Barbary corsairs

Privateers and pirates in North Africa

The Barbary corsairs, also known as the Barbary pirates, Ottoman corsairs, or naval mujahideen (in Muslim sources), were mainly Muslim corsairs and privateers who operated from the North African coast, known in Europe as the Barbary Coast. In addition to seizing merchant ships, they engaged in razzias—raids on European coastal towns and villages, mainly in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal, as well as Great Britain, Ireland, and Iceland (commemorated as the Turkish Abductions). These included capturing Europeans and selling them at slave markets, known as the Barbary slave trade.

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