Ottoman Algeria in Western Diplomatic History with ... - Bibliothèque

corsairing. 79 Therefore, it is obvious that the Muslims merely learned from the
European pirate how to plunder according to his own rules and adapted
themselves to Mediterranean conditions and sea practices and certainly not the
opposite as it is ostentatiously asserted here:
It is to be noted, moreover, that where mountain or desert tribes or
steppe nomads make their way out to such coasts, they bring with them
the mind of robbers and only alter their raiding method. They adapt
themselves to the seaboard environment, blend with the local
inhabitants, from whom they learn the art of navigation, and pursue their
ancestral trade, exchanging the desert camel and steppe pony for the
swift-moving ship. The mental habit of the previous habitat harmonizes
with the economic conditions of the new one…. [This] was true of the
desert-bred Saracens wherever they touched the Mediterranean coasts,
though their inland settlements were models of careful tillage and
thriving industries. 80
Piracy has existed ever since the dawn of history and references to it
could be dated back to about 3,000 B. C. In Ancient Greece, the epic poet
Homer mentioned it in both The Iliad and The Odyssey. 81 Ever since Antiquity,
piracy has been “a recurrent phenomenon on many shores of the
Mediterranean;” it functioned as a “sinister form of maritime activity and
“constituted a lawless combination of naval aggression and maritime
commerce” among early Phoenicians, Greeks, Etruscans, and many other
peoples down to the 19 th century. 82 In 100 A.D., the Greek historian Plutarch
gave the earliest definition of ‘pirate’ which has generally been accepted since
79 Delmasso, “La peur des corsaires barbaresques,” p. 52.
80 Ellen Churchill Semple, “Pirate Coasts of the Mediterranean Sea,” Geographical Review, 2: 2 (Aug.,
1916), p. 138.
81 Homer’s Odyssey tells about Cretan pirates who plundered the Egyptian coast and Phoenicians who
kidnapped men and women to sell as slaves. Hubert Deschamps, Pirates et flibustiers (Paris: Presses
Universitaires de France, 1952), pp. 7-14.
82 Semple, “Pirate Coasts,” p. 134. For piracy in Antiquity see pp. 134-51.
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