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The Story of the Nations: The Story of the Barbary Corsairs
First published 1890. Lane-Poole was an orientalist and archaeologist who worked at the British Museum 1874-92.
- GenresHistoryPiratesNonfiction
152 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1890
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97 people want to read
About the author
Stanley Lane-Poole
455 books101 followersStanley Lane-Poole was a British orientalist and archaeologist.
Poole was from a famous orientalist family as his paternal grandmother Sophia Lane Poole, uncle Reginald Stuart Poole and great-uncle Edward William Lane were famous for their work in this field.
His other great-uncle was Richard James Lane, a distinguished Victorian lithographer and engraver.
He worked for the British Museum from 1874 to 1892.
Poole was from a famous orientalist family as his paternal grandmother Sophia Lane Poole, uncle Reginald Stuart Poole and great-uncle Edward William Lane were famous for their work in this field.
His other great-uncle was Richard James Lane, a distinguished Victorian lithographer and engraver.
He worked for the British Museum from 1874 to 1892.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 26, 2016
"The Barbary Corsairs" or "The Story of the Barbary Corsairs", a very entertaining and interesting read, published in 1890 and a good way to get acquainted with the problem of pirates in the Mediterranean between the 16th and 19th centuries. It then extends on French colonialism in the 19th century, with some hostility from the British point of view. I guess the French invasion of Tunis in 1881 might have prompted the British invasion of Egypt that same year, although no mention is dedicated to the latter.
January 19, 2021
Britų orientalisto ir archeologo knyga, pirmą sykį dienos šviesą išvydusi dar 1890 metais. Neabejotinai galima šia tema atrasti ne vieną naujesnę (ir, matyt, istoriškai tikslesnę) knygą, bet kas pakliuvo po ranka, tas pakliuvo.
O pakliuvo labiausiai todėl, kad (ir pats nežinau, kodėl) visada domino broliai Barbarosos – Arudžas ir Haireddinas. Labiausiai, žinoma, Arudžas, nes ta legenda apie vadą, sugrįžusį į mūšį numirti sykiu su savo kariais... nu, romantiška tokia visaip.
Ir Lane-Poole manęs neapgavo – Barbarosoms čia skirta bene trečdalis knygos. Knygos, kuri, kaip ir apie tai pareiškia pavadinimas, pasakoja apie berberų piratų viešpatavimo Viduržemio jūroje laikus. Pasakoja ne sausai, visai smagiai. Tai verta kokių keturių iš penkių.
O pakliuvo labiausiai todėl, kad (ir pats nežinau, kodėl) visada domino broliai Barbarosos – Arudžas ir Haireddinas. Labiausiai, žinoma, Arudžas, nes ta legenda apie vadą, sugrįžusį į mūšį numirti sykiu su savo kariais... nu, romantiška tokia visaip.
Ir Lane-Poole manęs neapgavo – Barbarosoms čia skirta bene trečdalis knygos. Knygos, kuri, kaip ir apie tai pareiškia pavadinimas, pasakoja apie berberų piratų viešpatavimo Viduržemio jūroje laikus. Pasakoja ne sausai, visai smagiai. Tai verta kokių keturių iš penkių.
April 10, 2015
This review formerly published on Amazon for what may be another edition.
"The island of Lesbos has given many gifts to the world - Lesbian wine and Lesbian verse, the seven-stringed lyre, and the poems of Sappho; but of all its products the latest was assuredly the most questionable, for the last great Lesbians were the brothers Barbarossa."
Thus beginneth the lesson. Suffice to say that when reading Poole, one is rarely for long insensible that his writing was polished in another century.
I have to confess, I am becoming something of a fan of Stanley Lane Poole. His sympathy for his Muslim subjects is appealing but too naked for the standards of modern objective history. As such, his works read better as adventure than as serious history, although I would be the last to dispute his learning. What an engaging style, though!
This volume fills an interesting gap in the history of the Mediterranean seen from the European shores. Students of history will know of the Greeks and Phoenicians; the Genoese and the Venetians; the British and the French. The role of the Muslim corsairs seems to me to be less well-known, and to be steeped in swashbuckling nonsense for good measure. The Muslims, formally and informally acting as parts of the Ottoman Empire, to my surprise actually ruled the Middle Sea from the expulsion of the Iberian Jews and Muslims to the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, and continued to dominate affairs right up until the beginning of the 19th Century. Lepanto is an interesting lesson in strategic realities, as the Turks regarded their fleet as like their beards, grown back in a trice be they shaved quite clean. A year later they had again built 200 galleys, but something had changed: they were no longer seen as invincible. The lessons for today's would-be hegemon should be chillingly clear.
Not all that one sees in the films is so far from the truth. Christian and Muslim galley lake were rowed primarily by slaves. Many, many actions featured Christian slave crews whipped reluctantly into battle against their co-religionists, who were themselves rowed by equally reluctant Muslim slaves. Chained in their own filth sometimes for years, half-starved and beaten raw, the day they failed and slumped over the man in front they would be beaten the remaining inch to death for good measure and then dumped overboard. Their hope was to be freed by their allies in battle or to be bought free.
There were amazing reversals of fortune. Türgüt Reïs, corsair admiral and Bey of Algiers, served as a galley slave on the ship of Andrea Doria. Later freed, he one day came across Doria among his own galley slaves, and comforted him that such were the fortunes of war and he should not give up hope of his own freedom. Sure enough, Doria was ransomed and himself took charge of the Imperial fleet as Admiral. Though both had their score to settle, at the end they gave each other a cautious berth and the great battle never was.
The position of slaves in the Muslim world was a complex matter and cannot be separated from the corsairs. The corsairs took crew from ships they seized, although they were known to release passengers, and made galley slaves of many and sold those with useful skills in the markets of North Africa. The noble-born were apt to find themselves laden with chains and cast into a dungeon to encourage payment of ransom. Moreover, their coastal raids proceeded with virtual impunity for three centuries, ranging as far as Iceland and Ireland and penetrating kilometres inland to seize villagers from their beds, the men bound for the quarries, foundries and garrisons and the women, well, for fresh beds. The treatment of a slave in the Muslim world, however, had its advantages compared even to that of a free man in parts of Europe, and many opted to stay or even rose to positions of responsibility while still slaves. Freed for a day a week and a few hours a day to steal food, a slave could turn a profit and expect boxed ears for crimes that would have him broken on the wheel in Christian Europe.
For the period of the corsairs' dominance, entering the Mediterranean with goods was no light matter unless your state currently had a tributary agreement - essentially, protection money. This payment of tribute persisted into the 19th Century until the newly-caulked US Navy decided to make its mark and the appeasement came to an end. Piracy itself was never ended until the murderous French colonisation of Algeria, however, arguably replacing one evil with an far greater one.
Poole's writing is a joy, eschewing the often tedious verbosity of his century. He has a way of bringing the Muslim characters that he clearly loved to life on the page. This book left me wishing it were twice as long.
"The island of Lesbos has given many gifts to the world - Lesbian wine and Lesbian verse, the seven-stringed lyre, and the poems of Sappho; but of all its products the latest was assuredly the most questionable, for the last great Lesbians were the brothers Barbarossa."
Thus beginneth the lesson. Suffice to say that when reading Poole, one is rarely for long insensible that his writing was polished in another century.
I have to confess, I am becoming something of a fan of Stanley Lane Poole. His sympathy for his Muslim subjects is appealing but too naked for the standards of modern objective history. As such, his works read better as adventure than as serious history, although I would be the last to dispute his learning. What an engaging style, though!
This volume fills an interesting gap in the history of the Mediterranean seen from the European shores. Students of history will know of the Greeks and Phoenicians; the Genoese and the Venetians; the British and the French. The role of the Muslim corsairs seems to me to be less well-known, and to be steeped in swashbuckling nonsense for good measure. The Muslims, formally and informally acting as parts of the Ottoman Empire, to my surprise actually ruled the Middle Sea from the expulsion of the Iberian Jews and Muslims to the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, and continued to dominate affairs right up until the beginning of the 19th Century. Lepanto is an interesting lesson in strategic realities, as the Turks regarded their fleet as like their beards, grown back in a trice be they shaved quite clean. A year later they had again built 200 galleys, but something had changed: they were no longer seen as invincible. The lessons for today's would-be hegemon should be chillingly clear.
Not all that one sees in the films is so far from the truth. Christian and Muslim galley lake were rowed primarily by slaves. Many, many actions featured Christian slave crews whipped reluctantly into battle against their co-religionists, who were themselves rowed by equally reluctant Muslim slaves. Chained in their own filth sometimes for years, half-starved and beaten raw, the day they failed and slumped over the man in front they would be beaten the remaining inch to death for good measure and then dumped overboard. Their hope was to be freed by their allies in battle or to be bought free.
There were amazing reversals of fortune. Türgüt Reïs, corsair admiral and Bey of Algiers, served as a galley slave on the ship of Andrea Doria. Later freed, he one day came across Doria among his own galley slaves, and comforted him that such were the fortunes of war and he should not give up hope of his own freedom. Sure enough, Doria was ransomed and himself took charge of the Imperial fleet as Admiral. Though both had their score to settle, at the end they gave each other a cautious berth and the great battle never was.
The position of slaves in the Muslim world was a complex matter and cannot be separated from the corsairs. The corsairs took crew from ships they seized, although they were known to release passengers, and made galley slaves of many and sold those with useful skills in the markets of North Africa. The noble-born were apt to find themselves laden with chains and cast into a dungeon to encourage payment of ransom. Moreover, their coastal raids proceeded with virtual impunity for three centuries, ranging as far as Iceland and Ireland and penetrating kilometres inland to seize villagers from their beds, the men bound for the quarries, foundries and garrisons and the women, well, for fresh beds. The treatment of a slave in the Muslim world, however, had its advantages compared even to that of a free man in parts of Europe, and many opted to stay or even rose to positions of responsibility while still slaves. Freed for a day a week and a few hours a day to steal food, a slave could turn a profit and expect boxed ears for crimes that would have him broken on the wheel in Christian Europe.
For the period of the corsairs' dominance, entering the Mediterranean with goods was no light matter unless your state currently had a tributary agreement - essentially, protection money. This payment of tribute persisted into the 19th Century until the newly-caulked US Navy decided to make its mark and the appeasement came to an end. Piracy itself was never ended until the murderous French colonisation of Algeria, however, arguably replacing one evil with an far greater one.
Poole's writing is a joy, eschewing the often tedious verbosity of his century. He has a way of bringing the Muslim characters that he clearly loved to life on the page. This book left me wishing it were twice as long.
April 2, 2007
Loved the history it paints! Never knew there was so much going on in the Mediterranean involving Muslims, let alone that they were known as the Corsairs. Great book - and one of Dr. Umar's recommendations.
September 27, 2019
This book was pretty much as expected. The history is very much out of date, and Lane-Poole wears his British on every page. I didn't read it for balance, I read it for the anecdotes, and Lane-Poole came through on that.
Older histories, especially 19thc ones, always get off to a slow start. You have to slog through the nationalist and (sometimes) religious philosophizing before you can get to the meat. Once he starts dealing with specific pirates, Lane-Poole comes through pretty well. He clearly buries some stories, but others he places in detail. Brave battles, colorful cruelties, and occasional striking images. One that will stay with me is the occasion when, to celebrate a great victory, the Sultan ordered all of Istanbul be illuminated. That had to have been quite a sight.
I also managed to learn more practical things, such as how the Corsair slave market operated, types of ships used, the impact of sail on the taking of slaves, relationships between Tunis and Algiers on the one hand and Istanbul on the other. All in all, it was a good read.
A word of caution, though. If you are new to the subject and don't have a grounding in early modern Mediterranean history, you might want to start with something newer. There will be fewer juicy stories, but the history will be more accurate and less prejudiced.
Older histories, especially 19thc ones, always get off to a slow start. You have to slog through the nationalist and (sometimes) religious philosophizing before you can get to the meat. Once he starts dealing with specific pirates, Lane-Poole comes through pretty well. He clearly buries some stories, but others he places in detail. Brave battles, colorful cruelties, and occasional striking images. One that will stay with me is the occasion when, to celebrate a great victory, the Sultan ordered all of Istanbul be illuminated. That had to have been quite a sight.
I also managed to learn more practical things, such as how the Corsair slave market operated, types of ships used, the impact of sail on the taking of slaves, relationships between Tunis and Algiers on the one hand and Istanbul on the other. All in all, it was a good read.
A word of caution, though. If you are new to the subject and don't have a grounding in early modern Mediterranean history, you might want to start with something newer. There will be fewer juicy stories, but the history will be more accurate and less prejudiced.
June 8, 2022
Es indispensable si quieressaber cómo era la piratería en el Mediterráneo y sobre todo de Argel, cautivos , tipo de galeras y los grandes piratas. Se le hecha en falta algunos planos de la zona, ya que hacen referencia a zonas que ya no existen en la actualidad o han cambiado de nombre y tienes que tener internet a mano.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 8, 2020
The first episode is a short summary of the life of Barbarossa brothers which is mostly a of copy of Gazavatname-i Hızır Hayreddin Paşa. But this book published in 1890 so I should respect the author's enthusiasm on the topic.
January 5, 2021
I enjoy reading this book very much. There are many things I didn’t know before.
July 22, 2023
Great book, I listened to the audiobook version on YouTube. I will leave the link below so that everyone can enjoy it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUsy3...
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews