Barbarossa (1466?-1546) was a Barbary corsair (sea raider). Also called Khair-ed-Din, he was the younger of two red-bearded brothers who scourged the western Mediterranean in the 1500’s. Khair-ed-Din succeeded his brother Arouj as commander of organized fleets of ships. He became high admiral of the navy of the Ottoman Empire, which was based in what is now Turkey, and devoted his life to ferocious and vengeful attacks on Christian ships and towns.
He also captured Tunis and Algiers. He plundered the shores of Italy, France, and Spain, and enslaved thousands of Christians. He twice defeated the great Genoese admiral, Andrea Doria. The Ottoman naval supremacy that he helped build up was not destroyed until the Christians defeated the Ottomans at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.
