About this event
The Golden Age of Piracy has long been romanticized with stories about the lost treasures of Captain Kidd and Blackbeard, but who were their Ottoman contemporaries? Ottoman corsairs, also known as the Barbary corsairs, plundered waters ranging from North Africa to Iceland. Where did they come from? What were their motivations? Join us for a conversation with naval historian Dr. White from UVA to learn more! Ottoman scholar Dr. Cengiz Sisman will moderate and ask questions for the audience.
Ottoman corsairs, known as Barbary corsairs or pirates in Western Europe, were a group of marauders that raided ships in the Mediterranean and Atlantic from their home ports in what is now Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. Under Ottoman sovereignty, the Barbary pirates were the most feared group in the Mediterranean for merchant ships and coastal villages alike. Their era ended in the early 19th century after the U.S. severely damaged their operations in the Barbary Wars (1801-1815) and France colonized Algeria in 1830.