Sinan Reis, also ''Ciphut Sinan'', (, ''Sinan Rais''; , ''Sinan Rayyis'';)
"Sinan the Chief", and , "Sinan the Jew", was a
Barbary corsair who
sailed under and was second in command of the famed
Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa.
Life
Origins
While Ottoman sources are generally silent about his origins, most modern works assert that he was born to a
Sephardic Jewish family
which fled Spain or Portugal and possibly relocated to the then
Ottoman ruled
Smyrna
Smyrna ( ; , or ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, Turkey. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna ...
, Sinan sailed as a
Barbary corsair, a type of
privateer
A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...
or
pirate
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...
, under the Ottoman
flag
A flag is a piece of textile, fabric (most often rectangular) with distinctive colours and design. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design employed, and fla ...
. There are several cases of
Jews
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
who upon fleeing
Iberia
The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, compri ...
turned to attacking
the Empire's shipping
Freight transport, also referred to as freight forwarding, is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been ...
, a profitable
strategy
Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "troop leadership; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the " a ...
of
revenge
Revenge is defined as committing a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. Vengeful forms of justice, such as primitive justice or retributive justice, are often differentiated from more fo ...
for the
Inquisition
The Inquisition was a Catholic Inquisitorial system#History, judicial procedure where the Ecclesiastical court, ecclesiastical judges could initiate, investigate and try cases in their jurisdiction. Popularly it became the name for various med ...
's
religious persecution
Religious persecution is the systematic oppression of an individual or a group of individuals as a response to their religion, religious beliefs or affiliations or their irreligion, lack thereof. The tendency of societies or groups within socie ...
.
There are other sources though which claim that Sinan's epithet, "the Jew" does not refer to his Jewish origins. The sixteenth-century chronicler Francisco Lopez de Gómara argued that he was named so because he once escaped from an encounter with Christian ships while the nineteenth-century editor of his text speculated, not so quite understandably, that interest in astrology earned him his nickname.
Corsair
Sinan was based out of
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...
points including
Santorini, and fought in several key
battle
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force co ...
s against the Spanish and the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...
, at the time ruled by the same man,
Charles V.
The English State Papers of 1533 bear
evidence
Evidence for a proposition is what supports the proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the proposition is truth, true. The exact definition and role of evidence vary across different fields. In epistemology, evidence is what J ...
s of his actions:
His
moniker "the Great Jew", appears in a
1528 reference by the
Governor
A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...
of
Portuguese India
The State of India, also known as the Portuguese State of India or Portuguese India, was a state of the Portuguese Empire founded seven years after the discovery of the sea route to the Indian subcontinent by Vasco da Gama, a subject of the ...
, who mistakenly believed that Sinan was sent by
Suleiman the Magnificent
Suleiman I (; , ; 6 November 14946 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the Western world and as Suleiman the Lawgiver () in his own realm, was the List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman sultan between 1520 a ...
to aid the King of
Calicut.
Sinan sailed under the famed
Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa at the
1538 Battle of Preveza against Charles' Imperial fleet and its commander, Andrea Doria.
Sinan suggested
landing troops at
Actium on the
Gulf of Arta near
Preveza
Preveza (, ) is a city in the region of Epirus (region), Epirus, northwestern Greece, located on the northern peninsula of the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf. It is the capital of the Preveza (regional unit), regional unit of Preveza, which is the s ...
, an idea which Barbarossa initially opposed, but which later proved to be important for securing the Ottoman victory.
The Spanish hired Christian foreces to protect the barbary coast from the corsairs. Sinan led the battle and the defeat of the Genoan navy hired by the Spanish.
He commanded 6000 troops, stationed in Tripoli, Libya. Sinan's soldiers which were initially stationed in a fortress from eventually conquered the city. It is said Sinan was so angry by the resistance put up against him in Tripoli that he improsined the entire enemy garrison save a few.
He was eventually the supreme commander in the Ottoman Navy.
Sinan Reis died in 1546. It is said that he died just days before a planned departure for a raiding mission to the coast of India.
Not to be mistaken
Sinan (the pirate) is not the Sinan buried in a
Jewish cemetery in Albania,
because that refers to the grave of Kapudan Sinan (Sinanüddin Yusuf) Pasha (admiral of the Ottoman fleet 1550–1553) who lies buried near his mosque in Üsküdar (Istanbul).
(The Turkish word for Scutari in Albania is also Üsküdar).
See also
*
Samuel Pallache
*
Barbary slave trade
References
Reference by the Vatican Legate
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sinan Reis
Barbary pirates (people)
16th-century pirates
16th-century people from the Ottoman Empire
Sephardi Jews from the Ottoman Empire
16th-century Sephardi Jews