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

follows: First, the Muslim who was portrayed in the image of a pirate was in
fact a corsair legitimated in his actions against his Christian enemies by the
very principles and statutes of westerners. Corsairing, as its Anglo-Saxon
equivalent privateering, was a Mediterranean practice which was accepted by
all belligerents as a form of warfare; its equivalent the French term guerre de
course denotes clearly its true meaning. The Algerian corsair fought to preserve
his religion, avert western conquest and infiltration attempts, and resist their
political influence and increasing bullying for commercial privileges. The
Algerian corsair did not steal from ‘honest’ Christian merchants but captured
property belonging to the enemy at times of war and his seizures, by the laws
of nations, were legal prize. He did not either make slaves of ‘innocent’
Christians but he imprisoned his Christian enemies and enslaved them
according to Mediterranean practice. So piracy was a myth which was nurtured
in the western mind and propaganda only.
Second, corsairing was not Algiers’ sole source of revenue as it has
always been pretended. Revisionist studies estimate that prizes and ransoms in
seventeenth century Algiers when corsairing was at its height, for example,
constituted between 10-15% of the revenues and absorbed about the same
percentage of the active population. When Algiers’s revenues providing from
corsairing are compared to those of Malta, also a corsairing state more or less
equal in strength to Algiers, they proved to be much inferior (against 25-30%
for Malta); but when compared to major powers’ proceeds from
corsairing/privateering, they proved to be insignificant. And then again
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