Khair ed-Din (c. 1465–1546)

Turkish corsair and admiral of the Ottoman fleet. He harassed European shipping and settlements in the Mediterranean, capturing Algiers from the Spanish in 1519, and gradually took control of all the North African states. He later won several victories against the fleet of Emperor Charles V. His campaigns severely weakened Spain's influence in the Mediterranean.

Of Armenian stock, he was raised on the Greek island of Lesbos, and later moved to Djerba. He began his career with his brother Horuk (Aruj) (c. 1474–1518). They took Algiers in 1515 but the Arab inhabitants combined with Spanish forces and defeated the brothers in 1518, Horuk being killed near Oran. Barbarossa retook Algiers in 1519 and was proclaimed its ruler by the Turkish sultan Selim I. In 1533 he became admiral of the Turkish fleet.

His success in the Mediterranean finally brought about a response from Emperor Charles V. The Emperor's fleet, under the Italian admiral Andrea Doria, won early engagements, driving Barbarossa out of Tunis in 1535, but lost to Barbarossa in sea battles in the Gulf of Arta in 1538, off Crete in 1540, and off Algiers in 1541. It was in response to these attacks that Barbarossa began plundering coastal towns in Italy, Greece, and Spain. In 1543 Barbarossa helped the French king Francis I – the unlikely ally of Sultan Suleiman – to capture Nice, then a part of Savoy.