| Spanish assault on Djerba (1520) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Spanish Empire |  Hafsid dynasty | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Hugo of Moncada | Sheikh Said | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 10,000-13,000 13 galleys 70 ships | 10,000-12,000 men 200 cavalry | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 260 killed | 500 killed | ||||||
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.
In 1510, during the reign of Ferdinand II of Aragon, es:García Álvarez de Toledo y Zúñiga had tried to take the island. His expedition was a failure and came to be known in Spanish as the Djerba disaster ("Desastre de los Gelves"). Charles V had also sent a failed expedition to Algiers in 1518, and in 1519 Hugo of Moncada was defeated at sea by corsairs. [1] The island of Djerba was nominally within the domains of Abu Abdallah Muhammad IV al-Mutawakkil of Ifriqiya but it was actually under the control of the Corsair commanders Oruç Reis and Hayreddin Barbarossa. [2] [3]
In 1519 Charles V decided to prepare an expedition to take the island and eliminate the Corsair threat. Command of the fleet was given to Don Hugo de Moncada with the title of captain general. During the summer of 1519 preparations were made in Barcelona, Valencia, Cartagena and Malaga, and after the ships met in Ibiza and Formentera, they wintered in Sicily. In mid-April 1520, the navy left for the shores of Tunisia. Moncada arrived in Djerba with 13 galleys, 70 ships and between 10,000 and 13,000 infantry. [4]
After landing the army about 18 miles from Djerba, on 28 May the march against the island began. The Spanish were attacked by the army of Sheikh Said, made up of ten or twelve thousand infantry and two hundred cavalry. Despite initial setbacks, Hugo of Moncada and the Flemish knights under his command managed to repel their enemies, who fled. The local forces had lost about 500 men in the encounter, while the Spanish lost 200 infantrymen and 60 horsemen. After resting for a time, Moncada's army resumed its advance and fortified a hamlet halfway to the castle. The sheikh began negotiations, not waiting for help from the caliph in Tunis, and soon capitulated.
A new Spanish fortress was immediately built, and a Spanish garrison was installed. The sheikh was not dispossessed, but became a tributary of Spain, agreeing to pay a sum of 12,000 francs per year and keep the island free of corsairs. [5]
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.
Oruç Reis 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.
The Battle of Djerba took place in May 1560 near the island of Djerba, Tunisia. The Ottomans under Piyale Pasha's command overwhelmed a large joint Christian Alliance fleet, composed chiefly of Spanish, Papal, Genoese, Maltese, and Neapolitan forces. The allies lost 27 galleys and some smaller vessels as well as the fortified island of Djerba. This victory marked perhaps the high point of Ottoman power in the Mediterranean Sea.
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.
Piali Pasha was an Ottoman Grand Admiral between 1553 and 1567, and a Vizier (minister) after 1568. He is also known as Piale Pasha in English.
Hugo de Moncada a.k.a. Ugo de Moncada, was a Spanish political and military leader of the late 15th and early 16th century. He served as General of Ocean and Land, Viceroy of Sicily, 1509–1517, Viceroy of Naples, 1527 - 1528.
Kurtoğlu Muslihiddin Reis was the admiral of the Ottoman Empire, as well as the Sanjak Bey of Rhodes. He played an important role in the Ottoman conquests of Egypt (1517) and Rhodes (1522) during which he commanded the Ottoman naval forces. He also helped establish the Ottoman Indian Ocean Fleet based in Suez, which was later commanded by his son, Kurtoğlu Hızır Reis.
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 Habsburg Empire of Charles V and its allies conquered Tunis in 1535, wresting the city away from the control of the Ottoman Empire.
The capture of Peñón of Algiers was accomplished when the beylerbey of Algiers, Hayreddin Barbarossa took a fortress on a small islet facing the Algerian city of Algiers from the Habsburg Spaniards.
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The capture of Mahdia was an amphibious military operation that took place from June to September, 1550, during the struggle between the Ottoman Empire and the Spanish Habsburgs for the control of the Mediterranean. A Spanish naval expedition under the command of the Genoese condottiero and admiral Andrea Doria and the Spaniard Bernardino de Mendoza, supported by the Knights of Malta under their Grand Master Claude de la Sengle, besieged and captured the Ottoman stronghold of Mahdia or Mahdiye, defended by the Ottoman Admiral Turgut Reis, known as Dragut, who was using the place as a base for his piratical activities throughout the Spanish and Italian coasts. Mahdia was abandoned by Spain three years later, and all its fortifications were demolished to avoid a re-occupation of the city by the Ottomans.
Ettore Pignatelli e Caraffa, 1st Duke of Monteleone, also spelled Carafa (Naples, Italy, also known as Héctor Pignatelli, 1st Count of Monteleone since 1505, afterwards 1st Duke of Monteleone and Count of Borrello, was an Ambassador in Naples, Italy, of king Ferdinand II of Aragón, where his sister Juana of Aragón was the young second Queen Consort of Naples, the 2nd wife of king Ferrante I of Naples.
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Dragut, also known as "the Drawn Sword of Islam", was an Ottoman corsair, naval commander, governor, and noble. Under his command, the Ottoman Empire's maritime power was extended across North Africa. Recognized for his military genius, and as being among "the most dangerous" of corsairs, Dragut has been referred to as "the greatest pirate warrior of all time", "undoubtedly the most able of all the Turkish leaders", and "the uncrowned king of the Mediterranean". He was described by a French admiral as "a living chart of the Mediterranean, skillful enough on land to be compared to the finest generals of the time" and that "no one was more worthy than he to bear the name of king". Hayreddin Barbarossa, who was his mentor, stated that Dragut was ahead of him "both in fishing and bravery".
Ottoman Tunisia, also known as the Regency of Tunis, refers to the Ottoman presence in Ifriqiya from the 16th to the 19th century, when Tunis was officially integrated into the Ottoman Empire as the Eyalet of Tunis. Ottoman presence in the Maghreb began with the takeover of Algiers in 1516 by the Ottoman Turkish corsair and beylerbey Aruj, eventually expanding across the entire region except for Morocco. The first Ottoman conquest of Tunis occurred in 1534 under the command of Khayr al-Din Barbarossa, the younger brother of Aruj, who was the Kapudan Pasha of the Ottoman Fleet during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. However, it was not until the final Ottoman reconquest of Tunis from Spain in 1574 that the Turks permanently acquired the former territories of Hafsid Tunisia, retaining it until the French occupation of Tunisia in 1881.
The Battle of Girolata was a naval action fought between Genoese, Spanish, and Ottoman ships on 15 June 1540 in the Gulf of Girolata, on the west coast of the island of Corsica, amidst the war between Charles V of Spain and Suleiman the Magnificent. A Spanish squadron of 21 galleys led by the Genoese Gianettino Doria and the Spaniard Berenguer de Requesens surprised an Ottoman squadron of 11 galleys, anchored at Girolata, led by the Ottoman admiral Dragut, whom the commander of the Ottoman Navy, Hayreddin Barbarossa, had committed to raid the Italian coast after his victories in the Adriatic sea the year before. As the crews of the Ottoman warships were ashore, distributing the booty from recent raids, the Spanish-Genoese fleet easily overtook them, taking all 11 Ottoman galleys and making 1,200 prisoners, among them Dragut, who was carried to Genoa and put, together with his captains, to row in Andrea Doria's galleys.
Abu Abdallah Muhammad IV al-Mutawakkil was the Hafsid caliph of Ifriqiya from 1494 to 1526.
The Spanish assault on Djerba was a 1510 military expedition directed by Ferdinand II of Aragon against the Tunisian island of Djerba. It resulted in the death of several thousand soldiers and is often known as the Djerba Disaster.
In 1519, a joint Spanish-Italian attack on Algiers was ordered by Charles V and commanded by Hugo de Moncada. This expedition ended in disaster.