Pirates of Barbary is an extraordinary record of the European renegades and Islamic sea-rovers who terrorised the Mediterranean and beyond throughout the seventeenth century. From the coast of Southern Europe to Morocco and the Ottoman states of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, Christian and Muslim seafarers met in bustling ports to swap religions, to battle and to trade goods and slaves - raiding as far as Iceland and New England in search of their human currency. Studying the origins of these men, their culture and practices - from pirate etiquette to intimidation tactics - Adrian Tinniswood expertly recreates the twilight world of the corsairs in fascinating detail, and uncovers a truly remarkable clash of civilisations.
Pirates of Barbary draws on an incredible wealth of material, from furious royal proclamations to the private letters of pirates and their victims, as well as recent Islamic accounts to provide a new perspective on the corsairs, both as criminals and as devout warriors engaged in a battle against European incursions. The result is a kaleidoscopic image of a wild and exotic people, place and time, and a fascinating insight into what it meant to sacrifice all you have for a life so violent, so uncertain, and so alien that it set you apart from the rest of mankind.
Chapter 1. Prosperity at Sea: The Mediterranean World
Chapter 2. Where Are the Days? The Making of a Pirate
Chapter 3. Hellfire Is Prepared: Turning Turk on the Barbary Coast
Chapter 4. The Land Hath Far Too Little Ground: Danseker the Dutchman
Chapter 5. Your Majesty’s New Creature: Pardons and Pragmatism Under James I
Chapter 6. Rich Caskets of Home-Spun Valour: Fighting Back Against the Pirates
Chapter 7. Treacherous Intents: The English Send a Fleet Against Algiers
Chapter 8. Fishers of Men: The Sack of Baltimore
Chapter 9. Woeful Slavery: William Rainborow’s 1637 Expedition to Morocco
Chapter 10. The Yoke of Bondage: A Slave ’s Story
Chapter 11. Deliverance: The Liberation of Barbary Captives
Chapter 12. The Greatest Scourge to the Algerines: The Occupation of Tangier
Chapter 13. Breaches of Faith: Making Peace with Barbary
Chapter 14. No Part of England: The Evacuation of Tangier
Chapter 15. The King’s Agent: Life in Late-Seventeenth-Century Tripoli
Chapter 16. The Last Corsair: Colonialism, Conquest, and the End of the Barbary Pirates