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

This is one of hundreds other similar stories that one can find scattered
over the 200 years of the history of diplomatic relations between Ottoman
Algeria and the Christians countries. It is an anecdote which tells about a
number of other related issues: first, it tells that Hadgamore was Hadj Omar,
and archives have preserved his name, but it does not tell who was Buffilo
Ball—certainly not Buffalo Bill! How many Algerian captives were lost to
Christians and history in this way, who were they? In what circumstances were
they captured? What sufferings did they endure? Almost certainly these
questions will remain unanswered. 76 However, one may be tempted to ask one
more question and answer it: How many of the Muslim captives had been able
to return back home to tell stories about their captivity? To judge by the
number of captivity accounts of former Algerian captives in the Christian
countries which amounts to null, compared to hundreds—real and imaginary
on the Christian side—one may assume that very rare, indeed, were those who
could make their way back home to tell about the cruelty they suffered at the
hands of their Christian captors. Undoubtedly, the inability to answer these
questions today is frustrating especially at a time when western historians are
counting their captives of ‘the Barbary Coast’ and resurrecting them through a
heralded opera of Muslim cruelty and Christian sufferings in a contemporary
crusade against Islam. 77 Second, it tells also that the captives in this anecdote
were lucky enough not to be cruelly hanged in front of the port of Algiers by
the English admiral who captured them as did his Christian predecessor in
76 Belhamissi, Captifs Algériens, pp. 9-10.
77 See for example Davis, “Counting European Slaves.”
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