ABSTRACT
The conquest of Tunis in 982/1574 sealed Ottoman domination of the eastern and central Arab Maghrib, over which the Hafsid dynasty, established in 1229, had extended its influence during the period of its apogee in the fourteenth and part of the fifteenth centuries. The region, which had been plunged, since the end of the latter century, into economic decline and political anarchy, had become the stake of a duel between the Ottoman and Spanish Empires for the control of the southwestern Mediterranean. The confrontation between the two powers pitted against each other the corsair forces affiliated to them – a frequent feature of naval warfare in those times. In the Ottoman camp, an original and farreaching partnership was struck between the Porte and the Muslim corsairs, of whom the most prestigious was the famous Khayr al-D⁄n Barbarossa. The latter, having succeeded his brother Aruj as ruler of the small coastal town of Algiers, placed himself under Ottoman protection, and received from Sultan Sel⁄m I a firman (sultanic decree) investing him with the governorship of Algiers, as well as an important janissary force. The new beylerbey (provincial governor) and his successors were thus provided with the symbols of legitimacy as well as the human and material resources that enabled them to resist Spanish attacks and embark on further conquests along the central coast of the Maghrib (Bona in 1522, Constantine in 1524). Another famous corsair, Dragut Reis, who had been operating with frequent success against the Spaniards along the south-eastern coast of the Maghrib, was rewarded in the same way in 1556 by being appointed beylerbey of Tripoli.
