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. The main purpose of their attacks was to capture slaves for the Barbary slave trade. 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.
Occhiali was an Italian farmer, then Ottoman privateer and admiral, who later became beylerbey of the Regency of Algiers, and finally Grand Admiral of the Ottoman fleet in the 16th century.
Mers El Kébir is a port on the Mediterranean Sea, near Oran in Oran Province, northwest Algeria. It is famous for the attack on the French fleet in 1940, in the Second World War.
Abu Al-Hasan 'Ali ibn 'Othman, was a sultan of the Marinid dynasty who reigned in Morocco between 1331 and 1348. In 1333 he captured Gibraltar from the Castilians, although a later attempt to take Tarifa in 1339 ended in fiasco. In North Africa he extended his rule over Tlemcen and Hafsid Ifriqiya, which together covered the north of what is now Algeria and Tunisia. Under him the Marinid realms in the Maghreb briefly covered an area that rivalled that of the preceding Almohad Caliphate. However, he was forced to retreat due to a revolt of the Arab tribes, was shipwrecked, and lost many of his supporters. His son Abu Inan Faris seized power in Fez. Abu Al-Hasan died in exile in the High Atlas mountains.
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 Oruç 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.
Kemal Reis was an Ottoman privateer and admiral. He was also the paternal uncle of the famous Ottoman admiral and cartographer Piri Reis, who accompanied him in most of his important naval expeditions.
The Ottoman Navy or The Imperial Navy, also known as the Ottoman Fleet, was the naval warfare arm of the Ottoman Empire. It was established after the Ottomans first reached the sea in 1323 by capturing Praenetos, the site of the first Ottoman naval shipyard and the nucleus of the future navy.
The military history of Morocco covers a vast time period and complex events. It interacts with multiple military events in a vast area containing North Africa and the Iberian peninsula.
Seydi Ali Reis (1498–1563), formerly also written Sidi Ali Reis and Sidi Ali Ben Hossein, was an Ottoman admiral and navigator. Known also as Katib-i Rumi, Galatalı or Sidi Ali Çelebi, he commanded the left wing of the Ottoman fleet at the naval Battle of Preveza in 1538. He was later promoted to the rank of fleet admiral of the Ottoman fleet in the Indian Ocean, and as such, encountered the Portuguese forces based in the Indian city of Goa on several occasions in 1554. Seydi was able to unite several Muslim countries on the coast of the Arabian Sea against the Portuguese.
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 Ottoman-Portuguese conflicts were a period of conflict during the Ottoman–Portuguese confrontations and series of armed military encounters between the Portuguese Empire and the Ottoman Empire along with regional allies in and along the Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf, and Red Sea.
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.
Turkey–Morocco relations are the foreign relations between Morocco and Turkey, and spanned a period of several centuries, from the early 16th century when the Ottoman Empire neighbored Morocco to until modern times.
The Battle of Tadla occurred in September 1554 in Tadla, Morocco, between Ali Abu Hassun, last ruler of the Wattasid dynasty, and Mohammed ash-Sheikh, ruler of the Saadis.
The European enclaves in North Africa were towns, fortifications and trading posts on the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of western North Africa, obtained by various European powers in the period before they had the military capacity to occupy the interior. The earliest of these were established in the 11th century CE by the Italian Kingdom of Sicily and Maritime republics; Spain and Portugal were the main European powers involved; both France and, briefly, England also had a presence. Most of these enclaves had been evacuated by the late 18th century, and today only the Spanish possessions of Ceuta, Melilla, and the Plazas de soberanía remain.
The Campaign of Tlemcen or Tlemcen campaign was a military operation led by the Saadians of Mohammed ash-Sheikh against Tlemcen in 1557, then under the domination of the Regency of Algiers, a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. Mohammed ash-Sheikh, who wanted to conquer Algeria, occupied the city but failed to seize the Mechouar Palace, which was defended by a garrison of 500 men under the command of Caïd Saffa.
The Conquest of Fez or Capture of Fez took place in 1554 between the Algerian forces of Salah Rais and the ruler of the Saadi Sultanate, Mohammed ash-Sheikh. The battle took place on 7 January at Qudyat-al-Mahali, a suburb near Fez and occurred after Salah Reis’ two previous victories against the Saadians, one at Taza and another at the Sebou river.
In the 16th century the Ottomans several expeditions to Morocco.
The Campaign of Tlemcen (1551) was a military operation led by the Regency of Algiers under Hasan Pasha and his ally Abdelaziz, following the capture of Tlemcen by the Saadi Sultanate in June 1550.
The Battle of Taza occurred in December 1553, it was a battle between the Regency of Algiers and the Saadi Sultanate. Salah Reis left 1,500 men in charge of the victorious operation against the Moroccan camp near Taza, which was protected by a Moroccan army composed of 30,000 cavalry, 10,000 infantry and 20 cannons.
Portuguese Empire 
Regency of Algiers