The Battle of Preveza was a naval engagement that took place on 28 September 1538 near Preveza in the Ionian Sea in northwestern Greece between an Ottoman fleet and that of a Holy League. The battle was an Ottoman victory which occurred in the same area in the Ionian Sea as the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. It was one of the three largest sea battles that took place in the sixteenth century Mediterranean, along with the Battle of Djerba and the Battle of Lepanto.
The Barbary pirates, Barbary corsairs, or Ottoman corsairs were mainly Muslim pirates and privateers who operated from the Barbary states. This area was known in Europe as the Barbary Coast, in reference to the Berbers. Slaves in Barbary could be of many ethnicities, and of many different religions, such as Christian, Jewish, or Muslim. Their predation extended throughout the Mediterranean, south along West Africa's Atlantic seaboard and into the North Atlantic as far north as Iceland, but they primarily operated in the western Mediterranean. In addition to seizing merchant ships, they engaged in razzias, raids on European coastal towns and villages, mainly in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal, but also in the British Isles, the Netherlands, and Iceland.
The Regency of Algiers was an early modern tributary state of the Ottoman Empire on the Barbary Coast of North Africa from 1516 to 1830. Founded by the corsair brothers Aruj and Hayreddin Barbarossa, the regency was a formidable pirate base infamous for its corsairs, first ruled by Ottoman viceroys, and later a sovereign military republic that plundered and waged maritime holy war against Christian powers.
Aruj Barbarossa, known as Oruç Reis to the Turks, was an Ottoman corsair who became Sultan of Algiers. The elder brother of the famous Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa, he was born on the Ottoman island of Midilli and died in battle against the Spanish at Tlemcen.
Hayreddin Barbarossa, also known as Hayreddin Pasha, Hızır Hayrettin Pasha, and simply Hızır Reis, was an Ottoman corsair and later admiral of the Ottoman Navy. Barbarossa's naval victories secured Ottoman dominance over the Mediterranean during the mid-16th century.
Salah Rais was the 7th King of Algiers, an Ottoman privateer and admiral. He is alternatively referred to as Sala Reis, Salih Rais, Salek Rais and Cale Arraez in several European sources, particularly in Spain, France and Italy.
The conquest of Tunis occurred in 1535 when the Habsburg Emperor Charles V and his allies wrestled the city away from the control of the Ottoman Empire.
The siege of Nice occurred in 1543 and was part of the Italian War of 1542–46 in which Francis I and Suleiman the Magnificent collaborated as part of the Franco-Ottoman alliance against the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and Henry VIII of England. At that time, Nice was under the control of Charles III, Duke of Savoy, an ally of Charles V. This is part of the 1543–1544 Mediterranean campaign of Barbarossa.
The 1541 Algiers expedition occurred when Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire and king of Spain attempted to lead an amphibious attack against the Regency of Algiers, in modern Algeria. Inadequate planning, particularly against unfavourable weather, led to the failure of the expedition.
The capture of Peñón of Algiers was accomplished when the beylerbey of Algiers, Hayreddin Barbarossa captured the fortress called Peñón of Algiers, on a small islet facing the Algerian city of Algiers from the Habsburg Spaniards.
The conquest of Tunis occurred on 16 August 1534 when Hayreddin Barbarossa captured the city from the Hafsid ruler Muley Hasan.
The siege of Castelnuovo was an engagement during the Ottoman-Habsburg struggle for control of the Mediterranean, which took place in July 1539 at the walled town of Castelnuovo, present-day Herceg Novi, Montenegro. Castelnuovo had been conquered by elements of various Spanish tercios the year before during the failed campaign of the Holy League against the Ottoman Empire in Eastern Mediterranean waters. The walled town was besieged by land and sea by a powerful Ottoman army under Hayreddin Barbarossa, who offered an honourable surrender to the defenders. These terms were rejected by the Spanish commanding officer Francisco de Sarmiento and his captains even though they knew that the Holy League's fleet, defeated at the Battle of Preveza, could not relieve them. During the siege, Barbarossa's army suffered heavy losses due to the stubborn resistance of Sarmiento's men. However, Castelnuovo eventually fell into Ottoman hands and almost all the Spanish defenders, including Sarmiento, were killed. The loss of the town ended the Christian attempt to regain control of the Eastern Mediterranean. The courage displayed by the Old Tercio of Naples during this last stand, however, was praised and admired throughout Europe and was the subject of numerous poems and songs. Even the Venetian refused the promised naval link to Castelnuovo with the supplies and reinforcements; after a general troop parliament, the commanding officer Francisco de Sarmiento asked his captains what his answer should be to Barbarossa's offer to surrender. The captains responded: "Que vengan cuando quieran".
The Expedition of Mostaganem occurred in 1558, when Spanish forces attempted to capture the city of Mostaganem. The expedition was supposed to be a decisive step in the conquest of the Ottoman base of Algiers, but it ended in failure, and has been called a "disaster".
Hasan Pasha was the son of Hayreddin Barbarossa and three-times Beylerbey of the Regency of Algiers. His mother was a Moorish woman from Algiers. He succeeded his father as ruler of Algiers, and replaced Barbarossa's deputy Hasan Agha, who had been effectively holding the position of ruler of Algiers since 1533.
The Battle of Wadi al-Laban occurred in March–April 1558 between Saadians and Ottoman Algerian forces under Hasan Pasha, the son of Hayreddin Barbarossa. It took place north of Fes, at Wadi al-Laban, an affluent of the Sebou River, one day north of Fes.
The capture of Algiers in 1516 was accomplished by the brothers Oruç and Hayreddin Barbarossa against Sālim al-Tūmī, the ruler of the city of Algiers, which was followed by an unsuccessful military campaign by the Spanish Empire and the Sheikh of Ténès to overthrow the newly formed Sultanate of Algiers.
Martín Alonso Fernández de Córdoba Montemayor y Velasco was a Spanish nobleman, first Count of Alcaudete, Viceroy of Navarra, and governor of Oran.
Abu Abdallah Muhammad IV al-Mutawakkil was the Hafsid caliph of Ifriqiya from 1494 to 1526.
The Spanish assault on Djerba was a 1520 Spanish military expedition against the island of Djerba in Tunisia. Led by Hugo of Moncada, it ended with the capitulation of the island's sheikh, who became a tributary of Emperor Charles V.
The Battle of Issers was a conflict that took place in 1519 between the forces of Sultan Ahmed of Kuku and Hayreddin Barbarossa of the Sultanate of Algiers.
Kingdom of Sicily 
Sultanate of Algiers 
