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

shipping, they operated like pirates but they were legally authorized by a
sovereign—whether monarch, state, or polity. Those were called privateers or
corsairs. The Anglo-Saxons called them privateers but in the Mediterranean
Basin they were known as ‘corsairs:’ the Spaniards called them corsarios, the
Italians Corsaros and the French corsaires. The North Africans, including
Algerians, used a similarly sounding term قرص ان to refer to their men of sea
and قرصنة referring to the occupation of corsairing. These two related terms
were “borrowed and transliterated” from the Italian corsaro. This borrowing
appears to have been operated by the Ottomans in the 15 th century. 90
To the already mentioned great corsairs of Algiers, famous corsairs
include the Genoese Andrea Doria who was a formidable match to Khayreddin.
The celebrated English Sir Francis Drake and John Hawkins, originally pirates,
had a long and profitable privateering career. 91
United States’ War of
Independence famous hero Paul Jones was a notable Scottish pirate who
escaped death for piracy thanks to a letter of marque bestowed on him by the
American Congress. 92
Later, the Americans transformed him to a national
hero. 93
90 Risso, “Cross-Cultural Perceptions of Piracy,” p. 302.
91
Philip Gosse, The Pirates’ Who’s Who: Giving Particulars of the Lives & Deaths
of the Pirates & Buccaneers (New York: Burt Franklin, 1924), pp. 117-18, p. 157; also Stockton,
Buccaneers and Pirates, pp. 10-15.
92 Gosse, The Pirates’ Who’s Who, pp. 176-77; also Unknown, “The United States Creation Myth.”
(Accessed 12 April 2008). http://www.aloha.com/~craven/voliich2.html
93 For a biography of Paul Jones see Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, The Life of Paul Jones. 2 vol.
(Boston: Hilliard, Gray, and Company, 1841).
91