Pirates of Barbary: Corsairs, Conquests and Captivity in the Seventeenth-Century Mediterranean

by Adrian Tinniswood

The stirring story of the seventeenth-century pirates of the Mediterranean-the forerunners of today's bandits of the seas-and how their conquests shaped the clash between Christianity and Islam.

It's easy to think of piracy as a romantic way of life long gone-if not for today's frightening headlines of robbery and kidnapping on the high seas. Pirates have existed since the invention of commerce itself, but they reached the zenith of their power during the 1600s, when the Mediterranean was the crossroads of the world and pirates were the scourge of Europe and the glory of Islam. They attacked ships, enslaved crews, plundered cargoes, enraged governments, and swayed empires, wreaking havoc from Gibraltar to the Holy Land and beyond.

Historian and author Adrian Tinniswood brings alive this dynamic chapter in history, where clashes between pirates of the East-Tunis, Algiers, and Tripoli-and governments of the West-England, France, Spain, and Venice-grew increasingly intense and dangerous. In vivid detail, Tinniswood recounts the brutal struggles, glorious triumphs, and enduring personalities of the pirates of the Barbary Coast, and how their maneuverings between the Muslim empires and Christian Europe shed light on the religious and moral battles that still rage today.

As Tinniswood notes in Pirates of Barbary , "Pirates are history." In this fascinating and entertaining book, he reveals that the history of piracy is also the history that shaped our modern world.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Pirates, Audiobook, Africa, World History, European History

343 pages, Hardcover

First published March 18, 2010

About the author

Adrian John Tinniswood OBE FSA (born 11 October 1954) is an English writer and historian. He is currently Professor of English Social History at the University of Buckingham.

Tinniswood studied English and Philosophy at Southampton University and was awarded an MPhil at Leicester University.

Tinniswood has often acted as a consultant to the National Trust, and has lectured at several universities including the University of Oxford and the University of California, Berkeley.

He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

Reviews

[A.E. Chandler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unapologetically unobjective. An interesting subject, but this book is so full of badly done history that it was difficult to locate any useful facts. Despite the book jacket, the writer does not appear to be a trained historian, which explains the biases that frequently crop up in the text.

[David Rubenstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

During the 17th Century, the Barbary Coast was a place where rulers allowed their subjects to sail off and capture ships. They would bring their captive sailors and passengers back home, and sell them off as slaves. The rulers of these lands considered their subjects to be privateers; working for the good of the kingdom. They had little mercy for the captives and slaves.

What astonishes me is the amount of scholarship that goes into a book like this. The wealth of detail, the narration that describes the happenings from four centuries ago, is little short of amazing. And, the author Adrian Tinniswood manages to bring the history alive, as he follows the exploits of the pirates, the captains, the rulers, the merchants, the slaves, as well as the captains and admirals of the adversarial navies. Tinniswood has managed to write an engaging narrative, which includes the human interests of all the players involved.

The book is filled with irony, such as the encouragement that England gave to the slave trade of its own merchants and slave ships. At the same time, England cried over the immorality of English citizens being captured and sold as slaves. Often, the slaves caught by the Barbary pirates were used to pay taxes to the rulers, and then as bargaining chips for ransom. Simple sailors would sell for $100, while officers and wealthy people would be sold for hundreds or thousands of dollars.

The book caught me off-guard, as it seemed to skip over the 18th Century, and suddenly plop down into the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th Century. After this giant skip, the exploits of Admiral Stephen Decatur in the Barbary War are described. I enjoyed the narrative, but I wondered what happened to the 18th Century.

I didn't read this book; I listened to the audiobook, as narrated by Clive Chafer. The reading is done very well, and the recording is high quality. I enjoyed the entire experience.

[Jason Koivu · Rating 4 out of 5]

RRRRRRRRrrrrandstuff...

Okay, so this may not be as wild and fantastical as The Pirates of the Caribbean, but Adrian Tinniswood did a great job bringing this version of swashbuckling history to life.

There are some salacious tales of daring, but Pirates of Barbary goes beyond the expected stereotypes and gives the real story, much of it unpleasant. But it's also more complex than it seems. These pirates were doing more than just plundering the Mediterranean from their North African ports. They were protecting a way of life from intruders, mainly European Christians. And oh boy do those Christians get what's coming to them! Call me a ghastly ghoul, but that was the part that most interested me. Many of the captives from these pirate raids were either ransomed, sold into slavery or tortured to death, and the torture techniques implemented were...unique.

Now, if you're going to read this you have to realize that there were few eyewitness accounts of the ship to ship battles, the sword fights upon the decks and all those other very exciting action bits that you'd get in a novel. But even so, as I said, Tinniswood manages to keep it entertaining, and if the book's title piques your interest then I doubt you'll be let down by jogging your eyes through these pages.

[Vic Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not long ago I received a copy of Richard Zach's "The pirate coast : Thomas Jefferson, the first marines, and the secret mission of 1805" about Jefferson sending the fledgling American Navy to the Barbary Coast in an effort to end piracy against American shipping. I found Adrian Tinniswood's "Pirates of Barbary: Corsairs, Conquests, and Captivity in the 17th Century Mediterranean" and thought it would be a good read for some background on Zach's book. As it happened I found a great history book full of lively accounts of the people and places involved.

Tinniswood's book is an account of Europe's battles with the Barbary pirates and it is fascinating. "Pirates of Barbary" is detailed in its telling of the various personalities of both the Europeans and the pirate states. It explains not just the military angles but economics as well. Accounts of the piracy and its effects is lively and thoroughly explained along with the politics of both sides. The pirate states were under the protection of the Ottoman Empire which complicated Europe's attempts to control or eliminate it. Piracy had also become a central pillar of the economies of the pirate states (Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers)

This book proved to be one of fun effects of being an avid reader in that it not only gave me some of the background I sought but also a tremendous read on its own merit. Highly recommended to anyone interested in nautical history or piracy outside its usual Caribbean focus as well as the history of conflict between Christian and Islamic peoples..

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a rule the more first-hand accounts a history book contains the more likely it is to draw me into its narrative. I want to hear the voice of people who lived through the experiences documented. The overview perspective, the impersonal big picture can be interesting in and of itself but can also resemble the soulless chore of housekeeping in its quest for tidiness. The best parts of this book are when we hear the voices of the people of the time. For example a story of how five Christian slaves escaped captivity in Algiers by building a boat and carrying it to the shore in parts where they assembled it is narrated first hand by one of the protagonists. It was slaves the pirates mostly sought. Despite the majority of the pirates being Muslim there are though no Muslim voices in the book. One thing I learned was that Algeria was the first country to ever declare war on the USA.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sorry, no Johnny Depp, no Keira Knightly (although there are some cameos by different and longer-lasting types of stars--Dryden, the Admiralty functionary Samuel Pepys and both John and John Quincy Adams in their diplomatic days). The subject of "Pirates of Barbary" is the century-long effort of the British government, Stuarts and Cromwells, to secure a safe trading route for the country's merchant ships to and from Mediterranean ports, with a coda on the American war of the early nineteenth century. Adrian Tinniswood is adept at making a variety of recondite subjects vivid: the jockeying between Crown and Parliament for funds and authority, the politics of European powers and the Ottomans (to which the pirate states nominally belonged), sailing and sea battles. But where the book comes most alive is the sections on those pirate enclaves: Tangier, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli and Sale, off the Moroccan coast. Their teeming population, which included substantial numbers of Christian slaves, some of them captured on an astonishing raid on the Irish coast by a Dutch convert to Islam sailing out of Algiers. A surprising number of the captains were in fact European Christians by birth: John Ward the arch-pirate and Simon Dansiker "the Devil Captain of Algiers." The religious attitude of the pirates states seems to have been tolerant (more so than Europe at the time); a number of priests and ministers were permitted to tend to their Christian flocks. Law enforcement was, however, inventively cruel, although the English who reported what they considered horrors did not blanch at the hangings and mutilations carried out under sentence by their own courts. The burning of witches in the Massachusetts Bay Colony is still in the future when this book's account of the seventeenth century ends. It was a nasty, brutish and long century.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Stars

The US and most other editions of this book are subtitled ‘Corsairs, Conquests and Captivity in the 17th-Century Mediterranean’ and that probably gives a more accurate impression of the contents because, for a book titled ‘Pirates of Barbary‘, I really didn’t think there was much of a focus on the actual pirates.

It started off well in the foreword, emphasising the disparity in the way that history and popular culture have portrayed European/American and African pirates. ‘The white West regards them as the irreconcilable Other – not rebels against authority but plain criminals, not brave Robin Hoods (that would make us the Sheriff of Nottingham) but cowardly thieves’. Agreed, that’s pretty much why I picked up a book about them. But I thought that, by the midway point, Tinniswood had somehow shifted his focus from African piracy, to the African states that practiced (and sanctioned piracy), to 17th century diplomatic relations between Africa and Europe – told mostly from a European perspective.

Now I’m being a little unfair perhaps, it’s a very natural progression – African states did sanction piracy and you can’t talk about piracy without some discussion of the state and its position because that position is what piracy relied on to operate. A weak state couldn’t afford to upset other countries, a state at war could prey on certain foreign ships with impunity, specific treaties would limit what ships pirates could raid etc. etc. But when it got on to the detail of land battles between armies over coastal African cities I thought the book had strayed a bit far from what the blurb had sold it to me as.

I wanted more of the nitty gritty, of the actual pirates themselves. but, mostly, I found this turned out to be more about how Europeans saw and interacted with them. Of course, most of the sources an English-speaking historian is going to get are going to be European, but considering the title of the book I had hoped for more a Muslim and African slant using Islamic sources rather than predominantly British, Venetian, and American ones. It’s still fascinating stuff of course, but not quite what I was after.

As for writing style, I read it in little bits and pieces so that probably effected my opinion, but it seemed to waver between slightly dull recitation of historical facts and oddly novel-like bits of description. The sieges and barricades and the politics of treaty making were related in minutest detail but then I would get to sections like the barbary raid of Ireland and it would suddenly be

‘The men didn’t like passing through the Straits. It made them nervous.

Maud Watched as one of the janissaries tossed the little bundle of candles over the side, an offering to the long-dead holy man who still promised them protection from the safety of his shoreline tomb.

Once he would have laughed. Now, without thinking, he murmured to himself the ancient form of words, at once a profession of faith and a prayer. There is no other God than God, and Mohammad is his messenger.

The candles vanished in the rolling sea’

Did my book suddenly get replaced with historical fiction or something? Is this how mass market history books are normally written? Most of the reading for my history undergrad was very academic essays and texts (normally fascinating, but sometimes dreadfully written), so I have to say that I feel slightly thrown and vaguely uncomfortable with this approach in a work of non-fiction.

So, although I learnt a lot from this book and really enjoyed certain parts of it, I do have my reservations about both style and content – perfectly demonstrated, in fact in the very last chapter of the book. A fictionalised description of two real pirates being executed. Two English pirates – ‘the last pirates to hang by British law at Wapping‘. Relevance in a book about Barbary pirates? Then a bit about how fear of Europre both stated and ended the age of piracy in Africa and then this concluding paragraph:

‘The . . . pirates of Barbary left a thousand crimes behind them. Their one virtue, whether they were renegade Christian fugitives or devout Moslem warriors for God, was courage. Deplore the crimes, by all means.

But remember the courage.’

Patronising, much?

[Bettie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strictly speaking, the pirates of the Barbary Coast weren't pirates at all but corsairs or privateers. That is, they weren't operating outside of all law; they were operating under licence from the city-states of North Africa--Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, in particular--and with financial investment from merchants and business interests, to whom they owed a portion of their takings. European states had long done the same thing, of course, but they didn't much like being on the receiving end. The corsairs took ships and their cargoes, and sold their crews and passengers into slavery. The economies of these regions had, by the mid-seventeenth century, become utterly dependent on these activities, and all attempts to stop the depredations in the region ran up against these economic realities. As Tinniswood points out, the roots of the problem lay in fears of European domination: "There's an obvious irony here. Fear of European conquest had turned the Barbary states into pirate kingdoms in the first place, motivating the Barbarossa brothers and their sixteenth-century corsairs to set out on their sea-jihad. Without that fear of conquest, Barbary's socialized piracy would never have grown into the scourge of Christendom; its followers would not have become the shock troops on the front line of the defence of the Islamic world. And ultimately the only way Europe could find to deal with the scourge was to conquer Barbary, sweeping away the corsairs in a tidal wave of colonialism." At the end of the eighteenth century, the newly forming United States started trying to negotiate treaties that would protect its trading ships from the depredations of the corsairs; its initial failure to do so resulted in its first war, against Tripoli. Tinniswood notes the absurdity of Americans railing against the unacceptable barbarity of selling their citizens into slavery when the slavery of others was built into their own founding documents.

[Omar Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is NOT a systematic history of the Barbary pirates. The chronology is sometimes confusing and there is little attempt to present facts and figures systematically, nor is there much in the way of social or economic analysis.But its a very readable collection of highlights and anecdotes. The focus is on Britain, so don't expect much about the French, Italian or Spanish sides of this saga (all of whom had more experience with Barbary pirates than Britain did, but then, this is a British book). The Arab/Turk side is presented with a lot of sympathy and one hears more about their side of the story than usual. I also had no idea that so many "renegade" Christians played such a large role in this business. There is a mild postcolonial tinge at times, but by recent standards the book is not too overloaded with political correctness.
After a rollicking read, the author decides to wrap it up with a strange sentence about colonialism finally solving the problem. I say "strange", because just a few pages earlier he has explained how the US and the now VERY powerful Western fleets finally ended the long saga of Barbary piracy around 1816 or so and the last persons to be hanged for piracy in Britain were in 1830 (and they were NOT Barbary pirates), and colonial invasions did not even start until 1830 (when the first French invasion had nothing to do with piracy). That reference to colonialism seemed a bit out of place.

Overall, great fun to read. Lots of very interesting anecdotal history. A bit thin on analysis.

[Zach Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm going to be that guy spouting "did you know.. HEY... HEY DID YOU KNOW this about pirates!?" for the next few weeks. It's easily one of my favorite non-fiction books shortly after putting it down.

Did you know England created a catastrophic colony off the African northern: Tangier? It went like so bad. The king spent his own money to fortify the bay, and Britain ended up destroying the whole city to keep it off the hands of the Moors, who were (possibly) allowing the city to be built up as a juicy conquering prize.

Did you know entire cities had economies dependent on piracy and slaves via piracy? Algiers, man.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a thoroughly academic work -- which at times is entertaining. If you are looking for meticulous research and fine writing, then you will enjoy this book. As a lover of history, I learned a great deal, particularly about the slave trade in the 17th and 18th century of white Europeans. No, not white Europeans trading slaves; white Europeans being kidnapped (sometimes by the village-full) and sold. This is a tragic piece of history that you'll never learn about in school, but is no less tragic than any other slave market.
I highly recommend this book to serious readers of history.

[DeAnna Knippling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barbary piracy: it really should be a board game. You get to pick a side (there are more than five, and you can switch sides and/or pretend to be from somewhere you're not). Bigger ships are harder to capture; smaller ships can slip by a blockade. Your side determines where you can take on food and especially water. You might be able to get a permission slip from your government that allows you to take prizes...but that means you owe your crown part of the profits.

Piracy and profiteering were games that required some pretty savvy players. This book outlines the rules. Lots of fun :)

[Niklas Braun · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a really cool find in a used book store. It has everything you need to know about Barbary Pirates, from the start to the end, from the lives of the pirates to those of the captured, escapes, escapades, encampments on the coast, attempts at solving Europes woes... it has it all. And it's all weaved together in a very entertaining fashion, with exciting battles mixed with corrupt politics, heroic acts mixed with bloody gore. It's good stuff. Would recommend.

[Josephine (biblioseph)]

Recommended by Caitlin M. Gale https://twitter.com/DrCaitlinMGale/st...

[Sheenagh Pugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought I had enough pirate books, till I saw this one specifically dealing with the Barbary pirates of Algiers, Tripoli etc. It's well researched and scholarly but also written in a delightfully lively style - see this sardonic little piece on everyone's dream job - not...:


"The governorship of Tangier was not a passport to success. The Earl of Peterborough was recalled to England after 11 months, amidst allegations of corruption and incompetence. His successor, the Earl of Teviot, managed a year in office before being killed in a Moorish ambush. During a bout of diarrhoea the Earl of Middleton, who took up office in 1668, got up in the middle of the night, fell over his sleeping manservant and broke his arm; he died two days later. The Earl of Inchiquin was recalled in disgrace after allowing the Moors to overrun the outer defences, though he managed to calm the King's anger by giving him a pair of ostriches. The Earl of Ossory fell into a fit of depression on hearing of his appointment as governor and succumbed to a fever before he could even leave England."


Always keep a pair of ostriches handy for awkward moments. This book is full of unforgettable characters, rich historical ironies, absorbing personal stories and just sheer style, both Tinniswood's and that of his (anti-)heroes. Did you know Samuel Pepys, at very short notice, was ordered to go to Tangier to help supervise its evacuation and destruction? Or that the French mortar-bombed Algiers, in the teeth of a threat, which was carried out, to blow an elderly French priest from a cannon? And don't forget Sir Robert Mansell, to whom no modern mortgage-flipping, duck-house-building MP could hold a candle...

"Sir Robert Mansell stood head and shoulders above his contemporaries in his relentless pursuit of public funds which were not his to spend. In 1604 he obtained the post of treasurer to the navy and clung on to it for all it was worth. He fitted out his own ship at the crown's expense, then hired it to the crown at an inflated rate, while simultaneously using it to carry private cargo. He routinely demanded bribes from naval suppliers as a condition of paying their bills. He ran a lucrative business buying timber and supplies, selling them to the navy at a handsome profit and, as treasurer, authorising the purchases himself. And when, in spite of his best efforts to stop it, the 1618 commission enquiring into abuses in the navy began to examine his dealings, he resigned, mislaid his accounts and handed the commissioners a £10,000 bill for his travelling expenses, which they could not pay. Instead they quietly dropped the investigation."


My own favourite is the harassed Thomas Baker, neglected but kindly English consul in Tripoli, but he's only one in a bewildering tapestry, at a time and cosmopolitan place where people called Hassan Rais, who made a living by importing Christian slaves, frequently turned out to be someone called Rowley from Bristol. You can never have too many pirate books.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

During history class in school, I first heard of the Barbary Coast and the exploits of a US Navy officer named Stephen Decatur. I always wondered about the Barbary pirates and Adrian Tinniswood has answered my questions in this history. He concentrates on the seventeenth century but covers the history of Tripoli, Tunis and Algiers as centers of piracy from the sixteenth through the early nineteenth century, using anecdotes, personal narratives and other sources to support a narrative that sweeps along, highlighting colorful pirates, officials and merchants. And he ends with the tales of Stephen Decatur's exploits.

[Bookworm Amir · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read!

It might be hard to believe, but this book and piracy, connects a lot of the missing dots of international relations between the Islamic and Christian Worlds.

Many of today's events stem from this conflict.

Many conceptions of pirates today are 'fake' - in a sense they are not Ho HO Ho people who look 100% like Jack Sparrow. Most of them are Muslims.

This being a narrative of a historical book, which makes reading engaging and easy, I would say it is a recommended reading for many people in this world, for youths, adults, and people from the other faiths.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting history of the pirates in the Mediterranean that really started it all. It was neat to learn the connections to Islam and the Ottoman Empire, and how Algiers and several other cities became quite powerful because of the corsairs. There was some surprising connections too, such as how William Penn's father (also named William Penn) had to deal with some unruly corsairs in his career. The reader was properly dramatic and British, which naturally means it is 100% accurate :-).

[Marissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. I agree with the other reviews that say this under-delivered an Anglocentric view of history (but what else is new). The author clearly did his research to get a lot of first-hand accounts packed in, but I went into this book expecting more info coming from the pirates themselves, or at least the governments supporting/supported by the pirates, but there was a disappointing lack of non-white, non-merchant interests.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ✨
Entertaining and informative, but by the end it got… rather info and date dumpy by the end. Though i did get through it faster than the first pirate book.
I didn’t realize the timeline was so expansive. Around 200 years? Lawdy. If history classes actually went into these sorts of stories and details I think more people would enjoy it a little more.
History doesn’t have to be stuffy and dry, as this book demonstrated.
ONWARDS TO THE PERSONAL HISTORICAL DEEP DIVES!

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting book, but it's really about the English experience of and interactions with the Pirates of Barbary...I was hoping for something actually about the pirates from Barbary. So less stars for not being what it purports to be. Still interesting, though.

[Cian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pirates of Barbary by Adrian Tinniswood Review

The unhappy truth about this book is that it misrepresents its own discussion matter by focusing on something else entirely. A more adept name would have been English Pirates of Barbary in relation to the Crown and its subjects. The book is not a complete history or even an appropriate analysis of the subject of the Pirates of Barbary; their breadth, range and nature beyond that of Anglo-centric considerations and when the book attempts to be so it is always of secondary concern.
For the discussion is side-tracked immediately on the fascinating projection that many pirates were European, and this phenomenon alone is the entire subject matter of the book, though only the English perspective at home is discussed to a satisfactory extent considering the range of the supposed subject matter despite Spain, Italy, Venice, Malta and maybe even France being more intimately involved with the corsair plight on maritime security.
More so the author and historian responsible for this work, Adrian Tinniswood presents a chronological account of the English kings, parliaments and various players within the maritime and ruling establishment attempting to negate the allure of pirating for its disgruntled former subjects. At first this appeared to be a mere branch off from the core of the syllabus, as the first chapter enthralled the reader to the foundationary elements of the corsairs themselves with the history of the Barbarossas, Oruc and Hizir, in the first chapter. But the focus simply never came back.
The focus on the corsairs themselves shifts quite dramatically as Tinniswood goes to drastic lengths to explain that many famed corsairs were originally Christian subjects of the ruling powers in Europe at the time, but drawls on in chapter after chapter to the extent that the more traditional candidates for this kind of regional privacy are obscured completely. Jon Ward and other famed English pirates are discussed and discussed and then discussed again in relation to the pussyfooting of every subsequent monarch and individual capable of swaying the situation back in England itself. This is frustrating as the historian concerned clearly knows a great deal regarding the wider establishments of the regional phenomenon but such information is scattered, sparse and always in relation to the author’s natural bias.
Not everyone who reads in English is English, and not everyone wants to hear everything from such a narrow mindset especially when the book was not introduced or advertised as such.
It is simply bad history, when the most essential matter of the book must be searched for and pieced together without an appropriate analysis or discussion of thus. This problem is especially apparent on pg. 294 where Tinniswood writes:
‘Let’s not forget that the Barbary states were the victims of slaving raids, as well as the perpetrators.’
And he writes this in brackets no less! Five pages before the end! It was alluded to before but how could such key information to understanding the pirates of Barbary be considered so trivial as to warrant no real treatment? Just a tidbit or two then a brief reminder because it was never discussed. And why not?
Because, as you probably guessed, Tinniswood was too preoccupied filing chapter after meandering chapter with exact details about every single Englishmen who ever put to sail against the corsairs. Even when these individuals achieved absolutely or even less then nothing (as they most often did which incites further bafflement as to why Tinniswood attempts to justify them through meagre heroics better suited to footnotes at the bottom of the page, time after time) they receive whole chapters to themselves. Whilst the core of the Barbary corsairs, the native Muslims, janissary squads, behs etc. are continually treated as the other. Tinniswood attempts to alleviate this fatal error in historiography but he fails. His bias is apparent and spoils a potentially 4 star book.
The reason I take such issue with this Anglo-centric perspective is because it is unforgivably biased and the lengths to which the book goes to try and brighten the endless cast of English characters is at times sickening. And even worse, it is continually desperate. Bias is evident again on pp. 249-255 as Tinniswood continually refers to the English stance as ‘understandable’, everything is rationalized and underplayed where they are concerned. Chapter 15 has a very stupid focus on the English consul, which doubtlessly is because he is one of the few members of his anointed cast that may actually have been an okay human being. But as a result, he is exalted to a point that really is very off-putting as you flick back over twenty pages of this man’s uneventful and narrow minded stay in Algiers. This man crush taints the historical account at a crucial juncture in the book when the narrative (because it is a more adept representation of this history then a critique) may have been tightened with a different kind of analysis.
I would go so far as to call Tinniswood as an apologist and English sycophant for his manipulation of the narrative here and this is most disgustingly blatant and abhorrent in his treatment of Ireland in relation to the wider contextual perspective. Though his attempts to whitewash and sugar-coat the ‘good-guy’ Englishmen become really nothing short of pathetic, his disregard for relevant social and political conditions on the west coast of Ireland is a real violation of the sacred duty of history writing. He soft balls in the English treatment of the Irish at the time, awkwardly tip-toeing around the reasoning as to why these natives would aid pirates over the royal fleet, and why they might find common cause with individuals who had turned to the idea of maritime revolt against a cruelly indifferent and callous Crown and Parliament.
Mr Tinniswood threads the surface of the water rather craftily here, and understandably he does not want to get into the subject, but if he this is a digression of the English reality with regards to pirates then why not discuss it? Why not even mention it past a bizarre reference to rebels when characters he deemed worthy enough to document were crossing over the south-west of the country, which could have been easily misunderstood by casual readers to be some kind of reference to anti-loyalist forces during the English Civil War rather than an entirely different kind of conflict all together. This grinds the narrative to an amateurish footing as the credible scope is limited yet again. Either he does not understand the wider time period or else he is deliberating trivializing events in Ireland.
His evaluation of the Baltimore planters on pg. 133 is also suspect as he offers no evidence, simply stating that there is none with regards to how they may have treated the natives. If there is, there is little chance that Tinniswood would have referenced it anyway such was the peaceful picture he wished to place on colonist planters. Who, as he arrogantly puts it with perhaps deliberate stupidity:
‘Protestant settlers were not universally admired in Ireland.’
As though foreign plantation, as in the systematic seizure of land and destruction of native Irish life, language and opportunity was ever admired. This kind of shallow touch really demonstrates the kind of bias that Tinniswood is capable of and despite the honors he may have received for contributions to the field of written history in real life, I do not believe he has any business writing of anything outside of his own small corner of the world. Truth is far too fragile a thing in history to be abused and manipulated as he has done.
The work is decadent. It was not that it wasn’t enjoyable if often was, but it was lacking and failed in too poignant a way to overlook. Furthermore the lack of Islamic, Spanish, Italian indeed other written sources at all displays at once the obvious limitations on the writer and a historian in general who uses only one language as a source for such a homogenous and culturally rich time zone.
Parallels with pirates today and extremism itself is discussed in the prologue were very astute and perhaps the best parts of the book, but the comparison or analysis was never brought up again until the last half page. You might say that this kind of continued draw on the present would be heavy handed and meander far from the subject matter, at which point I would remind you that the book is called Pirates of Barbary though the focus is never on the Barbary Coast without reference to how this effected England.
Of course this is relevant to the core subject and it is even fascinating and occasionally enriching but there were other European countries that are barely mentioned in conjunction with Tinniswood’s baffling fascination with England’s every breath and move at the time. I don’t know why he didn’t just advertise the book as thus if this was the book he wanted to write. Maybe because it would have shooed many potential readers off.
So to finish, despite a poor conclusion and misleading introduction the book was not without merits but in the end it fundamentally and intrinsically failed. A broader perspective should not even have been attempted if the narrative would remain singularly focused on the English perspective and again it is far too episodic. And of course the most blatant offense is the aforementioned Irish consideration and his handling of thus. The weakness of the field in relation to objective truth due to the lack of translated sources beyond the English sphere, and the negation of proper note massing at the back of the book made it a lack and whimsical account by all measures.

[Ben Truong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pirates of Barbary: Corsairs, Conquests and Captivity in the Seventeenth-Century Mediterranean is a historical non-fiction text written by Adrian Tinniswood. It centered on the exciting history of 17th-century piracy among African city-states.

This book serves as an entry (Set in a Mediterranean country) in The 52 Book Challenge 2021. I found this book on my mates’ bookshelf and thought I would give it a go. This book mainly takes place mainly on the Mediterranean and touches some countries in North Africa such as Morocco and Libya, which hopefully satisfy the criterion on this entry.

Historian Tinniswood revisits the kleptocratic heyday of the Barbary States: Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and bits of Morocco, which offered fortified harbors to pirates and in turn built their economies around the sale of stolen cargoes and captives.

The buccaneers, who kidnapped whole villages as far north as Ireland and Iceland, were denounced as the scourge of Christendom. Yet most of the "Turkish" pirates Tinniswood highlights were British, Dutch, or Italian renegades who sometimes bought pardons and obtained naval commands from their native countries. The million Christians sold into bondage often converted to Islam and became pillars of the North African economy.

Pirates of Barbary: Corsairs, Conquests and Captivity in the Seventeenth-Century Mediterranean is written and research rather well. Tinniswood makes this particular history an entertaining picaresque of crime, combat, and moral compromise with fierce sea battles and daring escapes with corrupt hagglings as European governments vacillate between gunboat diplomacy and offering tribute for the release of their enslaved countrymen.

All in all, Pirates of Barbary: Corsairs, Conquests and Captivity in the Seventeenth-Century Mediterranean is a rigorous and sophisticated reexamination of the history of the Pirates of Barbary during the seventeenth century.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

After a pretty interesting introduction of the Turkish/Moorish rise to power and piracy in North Africa, it spent a little too much time on English politics. I did enjoy the fresh first-hand stories on the involvement of well-known historical figures, but otherwise, the chapters focusing on bureaucracy and treaties felt as slow and drawn-out as they must have been when they occurred.

I would have liked to hear more about the sea battles, the descriptions of which were very suspenseful and exciting. In addition, it would have been nice to read more about the pashas, deys, and Jannisaries and life in the "Barbary" cities, as well as the other major trading powers like Venice and Spain. It also felt like the author spent so much time giving the pirates a perspective, only to discard them for more English political drama.

I picked up this book because it seemed it would shed some light on different aspects of piracy, and although England was a central player in the events, focusing mostly on parliamentary politics felt lopsided and very expected.

I'd still recommend it, but I think you would be fine to read some parts in full and skim through the rest.

[Christopher Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

The New York Times is quoted on the pb cover: "Bloody good entertainment." I totally agree: just a joy to read. Firstly Tinniswood is an excellent and accomplished story-teller and here instead of a straight chronological history of this swashbuckling era, he takes a different subject for each chapter. It may be a notable pirate, a King's Consul, a place (eg. Tangier, Tripoli) and weaves their/its story with an eye to showing how their times and experiences were characteristic of the age of the corsairs. Including snippets of diaries, official reports and pungent descriptions gives each chapter-story a life and makes for a succession of engaging tales. It's just really, really well done and if you like history that's a little off-beat from courts and palaces and the usual fare, you'll like this as much as I did.

[Omar Amer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, this book only gets a 2-star rating from me. Firstly, Adrian titled this book 'Pirates of Barbary' but a better title would have been disillusioned English pirates plying their trade in North Africa. This book was mostly written from the English prespective, even calling them pirates when Adrian himself calls this problematic as they were privateers or corsairs.

Where Adrian's narrative really falls flat is his analysis that the 'pirates' were started because of a European threat to North Africa after Spain's conquest of the last Islamic kingdom of Grenada, he then claims that Europe had no choice but to colonise North Africa because of their pirate states and this was the only way to put an end to this as well as their horror of the slave trade. Adrian does need to face the reality that Europe itself was engaging in something more direct and audacious than piracy, the colonisation of the vast majority of the known world, by default, something much worse than piracy of your nearby waters but the stealing of the resources of an entirely foreign land as well as using its subjects for your own gain. Or maybe Adrian would claim that Europe had no choice but to colonise much of the known world to make it a safer place, it may be Europe's burden after all.

I was left rather disappointed by Adrian Tinniswood.

[Tariq · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was surprisingly easy to read, fun and (if you'll excuse the pun) captivating.

Having finally finished the book I feel greatly benefited by knowing a brief history of the region and the world context in which Piracy in the Barbary existed, thrived and ultimately died.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in either pirates, naval or European history.

A solid 4/5 stars from me!

My full review is here: https://www.tariqk.com/books/review-p...

[Olly Colluphid · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a series of anecdotes covering the C17 giving a flavour of the activities of the Barbary States and their enemies. It isn't (and doesn't try to be) a history or to really explain and understand the events, but it is a good read.

The anecdotes are fleshed out with enough context to give a feeling of how events unfolded and how things changed for the corsairs and their children victims. It dies suffer a bit from the fact that many chapters end up being a bit ... Same-y.

Anyway good fun and nicely written.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good overview of the Barbary Pirate states from 1600-ish to 1820-ish. The book focuses mostly on the English perspective, which is fine for an overview, but certainly represents only one side of the long history of the Corsairs. Different chapters focus on the different states (Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli) and most of the time is spent in the Corsair heyday of the 1600s. After that, state-sponsored navies begin to reach a strength that allows favorable negotiation... at least for the English.