Corsair

A synonym for privateer, a person or a ship marauding with governmental approval. Privateering was called corsa in Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese and la course in French – all derived from the Latin word cursus meaning a race, march, or voyage. A person engaged in privateering was known as a corsaro (Italian), corsario (Spanish), corsari (Portuguese), or corsaire (French). The word was used in English from the 16th century in references to Barbary raiders.

In theory, a corsair was not a pirate because his activities were approved and regulated by law. He supposedly attacked only ships from countries at war with his government. Booty was turned over to a prize court, such as the Maltese Tribunale Degli Armamenti. However, only the Barbary corsairs obeyed their government’s rules, and Christian corsairs often looted ships from friendly and neutral nations. The worst offenders were the corsairs of Malta, who regularly sacked Christian vessels and towns, despite complaints by Venice, France, and the papacy. (Rogozinski, Corsair)

Muslim pirvateers from the Barbary States, which lay on Africa’s north coast, roamed the Mediterranean attacking the ships of Christian European nations. These privateers, sometimes called Barbary corsairs or Barbary pirates, had bases in Algiers, Morocco, Tripoli, and Tunis. Most established nations had largely defeated the corsairs by the early 1800s. But raids continued until French forces seized the Barbary pirates’ last base, in Algiers, in 1830. (World Book Encyclopedia, Pirate)

In the Middle Ages the Barbary corsairs of Muslim North Africa began to raid European shorelines and to attack shipping. These privateers, whom the Europeans considered pirates, combined religious warfare with plundering and slave raiding. During the Crusades they sold many Christian pilgrims into captivity, and for hundreds of years they exacted tribute as protection against attack.

The most renowned of the Barbary corsairs were the Barbarossa brothers. Fierce fighters and adroit naval strategists, they extorted payment from many governments, including those of England and France. One brother, Horush (died 1518), held Algiers and other North African ports until he was killed by the Spaniards. The other brother, Khair ed-Din (died 1546), became head of the Turkish fleet.

Abetted by the Ottoman Turks, piracy and privateering in the Mediterranean went virtually unchecked between the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. This interruption of shipping was a major reason for Columbus’ voyage in search of a westward route to India.

In the Battle of Lepanto, when the Christian nations decisively defeated Ottoman sea power, the Turkish Navy consisted largely of corsairs, who used Christian captives in their galleys. Although the battle marked the end of any great galaxy of sea rovers in the Mediterranean, the Barbary corsairs continued their depredations of a lesser scale until the 19th century. Various European nations and the United States sent punitive expeditions against them, but their power was not broken until the French conquest of Algiers in 1830. (Encyclopedia Americana, Pirate)