Extra History

Jewish Pirates - Barbarossa’s Sidekick (110x2)

: 17, 2021

After being forced from Spain, many Sephardic Jews were left with few places to go. Many other countries in Europe had similar anti-Semitic bans. However, across the sea, North Africa and the Ottoman Empire's relatively lax laws that were religiously inclusive allowed people to set up shop in many port towns. And as tensions rose between Suliman the Magnificant and Charles V, the sultan was looking to raise an armada. Enter Barbarossa and his right hand man, Sinan Reis or as the Europeans called him, Sinan the Jew.