Hayreddin Barbarossa

Timeline

1. c. 1478–1510Lesbos · Ottoman EmpireHayreddin was born on Lesbos in the Aegean, his father an Ottoman cavalryman and his mother Greek. He and his brother Uluj Barbarossa engaged in trade and privateering in the Mediterranean in their early years, accumulating rich seafaring and combat experience and gradually building a reputation at sea.
2. 1510–1533Algiers · MaghrebAfter his brother Uluj was killed in action in 1518, Hayreddin inherited and strengthened the North African power. He voluntarily offered Algeria to the Ottoman sultan to seek backing, was granted the title of Beylerbey (governor), and meanwhile continued raiding Spanish ships in the Mediterranean, rescuing many enslaved Muslims, greatly enhancing his fame.
3. 1533–1540Preveza · Northwestern GreeceIn 1533 Suleiman I summoned Hayreddin to Constantinople and granted him the post of Kapudan Pasha, commanding the entire Ottoman fleet. He immediately launched large-scale offensives in the western Mediterranean, raiding Tunis, the Italian coast, and Spanish possessions. In September 1538, at the Battle of Preveza, he routed the Holy League's combined fleet under Andrea Doria with inferior numbers, establishing Ottoman dominance of the Mediterranean.
4. 1541–1546Constantinople · Ottoman EmpireAfter the failed Algeria expedition of 1541, Hayreddin retired from the post of Kapudan Pasha, living in seclusion in Constantinople and writing his memoirs, the Book of the Holy Warrior. He died in Constantinople in 1546 and was buried in the magnificent mausoleum he had commissioned, which remains a historic landmark of Istanbul to this day.