Barbaros Hayrettin Paşa

Kaptan-ı Derya (Donanma Komutanı), Denizci, Asker

Doğum
20 Ağustos, 1477
Ölüm
04 Temmuz, 1546
Burç
Diğer İsimler
Barbaros Hayreddin Paşa

Commander of Naval Forces (B. 20 August 1477?, Midilli – D. 4 July 1546?, Istanbul). He is the son of a cavalryman who came from Vardar Yenicesi and settled to Midilli. His real name is Hızır and he is known with the nickname Barbaros Hayreddin. Westerners first called his brother Oruç Reis “Barbarossa” because of his red beard and later him. The nickname “Hayreddin” was given to him by Yavuz Sultan Selim.

Barbaros started trade between Midilli, Thessaloniki and Eğriboz by a ship built by him. After his brother Oruç was saved from the knights of Rhodes the two brothers came under protection of Şehzade Korkut. After atrocities of the Spanish in Andalusia, Muslims started to emigrate from there. Oruç and Hızır brothers moved to Western Mediterranean. After the year 1504 they came to agreement with Hafsî Sultan Ebû Abdullah Muhammed b. Hasan (1493-1526) who ruled in Tunisian shores of Northern Africa and they settled to Halkulvâdî (La Goletta). When his ships increased in number he passed to Cerbe Island and used it as a base. They attacked all the shores until Italia from there. Meanwhile Cicelli people who established a town administration on their own declared Oruç Reis as Sultan. Barbaros brothers who returned to Midilli for a while came under protection of Yavuz Sultan Selim and gained the support of the Ottomans. They helped the Algerian people who wanted to get rid of the Spanish invasion. After the conquest of Algeria and Cherchell town in the west Algeria, Oruç Reis was declared as the Sultan of Cherchell and Algeria. Following that, he conquered in 1517 Tenes and Tlemsen towns. However, the Spanish who made an agreement with the natives recaptured Tlemsen in 1518, martyring Oruç Reis.

Hızır Reis who became alone sent over one of his men with forty slaves to the Ottoman Sultan to strengthen the Ottoman support. Yavuz Sultan Selim who learned about the happenings in Africa said “Hızır Reis is the helper and goodness of religion” showing his appreciation. He sent a will which declares that he is recognized as the ruler of Algeria. Besides Selim gave him the right to recruit voluntary soldiers in Anatolia and decided to send him an auxiliary troop of two thousand janissaries and bombardiers. Thus Algeria became part of the Ottoman Empire where the khutbah was spoken in his name. Hızır Reis was known as Hayreddin Pasha.

An attack to Harras in August 1519 by a fleet of eighty ships under the command of the Sicilian regent Hugo del Moncada was repelled by Hızır Reis. According to his memories the Europeans during this war granted Hızır the nickname “Barbarossa” like his brother. Barbaros Hayreddin became the ruler of the whole region except for a small island controlled by the Spanish between 1520 and 29. Meanwhile Muslims of Granada who were oppressed and mistreated received great support from him. Kanunî Sultan Süleyman invited Barbaros to Istanbul in order to appoint him the Commander of the Naval Forces. Barbaros after this appointment defeated European united forces led by the Spanish and attempted to establish a strong and regular fleet in order to take the Mediterranean under Turkish hegemony. In the same time he gave importance to cooperation with France against Karl V.

Barbaros participated to the Korfu siege in 1537 but this island could not be conquered. Thus he attempted to capture the isles belonging to Venetians. He maintained the security of sea routes by ending the Venetian hegemony in Eastern Mediterranean and Aegean. With the victory of Preveze he enabled the Turkish sovereignty in Central Mediterranean after the Eastern Mediterranean. François I started to approach the Ottomans again after Preveze. Barbaros who was supporting cooperation with the French from the beginning on and who established relations with François I in 1532 agreed on a common attack to places controlled by Karl V in the Mediterranean. However Barbaros who stayed about six months in Southern France had to return to Istanbul since François made an agreement with Karl V. On his return he saved Turgut Reis who was being held captive in Genoa. Nice campaign is the last major campaign of Barbaros. After this he was rather busy with shipbuilding. He passed away on the 5th of July 1546 after a short-term disease and was inhumed to the tomb near to the madrasah he built in Beşiktaş while he was alive.

During Barbaros Hayreddin Pasha Ottoman navigation reached the summit of its power and thanks to valuable navigators raised in his school and shipbuilding which regularly worked, this power lasted a certain period. According to the sources Barbaros was portly and brown-skinned. His hair, beard, eyebrows and eyelashes were very bushy. His life pretty much lasted in Mediterranean, so he could speak Greek, Arabic, Spanish, Italian and French well. Besides he was interested in music.

He started navigation as the captain of a small ship and became one day the Commander of Naval Forces. He let write his memories upon the order of Kanuni Sultan Süleyman. Hayreddin Pasha told his memories and Muradi Sinan Reis wrote them. These precious memories which are of the most important sources of Turkish navigation history were not published until recently and only give handwritten copies existed. The book on his memories whose original title was “Gazavât-ı Hayreddîn Paşa” was simplified and published in two volumes as Barbaros Hayreddin Paşa’nın Hatıraları” (Edited by: Osman Erdem). Barbaros in his memories first mentions his brother Oruç Reis, later tells about his works as “Hızır Reis” before becoming “Hayreddin Paşa”.

Captain Pashas of the Ottoman Empire wore their captain uniforms in Barbaros’ tomb in Beşiktaş. During this ceremony prayers were done and poor people were given food. Turkish ships which went on a cruise or realized military exercises greet Barbaros Hayreddin Pasha with artilleries even today when they pass from there. In the memory of Barbaros Hayreddin Pasha the Monument of Barbaros was built in Beşiktaş district of Istanbul between 194 and 43 by our famous sculptors Ali Haydar Bara and Zühtü Müridoğlu. Kadıköy seaport in Beşiktaş was given the name “Beşiktaş Hayrettin Pasha Seaport” and this seaport was renewed by the architects Erkan İnce and M. Hilmi Şenalp with Ottoman architectural style. Various ships in the Turkish fleet were given the name of Barbaros Hayreddin.

WORKS (Memories):

Gazavât-ı Hayreddin Paşa (There are two versions of it. One of them is prose and the other one poetical. The prosaic one was translated to French in Paris in 1837, to Italian in Palermo in 1887 and partly to Arabic in Algeria in 1934; simplified by Ertuğrul Düzdağ and published under the title Barbaros Hayreddin Paşa’nın Hâtıraları I-II (Istanbul 2009).  

REFERENCE: Necip Âsım / Gazavât-ı Hayreddin Paşa (manzum hatıratın tanıtımı, 1908), Ali Rıza Seyfi / Barbaros Hayreddin 1912), Fevzi Kurtoğlu, Barbaros Hayreddin Paşa, (1935), İskender Fahreddin Sertelli / Barbarosun Ölümü (1937), Şerafettin Turan / “Barbaros Hayreddin” (Küçük Türk-İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 1981), Fahir İz / Barbaros Hayreddin Paşa Gazavatnamesi Üzerinde Yeni Bir Araştırma (TDAY Belleten,1972), TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (c.5, 1992), İhsan Işık / Ünlü Devlet Adamları (Türkiye Ünlüleri Ansiklopedisi, C. 1, 2013) - Encyclopedia of Turkey’s Famous People (2013). 

İLGİLİ BİYOGRAFİLER

Devamını Gör