Oruç Reis

Oruç Reis (Turkish: Oruç Reis; Arabic: عروج بربروس‎; Spanish: Arrudye; c. 1474–1518) was an Ottoman bey (governor) of Algiers and beylerbey (chief governor) of the West Mediterranean, and the elder brother of Hayreddin Barbarossa. He was born on the Ottoman island of Midilli (Lesbos in modern Greece) and was killed in battle against the Spanish at Tlemcen in the Ottoman Eyalet of Algeria.

He became known as Baba Oruç or Baba Aruj (Father Oruç) when he transported large numbers of Morisco and Jewish refugees from Spain to North Africa; he was known in folk etymology in Europe as Barbarossa (which means Redbeard in Italian).

Background

His father was a Turk of Albanian origin. His mother was a local Christian Greek woman from Mytilene, the widow of an Orthodox priest. Yakup Ağa took part in the Ottoman conquest of Lesbos (Midilli) from the Genoese in 1462, and as a reward, was granted the fief of the Bonova village in the island. He married a local Christian Greek woman from Mytilene, the widow of an Orthodox priest, named Katerina, and they had two daughters and four sons: Ishak, Oruç, Hizir and Ilyas. Yakup became an established potter and purchased a boat to trade his products. The four sons helped their father with his business, but not much is known about the daughters. At first Oruç helped with the boat, while Hizir helped with pottery.