What Did Barbary Pirates Really Want?
Barbary Pirate Raids
On June 20, 1631, Dutch renegade Murat Reis led an attack on Baltimore, capturing over 100 villagers. Those who fought back were killed on the spot. The captives boarded the pirate ships chained and humiliated, on their way to slave markets in North Africa. The attack on Irish shores wasn't the only one; coastal towns from Iceland to Italy became war zones between the 16th and 19th centuries. These were the feared Barbary pirates, also known as the Muslim corsairs, who terrorized European shores for centuries.
For a long time, this selective narrative has dominated conversations about the Barbary corsairs, especially in some online communities where history is often used in debates about immigration and religious conflict. Like most historical events, the real story is not as white and black, but it is filled with mutual aggression, retaliation, and a cycle of violence that spanned many years.
Missing Pieces of the Story
The eye-opening book "Piracy, Slavery, and Redemption: Barbary Captivity Narratives from Early Modern England," published by Columbia University Press, provides some missing context about Barbary Wars.
The insightful introduction reads as follows: “Although the North African privateers sought profit from capturing Britons and other Europeans, they also wished to retaliate against attacks on them by these same Europeans, whom they and their Muslim co-religionists had encountered as marauding crusaders and piratical ifrangi since the medieval period."
This quote really changes how we think about that time. Many of North Africa’s maritime actions were actually responses to ongoing European attacks rather than unprovoked aggression.
Uncovering European Aggression
The book points out that between 1573 and 1644, there was a constant stream of attacks from Spaniards, Portuguese, Maltese, English, and other Christian powers on North African cities and trade routes.
Take, for instance, a shocking incident on October 1584 when Venetians captured a Tunisian ship on its way to Tripoli. The Christian forces killed everyone on board—50 Moors, 75 Turks, 174 Christian converts to Islam, and 45 women. An Englishman named Thomas Saunders, who had been a captive in Tripoli just a year earlier, called this massacre “God’s just judgment on the infidels.”
16th century military revolution gave the Spanish and Portuguese forces the upper hand against the North African corsairs. Thousands of Muslims were imprisoned, marked, and chained on warships from Malta, Italy, and France. Just in the first decade of the 17th century, over 5,500 Muslim captives were held in Venice and Malta.
A Cycle of Retaliation
The idea of innocent Europeans being victimized by Muslim pirates falls apart when we dig deeper into historical accounts. An English captive named John Rollins said that the Algerians mistreated the English captives because the English fleet had tried to set fire to the Algerian harbor months before.
In an extraordinary exchange, the Algerian ruler wrote directly to King James I of England in 1624, saying: “Your majesty's subjects did take some Moors and Turks, and now our captains did take certain Englishmen and sold them, which if your majesty shall be pleased to send us the Moors and the Turks, we shall suddenly and out of hand put the Christians at liberty.”
This letter reveals how the English aggression sparked Algerian counteraggression.
Photo by Henry Hustava on Unsplash
Deeper Reasons Behind the Barbary Pirates
What’s perhaps most interesting is the story of the Moriscos—Muslims who were forced to leave Spain. After living in the Iberian Peninsula for centuries, hundreds of thousands were uprooted, separated from their families, and lost their homes just because of their faith.
Many of these displaced people found refuge in North African coastal cities, where they redirected their sailing skills against their former homeland. As historian Al-Makiri put it, “They lived in Salé, and their sea jihad is now well-known.” These were once law-abiding subjects in Spain and Portugal who became “embittered sea raiders” after being kicked out.
The book explains: “Many had firsthand experience of Christian violence when they fled Spain and France to North Africa, having lost their property, been separated from their kids, and exiled due to their faith. They believed they deserved vengeance.”
The Stigmatization of Converts
Another intriguing aspect highlighted in the book is how Europeans who converted to Islam in captivity were treated. An appendix includes “The Laudian Rite for Returned Renegades” from 1637, outlining the public penance required of anyone who converted to “Turkism” (Islam) and later came back to Christian society.
These converts had to stand outside the church during Sunday service “wearing a white sheet, with a white stick in their hand, head uncovered, looking miserable,” begging on their knees for forgiveness. This kind of public humiliation speaks volumes about the religious tensions that existed during that time.
Looking Beyond the One-Sided Story
Piracy, Slavery, and Redemption challenges us to look past the oversimplified ideas of “Muslim pirates attacking innocent Christians” that can still be found in certain corners of the internet these days. Sure, Barbary pirates did capture Europeans and sell them into slavery, but European powers were doing the same, often on a much larger scale and with more destruction.
The raids and captures were part of a complex cycle of retaliation driven by a range of factors, including religious conflicts, political expulsions, and economic motivations on both sides. The classic “clash of civilizations” narrative often thrown around doesn’t capture this fundamental historical reality.
A Fuller Perspective
By bringing back this forgotten context, we can gain a fuller understanding of a complex historical period that doesn’t simply reduce to talking points in today’s debates about immigration or religious issues. This dangerous approach breeds intolerance and leads to conflicts. What we truly need is to fully understand historical events in their proper context so we can learn from them and bridge the gaps rather than deepen divisions.
**This blog post was inspired by Paul’s Blogging Theology Video “Barbary Pirates EXPLAINED — What the West Won't Tell You”. I highly recommend subscribing to his Youtube Channel if you like historical and religious discussions away from modern influences.
If you're curious about the history of slavery in Islamic contexts, check out Professor Jonathan A.C. Brown’s book “Slavery in Islam,” which offers deep insights into this often misunderstood topic.
