Introduction|5did not exist in the first place but that the process of observation has transformed
them into objects of study. Thus, categories and attributes that were not viewed
as salient for Ottoman identity in 1350 might be so in 1650, and others that were
salient in 1350 might be of little consequence for categorization in 1750.
Complexities of Identification in the Ottoman Context
One example that illustrates these issues is that of Hayreddin Pasha, the great-
est Ottoman admiral of the sixteenth century. Hayreddin Pasha, known to Eu-
ropeans as Barbarossa, achieved such renown during his lifetime that he was
the subject of wild speculation by Europeans concerning his origins. The family
background and early years of Hayreddin are obscured by tales concerning him
that originated in the sixteenth century and were sensationalized by Europeans in
the seventeenth. Fortunately, more reliable information from Hayreddin and his
early associates corrects these misrepresentations of his background. Hayreddin’s
father, Yakub (Jacob), the son of a sipahi (cavalryman) from the Balkans, par-
ticipated in the conquest of Lesbos. Yakub remained on the island and married a
local woman, the daughter of a Christian. Yakub and his wife had four sons, two
of whom, Oruç and Hızır (Hayreddin), became famous seafarers. They engaged
in privateering against Rhodes but then established a base near Tunis. Oruç was
killed in 1518, and thereafter Hızır worked alone to establish himself at Algiers. In
1520 he began to be known by Western Christians as Barbarossa, and by that year
he had adopted the honorific Hayreddin (Best of the Religion) as well.
Hayreddin’s accomplishments were impressive, but what is relevant here are
the accounts of his ethnic origins. Hayreddin was born an Ottoman subject, and
he served the sultan faithfully, requesting Ottoman protection for Algiers and
ruling it as an Ottoman governor. But according to European sources of the late
sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, Hayreddin and his father were origi-
nally Christian, and his family members originated from Spain or even France.
A source that reveals Hayreddin’s self-identification is an inscription on the
mosque he built in Algiers, which dates to April 1520. This states that he was “al-
sultan al-mudjahid mawlana Khayr al-Din ibn al-amir al-shahir al-mudjahid Abi
Yu su f YaɆkub al-Turki.” Thus, Hayreddin claimed that his father was “Turkish”;
whether this inscription reflected the conflict with the Hapsburgs in the west-
ern Mediterranean, where Turkish-speaking seamen had been raiding Christian
shipping since the 1490s, or whether Hayreddin’s father was descended from
Turkish settlers in the Balkans is impossible to determine.
What this example reveals is a European obsession with the origins of indi-
viduals that focused on either religion or ethnicity, which were often conflated.
An individual’s origins were of much less interest to the Ottomans themselves,
who rather were concerned with the political loyalty of those who entered their