Sinan Reis, also known as Sinan the Jew, was a privateer in Hayreddin Barbarossa’s fleet, being second in command, behind only to the legendary Redbeard.

Sinan was born in a Sephardi jewish family that fled from Spain after the expulsion of the jews in 1492 heading to the then Ottoman city of Smyrna. From that time onwards and throughout the sixteenth century, many jews and also muslims became pirates, many aiming to revenge themselves on the Spaniards who expelled their relatives from their homelands. In this way, they ended up attacking the ships of Spain, both for revenge and to some extent trying to recover what had been confiscated from their ancestors when they were expelled.

Thus, Sinan “The Great Jew” joined the Berber fleets of the Mediterranean that sailed under the Ottoman banner, becoming the right-hand of the famous admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa, the Redbeard. Together, they would win several battles against the Iberian fleets, the most famous being that of Preveza in 1538.

A few years before the aforementioned battle, on August 20, 1534, Sinan Reis would command a fleet of one hundred ships to the harbor of Tunis and conquer the city, until then under Spanish rule, guaranteeing it to Suleiman the Magnificent, sultan of the Ottoman Empire at the time. The port was a strategic place, as it was located in front of Sicily and next to a strait that connected the western and eastern basins of the Mediterranean.

Pintura italiana do do início do século XVI retratando Sinan Reis e Hayreddin Barbarossa em exibição no Art Institute, Chicago, EUA.

Sultan Suleiman already dominated the Black Sea, the Red Sea and the eastern part of the Mediterranean, achieving a presence on the western side of it when Barbarossa conquered Algeria in 1529. Since the Ottoman banner now rested in Tunis, the sultan guaranteed his dominance across the Mediterranean in its two sides, thus blocking the route for Charles V, who could no longer sail through that region, becoming hostile waters for his ships, which were now dominated by Ottoman corsairs and Jewish merchants.

It is interesting to note that Charles’ reaction was to send an agent to Tunis, offering Barbarossa the “landship over North Africa”1. However, the Emperor ordered that if Barbarossa refused the offer, then the agent should kill him with poison or cutting his throat. Barbarossa’s response came as a blow to the imperial agent’s neck, literally beheading him. Charles V would not take a ‘no’ as an answer, deciding at all costs to win Tunis for him, thus proclaiming his crusade.

Barbarossa entrusted his defenses to Sinan Reis and 5,000 of his best men, who managed to withstand attacks by Charles and his army for 24 days. Sinan advanced 3 times towards enemy attacks to try to get them away from the city, but he was repelled in all attempts until finally the Spanish attackers managed to tear down a part of the wall and enter the city with their Italian and German allies. With the capture of the city’s fort, Charles had dominated the entire bay and had also acquired 87 galleys from enemy corsairs. On July 21, 1535, Charles’ army entered the city, however, it is estimated that during the next three days 70 thousand people were killed and another 40 thousand captured, who were not part of the army of Barbarossa and Sinan Reis, but city ​​dwellers, which at one point had allied themselves with Christians in the past. Jews were also not spared  in the massacre.

Charles V faced some problems during the following years, such as those related to the state incomes, for example. However, in the Mediterranean, Charle’s archenemy, Sinan Reis, would loot his fleet that would seal Suleiman’s dominance in the Mediterranean again.

In 1538 Sinan Reis would destroy a large part of the Spanish naval fleet in the port of Preveza in Greece, and in the previous year he would block the Gulf of Kotor (Montenegro), causing the last Spanish garrison to surrender.

Perhaps the most important battle of Sinan’s life was in 1538, in Preveza. There, the Ottoman forces would battle against a Christian league organized by Pope Paul III.

Such a battle occurred because a year earlier, Hayreddin Barbarossa had captured a significant part of the Aegean and Ionian Sea islands, thus annexing the Duchy of Naxos to the Ottoman Empire. Because of this, Pope Paul III managed in 1538 to form a League that encompassed both the papacy and Spain, the Republic of Genoa, Venice and the Knights Hospitaller to face the Ottoman admiral.

In that battle the Ottomans had a great numerical disadvantage, where the Ottoman fleet consisted of 122 galleys and 82 galliots, while the Holy League had 300 galleys and galleons. Each member of the League sent a considerable number of ships, but in general they were commanded by the Genoese admiral under the services of Charles V, Andrea Doria.2

In this battle, Sinan Reis would have a fundamental role, both in battle and strategically, since he suggested that the troops should land at Actium, near Preveza, which would prove to be a fundamental maneuver to guarantee the Ottoman victory. In Preveza Sinan Reis would fight alongside great names of the Ottoman navy, such as Barbarossa himself and his son Hasan Reis, as well as other important names, such as Turgut Reis, Murat Reis and Salih Reis. Here, Sinan Reis would be responsible for the destruction of a significant amount of the Spanish fleet in Preveza, a fatal blow to the presence of Charles V in the Mediterranean

Two years later, Sinan Reis’ son would be captured by Charles’ army, eventually being forcibly baptized, but he would be rescued years later by Barbarossa, who ceaselessly tried to rescue him, until he finally succeeded in Piombino after bombing the city, since the local ruler refused to surrender the boy for “having become a Christian”.

This is the story of the legendary Jewish privateer of the Ottoman Empire, who fought alongside and against giants of his time, being always remembered in history, also called as the “famous Jewish pirate”, or “the Great Jew”.

NOTES

[1] KRITZLER, 2009;

[2] The fleet of the Holy League consisted in: 55 venetian galleys; 61 genoese/papal; 10 by the Knights Hospitaller and 50 sent by the spanish;

[3] Charles V promoted harsh policies against those called as “judaizers” (judaizantes).

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

-KRITZLER, Edward. Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom–and Revenge. JR Books. 2009

-STEVEN, Plaut. Putting the Oy Back into ‘Ahoy’. Jewish Press. 2008;

-CASALE, Giancarlo. The Ottoman Age of Exploration. Oxford University Press. 2010;

-KONSTAM, Angus. Piracy: the complete history. Osprey Publishing. 2008.