From Pirate to Admiral: The Tale of Barbarossa
Lebrecht Music and Arts Photo Library/Alamy The island of Lésbos, in the Aegean Sea, is now part of Greece, but between 1462 and 1912, it lay under Turkish dominion. During the 1470s Lésbos was the birthplace of one of the Ottoman Empire’s greatest heroes. The Mediterranean pirate who would ultimately be remembered as Barbarossa (Italian for “Redbeard”) went by many names during his career: Khiḍr, Hayreddin Pasha, the “Pirate of Algiers,” and even the “King of the Sea,” but the name Barbarossa began as an appellation for him and his brother ʿArūj (or Oruç)—the Barbaross...
Source: britannica.com