic institutions worldwide, including the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. His adopted homeland appointed Arkoun Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur and Officier des Palmes Academiques.
What distinguished Arkoun from many other contemporary Arab and Muslim intellectuals was precisely what qualified him to be editor of Arabica – his serious training as a medievalist. Arkoun established himself as a foremost student of medieval Islamic thought with his work on the philosopher and thinker Miskawayh (d. 1030). He edited two treatises by Miskawayh and translated his Tahdhib al-akhlaq, a work whose close relationship to Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics compels anyone attempting to deal with the Arabic text to also grapple with Greek philosophy.
With this philosophical background combined with the resources of French criticism, Arkoun began his own intellectual crusade. His re-readings of the rich Islamic religious and legal traditions are an extension of this dual intellectual allegiance to the modern humanities and social sciences and to medieval studies. Arkoun also wrote widely on topics ranging from the twelfth-century Andalusian philosopher and physician Ibn Tufayl to Orientalism.
Arkoun’s Lectures du Coran was perhaps his most challenging and important work. The author pled eloquently and passionately for clear analytical distinctions in dealing with the Muslim holy book. According to Arkoun, too many levels of production of the sacred text are amalgated under the title of the Qur’an. There is the word of God, the Logos, of which the revelations of the three monotheistic religions are but fragments. There are also the Qur’anic discourse, the actual written text of the Qur’an, and the commentaries on this text. These distinctions permit a much more sophisticated reading of the scriptures.
Arkoun’s ideas did not go unchallenged by the intellectual leaders of the contemporary Islamist movement. An impassioned debate occurred between Arkoun and the Egyptian Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazali in Algeria. Almost as quickly as the works of al-Ghazali became available to an international audience, so Arkoun’s works were re-edited in French in North Africa, translated into Arabic, and published in London. Arkoun’s impact on the contemporary Arab Muslim intellectual scene became increasingly important as the Islamist movement grew in strength. Arkoun defined the Islamic concept of the jihad al-nafs (personal jihad) as the work of the intellectual who feels a sense of solidarity with the society to which he belongs. This jihad al-nafs was Arkoun’s mission.
Arkoun was decorated as an Officer of the French Légion d'honneur in July 1996. In 2001, Professor Arkoun was asked to deliver the Gifford Lectures, which enable a notable scholar to contribute to the advancement of theological and philosophical thought and was announced as the recipient of the Seventeenth Georgio Levi Della Vida Award for his lifelong contribution to the field of Islamic Studies.
Mohammed Arkoun see Arkoun, Mohammed
Arkoun, Mohammed (b. February 1, 1928). Algerian Islamic scholar and writer. One of the leading Arab Muslim intellectuals of his time, Arkoun was involved in the sensitive task of re-interpreting and recasting the classical religious, legal, and philosophical traditions through a sophisticated hermeneutical system inspired by contemporary Western critical methodologies, a task that made him a controversial participant in the creation of a modern Arabo-Islamic critical discourse.
Arkoun was born on January 2, 1928, in the Berber village of Taourirt-Mimoun in Kabylia. From his modest beginnings as the son of a spice merchant, Arkoun went on to become a highly successful international scholar and thinker. He began Arabic studies in his native country and completed them in Paris. He was associated with the Sorbonne where he was the Professor of the History of Islamic Thought and was formerly Director of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies there. He was also the editor in chief of the French scholarly journal Arabica for many years. Arkoun’s international visibility has brought lectures and visiting appointments at academic institutions worldwide, including the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. His adopted homeland appointed Arkoun Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur and Officier des Palmes Academiques.
What distinguished Arkoun from many other contemporary Arab and Muslim intellectuals was precisely what qualified him to be editor of Arabica – his serious training as a medievalist. Arkoun established himself as a foremost student of medieval Islamic thought with his work on the philosopher and thinker Miskawayh (d. 1030). He edited two treatises by Miskawayh and translated his Tahdhib al-akhlaq, a work whose close relationship to Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics compels anyone attempting to deal with the Arabic text to also grapple with Greek philosophy.
With this philosophical background combined with the resources of French criticism, Arkoun began his own intellectual crusade. His re-readings of the rich Islamic religious and legal traditions are an extension of this dual intellectual allegiance to the modern humanities and social sciences and to medieval studies. Arkoun also wrote widely on topics ranging from the twelfth-century Andalusian philosopher and physician Ibn Tufayl to Orientalism.
Arkoun’s Lectures du Coran was perhaps his most challenging and important work. The author pled eloquently and passionately for clear analytical distinctions in dealing with the Muslim holy book. According to Arkoun, too many levels of production of the sacred text are amalgated under the title of the Qur’an. There is the word of God, the Logos, of which the revelations of the three monotheistic religions are but fragments. There are also the Qur’anic discourse, the actual written text of the Qur’an, and the commentaries on this text. These distinctions permit a much more sophisticated reading of the scriptures.
Arkoun’s ideas did not go unchallenged by the intellectual leaders of the contemporary Islamist movement. An impassioned debate occurred between Arkoun and the Egyptian Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazali in Algeria. Almost as quickly as the works of al-Ghazali became available to an international audience, so Arkoun’s works were re-edited in French in North Africa, translated into Arabic, and published in London. Arkoun’s impact on the contemporary Arab Muslim intellectual scene became increasingly important as the Islamist movement grew in strength. Arkoun defined the Islamic concept of the jihad al-nafs (personal jihad) as the work of the intellectual who feels a sense of solidarity with the society to which he belongs. This jihad al-nafs was Arkoun’s mission.
Arkoun was decorated as an Officer of the French Légion d'honneur in July 1996. In 2001, Professor Arkoun was asked to deliver the Gifford Lectures, which enable a notable scholar to contribute to the advancement of theological and philosophical thought and was announced as the recipient of the Seventeenth Georgio Levi Della Vida Award for his lifelong contribution to the field of Islamic Studies.
Mohammed Arkoun see Arkoun, Mohammed
Arruma
Arruma. Afro-Brazilian leader of the revolts of the Muslim Hausa slaves from 1807 to 1816. The revolts were centered around Bahia.
Arsuzi, Zaki
Arsuzi, Zaki (Zaki Arsuzi) (Zaki Arsuzi) (June 1899 - July 1968). Syrian politician, thinker and counsellor. He was born in Antioch (now part of Turkey) into a lower middle class family. In the late 1920s, he was educated at the University of Sorbonne in Paris, France. In 1931, he received a degree in philosophy. In 1932, Arsuzi established himself in Antioch, where he became a school teacher. During the 1930s, slowly, Arsuzi turned his attention towards nationalistic politics. In 1939, after the annexation of Antioch by Turkey, Arsuzi moved to Damascus. There he soon started his own political groups, aiming at a renaissance in the Arab world. The reaction of the French authorities was to terminate him from his job. In 1947, following talks that started the preceding year, Arsuzi joined forces with the Ba‘th movement led by Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din Bitar. Together they founded the Arab Ba‘th Party. In 1963, Arsuzi became the counsellor to the commander of the air force, Hafez al-Assad, who set out to impregnate the Syrian military with the ideology of the Ba‘th Party. Arsuzi died in Damascus in 1968.
Zakī al-Arsūzī was born to an Alawi family in Lattakia on the Syrian coast of the Ottoman Empire, but moved soon afterwards to Iskandarun province in the Sanjak of Alexandretta (now Hatay). He was educated in a religious school and a primary school in Antakya and then received his secondary education in Konya. After completing his education he was appointed a secondary school teacher in Antakya and later became director of education in Arsuz province.
In 1927, al-Arsuzi traveled to Paris to study in the Department of Philosophy in the Sorbonne. During this period, he came under the intellectual influence of French thinkers such as Henri Bergson and of the German idealists. He was also impressed by the works of Ibn Arabi and Ibn Khaldun.
Al-Arsuzi returned to Syria in 1930 and worked as a teacher in Antakya, Aleppo and Deir ez-Zor. In this period, he began his career of political militancy. In 1934, he was dismissed from his teaching post by the French authorities and returned to Iskandarun province. At the time, there was considerable agitation over demands from the province's sizable Turkish minority that it be handed over to Turkey. Al-Arsuzi established his first political organization, the National Action League, in opposition to these demands, and was intensely active from 1936 to 1938 when the French authorities granted the province to Turkey.
In 1938, the League was dissolved, and al-Arsuzi founded the Arabism Club and opened a bookshop with the name "Al-Ba'th al-Arabi" ("The Arab Renaissance"). This appears to have been the first use of the term ba'th in Arab nationalist circles.
In 1940, al-Arsuzi travelled to Baghdad where he took up a new job, but he was dismissed before the end of the year and returned to Damascus, where in November he decided to establish a group under the name of the Arab Renaissance (al-ba'th al-'arabi). In 1944, some of al-Arsuzi's followers deserted him, and later, in June 1945, they joined the Arab Resurrection (al-ihya al-'arabi) group led by Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din al-Bitar. Thus, Arsuzi's part in the foundation of the Ba'th Party was of two kinds: his intellectual contribution in itself, and his role in mobilising an active group of young men, many of them refugees from Iskandarun like himself, who would form one of the nuclei of the new party. It is suggested that al-Arsuzi played a direct role in the formation of the Ba'th organisation itself. When the Ba'th Party was formally established by 'Aflaq and Bitar in Damascus in 1947, Arsuzi was not a member.
Al-Arsuzi paid considerable attention to cultural matters, and the only condition of membership in his organization was to write or translate a book contributing to the resurrection (ba'th) of Arab heritage. He was described as a proponent of the linguistic image of Arab nationalism, and, in 1942, published one of his most important works, Abqariyyat al-'arabiyya fi lisaniha (The Genius of Arabic in its Tongue). His approach was distinguished by its emphasis on philology, but he did also pay attention to problems of the modern state and to questions of democracy and the locus of power. Al-Arsuzi was also described as having a racialist outlook which proved in the end intellectually sterile and unsatisfactory to his followers, and as having been deeply influenced in his thought by the tenets of his Alawi religious background. However, others have been more positive in their assessment of al-Arsuzi's contribution to the ideology of Arab nationalism.
After his return from Baghdad in 1940 al-Arsuzi gained a position teaching philosophy but he was soon dismissed from it. From 1945 until 1952, he worked again as a secondary teacher, first in Hama and then in Aleppo, and from 1952 until his retirement in 1959 he taught in a teacher training college. In 1963, in the wake of the Sixth National Congress of the Ba'th Party and the party's gradual alienation from its founders Aflaq and Bitar, Hafiz al-Asad arranged for Arsuzi to help with Ba'thist ideological formation in the army, and later ensured that he was granted a state pension.
Zaki al-Arsuzi died in Damascus in July 1968.
Zaki Arsuzi see Arsuzi, Zaki
Zaki al-Arsuzi see Arsuzi, Zaki
Arsuzi, Zaki (Zaki Arsuzi) (Zaki Arsuzi) (June 1899 - July 1968). Syrian politician, thinker and counsellor. He was born in Antioch (now part of Turkey) into a lower middle class family. In the late 1920s, he was educated at the University of Sorbonne in Paris, France. In 1931, he received a degree in philosophy. In 1932, Arsuzi established himself in Antioch, where he became a school teacher. During the 1930s, slowly, Arsuzi turned his attention towards nationalistic politics. In 1939, after the annexation of Antioch by Turkey, Arsuzi moved to Damascus. There he soon started his own political groups, aiming at a renaissance in the Arab world. The reaction of the French authorities was to terminate him from his job. In 1947, following talks that started the preceding year, Arsuzi joined forces with the Ba‘th movement led by Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din Bitar. Together they founded the Arab Ba‘th Party. In 1963, Arsuzi became the counsellor to the commander of the air force, Hafez al-Assad, who set out to impregnate the Syrian military with the ideology of the Ba‘th Party. Arsuzi died in Damascus in 1968.
Zakī al-Arsūzī was born to an Alawi family in Lattakia on the Syrian coast of the Ottoman Empire, but moved soon afterwards to Iskandarun province in the Sanjak of Alexandretta (now Hatay). He was educated in a religious school and a primary school in Antakya and then received his secondary education in Konya. After completing his education he was appointed a secondary school teacher in Antakya and later became director of education in Arsuz province.
In 1927, al-Arsuzi traveled to Paris to study in the Department of Philosophy in the Sorbonne. During this period, he came under the intellectual influence of French thinkers such as Henri Bergson and of the German idealists. He was also impressed by the works of Ibn Arabi and Ibn Khaldun.
Al-Arsuzi returned to Syria in 1930 and worked as a teacher in Antakya, Aleppo and Deir ez-Zor. In this period, he began his career of political militancy. In 1934, he was dismissed from his teaching post by the French authorities and returned to Iskandarun province. At the time, there was considerable agitation over demands from the province's sizable Turkish minority that it be handed over to Turkey. Al-Arsuzi established his first political organization, the National Action League, in opposition to these demands, and was intensely active from 1936 to 1938 when the French authorities granted the province to Turkey.
In 1938, the League was dissolved, and al-Arsuzi founded the Arabism Club and opened a bookshop with the name "Al-Ba'th al-Arabi" ("The Arab Renaissance"). This appears to have been the first use of the term ba'th in Arab nationalist circles.
In 1940, al-Arsuzi travelled to Baghdad where he took up a new job, but he was dismissed before the end of the year and returned to Damascus, where in November he decided to establish a group under the name of the Arab Renaissance (al-ba'th al-'arabi). In 1944, some of al-Arsuzi's followers deserted him, and later, in June 1945, they joined the Arab Resurrection (al-ihya al-'arabi) group led by Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din al-Bitar. Thus, Arsuzi's part in the foundation of the Ba'th Party was of two kinds: his intellectual contribution in itself, and his role in mobilising an active group of young men, many of them refugees from Iskandarun like himself, who would form one of the nuclei of the new party. It is suggested that al-Arsuzi played a direct role in the formation of the Ba'th organisation itself. When the Ba'th Party was formally established by 'Aflaq and Bitar in Damascus in 1947, Arsuzi was not a member.
Al-Arsuzi paid considerable attention to cultural matters, and the only condition of membership in his organization was to write or translate a book contributing to the resurrection (ba'th) of Arab heritage. He was described as a proponent of the linguistic image of Arab nationalism, and, in 1942, published one of his most important works, Abqariyyat al-'arabiyya fi lisaniha (The Genius of Arabic in its Tongue). His approach was distinguished by its emphasis on philology, but he did also pay attention to problems of the modern state and to questions of democracy and the locus of power. Al-Arsuzi was also described as having a racialist outlook which proved in the end intellectually sterile and unsatisfactory to his followers, and as having been deeply influenced in his thought by the tenets of his Alawi religious background. However, others have been more positive in their assessment of al-Arsuzi's contribution to the ideology of Arab nationalism.
After his return from Baghdad in 1940 al-Arsuzi gained a position teaching philosophy but he was soon dismissed from it. From 1945 until 1952, he worked again as a secondary teacher, first in Hama and then in Aleppo, and from 1952 until his retirement in 1959 he taught in a teacher training college. In 1963, in the wake of the Sixth National Congress of the Ba'th Party and the party's gradual alienation from its founders Aflaq and Bitar, Hafiz al-Asad arranged for Arsuzi to help with Ba'thist ideological formation in the army, and later ensured that he was granted a state pension.
Zaki al-Arsuzi died in Damascus in July 1968.
Zaki Arsuzi see Arsuzi, Zaki
Zaki al-Arsuzi see Arsuzi, Zaki
‘Aruj
‘Aruj (c.1474-1518). Turkish corsair who, together with his brother Khayr al-Din Barbarossa, seized possession of Algiers at the beginning of the sixteenth century.
'Aruj (also called Barbarossa or Redbeard) (Turkish: 'Aruj or Oruç Reis, Spanish: Arrudye; c. 1474 – 1518) was a Turkish privateer and Ottoman Bey (Governor) of Algiers and Beylerbey (Chief Governor) of the West Mediterranean. He was born on the island of Midilli (Lesbos) in today's Greece and was killed in a battle with the Spaniards in Algeria. He became known as Baba 'Aruj or Baba Oruç (Father 'Aruj) when he transported large numbers of Mudejar refugees from Spain to North Africa. He was known through folk etymology in Europe as Barbarossa (which meant "redbeard" in Italian).
He was the older brother of the famous Turkish privateer and Ottoman admiral Khayr al-Din (Hayreddin) Barbarossa.
"Aruj was one of four brothers who were born in the 1470s on the island of Lesbos to their Muslim Turkish father, Yakup Ağa, and his Christian Greek wife, Katerina. Yakup Ağa was a Tımarlı Sipahi, i.e. a Turkish feudal cavalry knight, whose family had its origins in Eceabat and Balıkesir, and later moved to the Ottoman city of Vardar Yenice, now Giannitsa, near Thessaloniki. Yakup Ağa was among those appointed by Sultan Mehmed II to capture Lesbos from the Genoese in 1462, and he was granted the fief of Bonova village as a reward for fighting for the cause. He married a local Greek girl from Mytilene named Katerina, and they had two daughters and four sons: Ishak, 'Aruj (Oruç), Hızır and Ilyas. Yakup became an established potter and purchased a boat of his own to trade his products. The brothers helped their father with his business, but not much is known about the sisters.
All four brothers became seamen, engaged in marine affairs and international sea trade. 'Aruj was the first brother to be involved in seamanship, soon joined by the youngest brother Ilyas. Hızır initially helped their father in the pottery business, but later obtained a ship of his own and also began a career at sea. Ishak, the eldest, remained on Mytilene and was involved with the financial affairs of the family business. The other three brothers initially worked as sailors, but then turned privateers in the Mediterranean, counteracting the privateering of the Knights of St. John of the Island of Rhodes. "Aruj and Ilyas operated in the Levant, between Anatolia, Syria and Egypt, while Hızır operated in the Aegean Sea and based his operations mostly in Thessaloniki.
"Aruj was a very successful seaman. He also learned to speak Italian, Spanish, French, Greek and Arabic in the early years of his career. While returning from a trading expedition in Tripoli, Lebanon, he and Ilyas were attacked by a galley of the Knights of St. John. Ilyas was killed in the fight, and 'Aruj was wounded. Their father's boat was captured, and "Aruj was taken prisoner and detained in the Knights' Bodrum Castle for nearly three years. Upon learning the location of his brother, Hızır went to Bodrum and managed to help "Aruj escape.
'Aruj later went to Antalya, where he was given 18 galleys by Shehzade Korkud, an Ottoman prince and governor of the city, and charged with fighting against the Knights of St. John who inflicted serious damage on Ottoman shipping and trade. In the following years, when Shehzade Korkud became governor of Manisa, he gave "Aruj a larger fleet of 24 galleys at the port of İzmir and ordered him to participate in the Ottoman naval expedition to Puglia in Italy, where "Aruj bombarded several coastal forts and captured two ships. On his way back to Lesbos, he stopped at Euboea and captured three galleons and another ship. Reaching Mytilene with these captured vessels, "Aruj learned that Shehzade Korkud, brother of the new Ottoman sultan, had fled to Egypt in order to avoid being killed because of succession disputes -- a common practice at that time in the House of Osman. Fearing trouble due to his well-known association with the Ottoman prince in exile, 'Aruj sailed to Egypt where he met Shehzade Korkud in Cairo and managed to get an audience with the Mamluk Sultan Qansuh al-Ghawri, who gave him another ship and charged him to raid the coasts of Italy and the islands of the Mediterranean that were controlled by Christian powers. After passing the winter in Cairo, he set sail from Alexandria and operated along the coasts of Liguria and Sicily.
In 1503, 'Aruj managed to seize three more ships and made the island of Djerba his new base, thus moving his operations to the Western Mediterranean. Hızır joined "Aruj at Djerba. In 1504, the two brothers asked Abu Abdullah Mohammed Hamis, sultan of Tunisia from the Beni Hafs dynasty, for permission to use the strategically located port of La Goulette for their operations. They were granted this right, with the condition of leaving one third of their booty to the sultan. "Aruj, in command of small galliots, captured two much larger Papal galleys near the island of Elba. Later, near Lipari, the two brothers captured a Sicilian warship, the Cavalleria, with 380 Spanish soldiers and 60 Spanish knights from Aragon on board, who were on their way from Spain to Naples. In 1505, they raided the coasts of Calabria. These accomplishments increased their fame and they were joined by a number of other well-known Muslim corsairs, including Kurtoğlu (known in the West as Curtogoli). In 1508, they raided the coasts of Liguria, particularly Diano Marina.
In 1509, Ishak also left Mytilene and joined his brothers at La Goulette. The fame of "Aruj increased when between 1504 and 1510 he transported Muslim Mudejars from Christian Spain to North Africa. His efforts of helping the Muslims of Spain in need and transporting them to safer lands earned him the honorific name Baba 'Aruj (Father 'Aruj), which eventually— due to the similarity in sound— evolved in Spain, Italy and France into Barbarossa (Redbeard in Italian).
In 1510, the three brothers raided Cape Passero in Sicily and repulsed a Spanish attack on Bougie, Oran and Algiers. In August 1511, they raided the areas around Reggio Calabria in southern Italy. In August 1512, the exiled ruler of Bougie invited the brothers to drive out the Spaniards, and during the battle 'Aruj lost his left arm. This incident earned him the nickname Gümüş Kol (Silver Arm in Turkish), in reference to the silver prosthetic device which he used in place of his missing limb. Later that year, the three brothers raided the coasts of Andalusia in Spain, capturing a galliot of the Lomellini family of Genoa who owned the Tabarca island in that area. They subsequently landed on Minorca and captured a coastal castle, and then headed towards Liguria and captured four Genoese galleys near Genoa. The Genoese sent a fleet to liberate their ships, but the brothers captured their flagship as well. After capturing a total of 23 ships in less than a month, the brothers sailed back to La Goulette.
There the brothers built three more galliots and a gunpowder production facility. In 1513, they captured four English ships on their way to France, raided Valencia where they captured four more ships, and then headed for Alicante and captured a Spanish galley near Málaga. In 1513 and 1514, the three brothers engaged Spanish squadrons on several other occasions and moved to their new base in Cherchell, east of Algiers. In 1514, with 12 galliots and 1,000 Turks, they destroyed two Spanish fortresses at Bougie, and when a Spanish fleet under the command of Miguel de Gurrea, viceroy of Majorca, arrived for assistance, they headed towards Ceuta and raided that city before capturing Jijel in Algeria, which was under Genoese control. They later captured Mahdiya in Tunisia. Afterwards they raided the coasts of Sicily, Sardinia, the Balearic Islands and the Spanish mainland, capturing three large ships there. In 1515, they captured several galleons, a galley and three barques at Majorca. Still in 1515, "Aruj sent precious gifts to the Ottoman Sultan Selim I who, in return, sent him two galleys and two swords embellished with diamonds. In 1516, joined by Kurtoğlu, the brothers besieged the Castle of Elba, before heading once more towards Liguria where they captured 12 ships and damaged 28 others.
In 1516, the three brothers succeeded in liberating Jijel and Algiers from the Spaniards, but eventually assumed control over the cities and surrounding region, forcing the previous ruler, Abu Hamo Musa III of the Beni Ziyad dynasty, to flee. The local Spaniards in Algiers sought refuge in the island of Peñón near Algiers and asked Emperor Charles V, King of Spain, to intervene, but the Spanish fleet failed to force the brothers out of Algiers.
After consolidating his power and declaring himself the new Sultan of Algiers, 'Aruj sought to enhance his territory inlands and took Miliana, Medea and Ténès. He became known for attaching sails to cannons for transport through the deserts of North Africa. In 1517 the brothers raided Capo Limiti and later the Island of Capo Rizzuto in Calabria.
For 'Aruj, the best protection against Spain was to join the Ottoman Empire, his homeland and Spain's main rival. For this he had to relinquish his title of Sultan of Algiers to the Ottomans. He did this in 1517 and offered Algiers to the Ottoman Sultan. The Sultan accepted Algiers as an Ottoman Sanjak (province), appointed 'Aruj as the Bey (Governor) of Algiers and Beylerbey (Chief Governor) of West Mediterranean, and promised to support him with janissaries, galleys and cannons.
The Spaniards ordered Abu Zayan, whom they had appointed as the new ruler of Tlemcen and Oran, to attack 'Aruj by land, but 'Aruj learned of the plan and pre-emptively struck against Tlemcen, capturing the city and executing Abu Zayan. The only survivor of Abu Zayan's dynasty was Sheikh Buhammud, who escaped to Oran and called for Spain's assistance.
In May 1518, Emperor Charles V arrived at Oran and was received there by Sheikh Buhammud and the Spanish governor of the city, Diego de Cordoba, marquess of Comares, who commanded a force of 10,000 Spanish soldiers. Joined by thousands of Bedouins, the Spaniards marched overland on Tlemcen where 'Aruj and Ishak awaited them with 1,500 Turkish and 5,000 Moorish soldiers. They defended Tlemcen for 20 days, but were eventually killed in combat by the forces of Garcia de Tineo.
The last remaining brother, Hızır Reis, inherited his brother's place, his name (Barbarossa) and his mission.
'Aruj established a Turkish presence in North Africa that lasted for four centuries until the loss of Algeria to France in 1830, of Tunisia to France in 1881, of Libya to Italy in 1912 and until the official loss of Egypt and Sudan to the United Kingdom in 1914, after the Ottoman Empire joined World War I on the side of the Central Powers. The Republic of Turkey officially renounced the remaining disputed Turkish rights in some territories of Egypt and Sudan with the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923.
Several submarines of the Turkish Navy have been named after 'Aruj (Oruç Reis).
Barbarossa was the influence behind the character, Captain Hector Barbossa from the movie Pirates of the Carribean. It was revealed that costar Johnny Depp played a decisive part in providing the name. His last name is both a pun on the surname of Portuguese origin "Barbosa" and is based on Barbarossa, the Ottoman privateer. The word is a combination of the Italian words barba (beard) and ossa (bones) which is very consistent with his skeletal look shown in the first movie.
'Aruj Reis see ‘Aruj
Oruc Reis see ‘Aruj
Arrudye see ‘Aruj
Barbarossa see ‘Aruj
Redbeard see ‘Aruj
Baba 'Aruj see ‘Aruj
‘Aruj (c.1474-1518). Turkish corsair who, together with his brother Khayr al-Din Barbarossa, seized possession of Algiers at the beginning of the sixteenth century.
'Aruj (also called Barbarossa or Redbeard) (Turkish: 'Aruj or Oruç Reis, Spanish: Arrudye; c. 1474 – 1518) was a Turkish privateer and Ottoman Bey (Governor) of Algiers and Beylerbey (Chief Governor) of the West Mediterranean. He was born on the island of Midilli (Lesbos) in today's Greece and was killed in a battle with the Spaniards in Algeria. He became known as Baba 'Aruj or Baba Oruç (Father 'Aruj) when he transported large numbers of Mudejar refugees from Spain to North Africa. He was known through folk etymology in Europe as Barbarossa (which meant "redbeard" in Italian).
He was the older brother of the famous Turkish privateer and Ottoman admiral Khayr al-Din (Hayreddin) Barbarossa.
"Aruj was one of four brothers who were born in the 1470s on the island of Lesbos to their Muslim Turkish father, Yakup Ağa, and his Christian Greek wife, Katerina. Yakup Ağa was a Tımarlı Sipahi, i.e. a Turkish feudal cavalry knight, whose family had its origins in Eceabat and Balıkesir, and later moved to the Ottoman city of Vardar Yenice, now Giannitsa, near Thessaloniki. Yakup Ağa was among those appointed by Sultan Mehmed II to capture Lesbos from the Genoese in 1462, and he was granted the fief of Bonova village as a reward for fighting for the cause. He married a local Greek girl from Mytilene named Katerina, and they had two daughters and four sons: Ishak, 'Aruj (Oruç), Hızır and Ilyas. Yakup became an established potter and purchased a boat of his own to trade his products. The brothers helped their father with his business, but not much is known about the sisters.
All four brothers became seamen, engaged in marine affairs and international sea trade. 'Aruj was the first brother to be involved in seamanship, soon joined by the youngest brother Ilyas. Hızır initially helped their father in the pottery business, but later obtained a ship of his own and also began a career at sea. Ishak, the eldest, remained on Mytilene and was involved with the financial affairs of the family business. The other three brothers initially worked as sailors, but then turned privateers in the Mediterranean, counteracting the privateering of the Knights of St. John of the Island of Rhodes. "Aruj and Ilyas operated in the Levant, between Anatolia, Syria and Egypt, while Hızır operated in the Aegean Sea and based his operations mostly in Thessaloniki.
"Aruj was a very successful seaman. He also learned to speak Italian, Spanish, French, Greek and Arabic in the early years of his career. While returning from a trading expedition in Tripoli, Lebanon, he and Ilyas were attacked by a galley of the Knights of St. John. Ilyas was killed in the fight, and 'Aruj was wounded. Their father's boat was captured, and "Aruj was taken prisoner and detained in the Knights' Bodrum Castle for nearly three years. Upon learning the location of his brother, Hızır went to Bodrum and managed to help "Aruj escape.
'Aruj later went to Antalya, where he was given 18 galleys by Shehzade Korkud, an Ottoman prince and governor of the city, and charged with fighting against the Knights of St. John who inflicted serious damage on Ottoman shipping and trade. In the following years, when Shehzade Korkud became governor of Manisa, he gave "Aruj a larger fleet of 24 galleys at the port of İzmir and ordered him to participate in the Ottoman naval expedition to Puglia in Italy, where "Aruj bombarded several coastal forts and captured two ships. On his way back to Lesbos, he stopped at Euboea and captured three galleons and another ship. Reaching Mytilene with these captured vessels, "Aruj learned that Shehzade Korkud, brother of the new Ottoman sultan, had fled to Egypt in order to avoid being killed because of succession disputes -- a common practice at that time in the House of Osman. Fearing trouble due to his well-known association with the Ottoman prince in exile, 'Aruj sailed to Egypt where he met Shehzade Korkud in Cairo and managed to get an audience with the Mamluk Sultan Qansuh al-Ghawri, who gave him another ship and charged him to raid the coasts of Italy and the islands of the Mediterranean that were controlled by Christian powers. After passing the winter in Cairo, he set sail from Alexandria and operated along the coasts of Liguria and Sicily.
In 1503, 'Aruj managed to seize three more ships and made the island of Djerba his new base, thus moving his operations to the Western Mediterranean. Hızır joined "Aruj at Djerba. In 1504, the two brothers asked Abu Abdullah Mohammed Hamis, sultan of Tunisia from the Beni Hafs dynasty, for permission to use the strategically located port of La Goulette for their operations. They were granted this right, with the condition of leaving one third of their booty to the sultan. "Aruj, in command of small galliots, captured two much larger Papal galleys near the island of Elba. Later, near Lipari, the two brothers captured a Sicilian warship, the Cavalleria, with 380 Spanish soldiers and 60 Spanish knights from Aragon on board, who were on their way from Spain to Naples. In 1505, they raided the coasts of Calabria. These accomplishments increased their fame and they were joined by a number of other well-known Muslim corsairs, including Kurtoğlu (known in the West as Curtogoli). In 1508, they raided the coasts of Liguria, particularly Diano Marina.
In 1509, Ishak also left Mytilene and joined his brothers at La Goulette. The fame of "Aruj increased when between 1504 and 1510 he transported Muslim Mudejars from Christian Spain to North Africa. His efforts of helping the Muslims of Spain in need and transporting them to safer lands earned him the honorific name Baba 'Aruj (Father 'Aruj), which eventually— due to the similarity in sound— evolved in Spain, Italy and France into Barbarossa (Redbeard in Italian).
In 1510, the three brothers raided Cape Passero in Sicily and repulsed a Spanish attack on Bougie, Oran and Algiers. In August 1511, they raided the areas around Reggio Calabria in southern Italy. In August 1512, the exiled ruler of Bougie invited the brothers to drive out the Spaniards, and during the battle 'Aruj lost his left arm. This incident earned him the nickname Gümüş Kol (Silver Arm in Turkish), in reference to the silver prosthetic device which he used in place of his missing limb. Later that year, the three brothers raided the coasts of Andalusia in Spain, capturing a galliot of the Lomellini family of Genoa who owned the Tabarca island in that area. They subsequently landed on Minorca and captured a coastal castle, and then headed towards Liguria and captured four Genoese galleys near Genoa. The Genoese sent a fleet to liberate their ships, but the brothers captured their flagship as well. After capturing a total of 23 ships in less than a month, the brothers sailed back to La Goulette.
There the brothers built three more galliots and a gunpowder production facility. In 1513, they captured four English ships on their way to France, raided Valencia where they captured four more ships, and then headed for Alicante and captured a Spanish galley near Málaga. In 1513 and 1514, the three brothers engaged Spanish squadrons on several other occasions and moved to their new base in Cherchell, east of Algiers. In 1514, with 12 galliots and 1,000 Turks, they destroyed two Spanish fortresses at Bougie, and when a Spanish fleet under the command of Miguel de Gurrea, viceroy of Majorca, arrived for assistance, they headed towards Ceuta and raided that city before capturing Jijel in Algeria, which was under Genoese control. They later captured Mahdiya in Tunisia. Afterwards they raided the coasts of Sicily, Sardinia, the Balearic Islands and the Spanish mainland, capturing three large ships there. In 1515, they captured several galleons, a galley and three barques at Majorca. Still in 1515, "Aruj sent precious gifts to the Ottoman Sultan Selim I who, in return, sent him two galleys and two swords embellished with diamonds. In 1516, joined by Kurtoğlu, the brothers besieged the Castle of Elba, before heading once more towards Liguria where they captured 12 ships and damaged 28 others.
In 1516, the three brothers succeeded in liberating Jijel and Algiers from the Spaniards, but eventually assumed control over the cities and surrounding region, forcing the previous ruler, Abu Hamo Musa III of the Beni Ziyad dynasty, to flee. The local Spaniards in Algiers sought refuge in the island of Peñón near Algiers and asked Emperor Charles V, King of Spain, to intervene, but the Spanish fleet failed to force the brothers out of Algiers.
After consolidating his power and declaring himself the new Sultan of Algiers, 'Aruj sought to enhance his territory inlands and took Miliana, Medea and Ténès. He became known for attaching sails to cannons for transport through the deserts of North Africa. In 1517 the brothers raided Capo Limiti and later the Island of Capo Rizzuto in Calabria.
For 'Aruj, the best protection against Spain was to join the Ottoman Empire, his homeland and Spain's main rival. For this he had to relinquish his title of Sultan of Algiers to the Ottomans. He did this in 1517 and offered Algiers to the Ottoman Sultan. The Sultan accepted Algiers as an Ottoman Sanjak (province), appointed 'Aruj as the Bey (Governor) of Algiers and Beylerbey (Chief Governor) of West Mediterranean, and promised to support him with janissaries, galleys and cannons.
The Spaniards ordered Abu Zayan, whom they had appointed as the new ruler of Tlemcen and Oran, to attack 'Aruj by land, but 'Aruj learned of the plan and pre-emptively struck against Tlemcen, capturing the city and executing Abu Zayan. The only survivor of Abu Zayan's dynasty was Sheikh Buhammud, who escaped to Oran and called for Spain's assistance.
In May 1518, Emperor Charles V arrived at Oran and was received there by Sheikh Buhammud and the Spanish governor of the city, Diego de Cordoba, marquess of Comares, who commanded a force of 10,000 Spanish soldiers. Joined by thousands of Bedouins, the Spaniards marched overland on Tlemcen where 'Aruj and Ishak awaited them with 1,500 Turkish and 5,000 Moorish soldiers. They defended Tlemcen for 20 days, but were eventually killed in combat by the forces of Garcia de Tineo.
The last remaining brother, Hızır Reis, inherited his brother's place, his name (Barbarossa) and his mission.
'Aruj established a Turkish presence in North Africa that lasted for four centuries until the loss of Algeria to France in 1830, of Tunisia to France in 1881, of Libya to Italy in 1912 and until the official loss of Egypt and Sudan to the United Kingdom in 1914, after the Ottoman Empire joined World War I on the side of the Central Powers. The Republic of Turkey officially renounced the remaining disputed Turkish rights in some territories of Egypt and Sudan with the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923.
Several submarines of the Turkish Navy have been named after 'Aruj (Oruç Reis).
Barbarossa was the influence behind the character, Captain Hector Barbossa from the movie Pirates of the Carribean. It was revealed that costar Johnny Depp played a decisive part in providing the name. His last name is both a pun on the surname of Portuguese origin "Barbosa" and is based on Barbarossa, the Ottoman privateer. The word is a combination of the Italian words barba (beard) and ossa (bones) which is very consistent with his skeletal look shown in the first movie.
'Aruj Reis see ‘Aruj
Oruc Reis see ‘Aruj
Arrudye see ‘Aruj
Barbarossa see ‘Aruj
Redbeard see ‘Aruj
Baba 'Aruj see ‘Aruj
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