Murat Rais

http://www.thepiratesrealm.com/rais.JPG - http://www.thepiratesrealm.com/rais.JPG

The man known as Murat Rais was born probably in Albania around 1535 and embraced piracy when as just a boy the corsair Kari Ali Rais captured him in 1546. He took his Muslim name Murat and sailed with this crew for nearly 20 years.

He went 'solo' after Kari's death in 1565, and through the 1570's, his reputation grew through bold land and sea attacks on Spanish and Italian interests. His exploits included capturing the flagship of the pope and at another time taking treasure in one year equivalent to the annual salary of 40,000 tradesmen.

Rais' boldness led him to often break the unspoken rules of Barbary society. As a result, when the Sultan of Algiers commissioned him as, "Captain of the Sea" in 1574, he could not assume the position with the Emperor's permission for another twenty years.

By the 1580's, he was notorious for his attacks on Christian ships and towns, which extended out to the Atlantic, where he held the people of one Spanish city for ransom.

Daring feats like his large attack on Southern Italy and subsequent capture of Spanish warships in the mid-1590's led to his being given command of ever-larger Ottoman naval groups, which he used to completely control the Eastern Mediterranean in the early 17th century. He was killed while laying siege to the city of Vlore in 1638, reputedly around the age of 100.

Is this the same name as the Ottoman name Reis?  Piri Reis and his brother were talented naval captains in the Ottoman navy during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent.  I think they started out, like the Barbarossas, as corsair pirates and were then offered positions in the Ottoman navy.  Piri Reis is also the creator of the mysterious map that shows one of the earliest representations of the Americas.

On the other side of the peninsula, the Byzantines, along with the Ottomans and the Italian Republics, had a terrible time with pirates in the Aegean during the reign of Palaeologus dynasty.

Sources:

Andrew C. Hess. "Piri Reis and the Ottoman Response to the Voyages of Discovery." Terra Incognitae 6 (1974): 19-37.

Svat Soucek. "The Rise of the Barbarossas in North Africa." Archivum Ottomanicum 3 (1971): 238-250.

Peter Charanis. "Piracy in the Aegean during the Reign of Michael VIII Palaeologus." Social, economic and political life in the Byzantine Empire; collected studies. Ed. Peter Charanis. London, UK: Variorum Reprints, 1973. 127-136.

Then it is like the Turkish word pasha?  Oh I see then.  Is he from that same seafaring family that Piri Reis was from?