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

Empire. 46
In fact, only leadership was Turkish but the majority of the
population was of Arab or Berber origins therefore such an image could not be
reasonably expanded to it. Some western writers had indeed depicted the
difference between rulers and ruled as indicated here:
In comparison with the Turks, the Arabs were a gentle people. Despite
persistent conflicts with Portugal and Spain, the Arabs had permitted
commerce with Europe and had shown a certain amount of toleration to
Christians dwelling in their midst. The coming of the Turks changed all
this. Turkish cruelty replaced Arab chivalry. 47
Yet, the distorted image of the Turkish corsair was inaccurately applied to all
people regardless of their racial origin or occupation.
When looking into the subtleties of the region and the mistaken
generalizations and hostile attitudes of the Europeans that were ultimately
transferred to the Americans, one may deduce that with or without ‘Turks’,
‘barbary’ was the product of a whole western culture which did not accept the
‘otherness’ of the other. The ‘other’ existed only if he conformed to that
culture, which makes this view a bearer of the seeds of contradiction and
confrontation. This simply meant that western culture was intolerant of the
other, the one who was different—different by custom and tradition, different
by faith, different by institutions, and different by ethnic origin. That was in
short intolerance, racism, and denial of existence to the other. It was an
ideology based on a complex system of beliefs, which actually provided the
46 The Turks represented a small percentage of the total population (about 30,000 Turks of an estimated
population of about 120,000 in 1621 or about 25%). Even those originating from the Levant were not
all from Turkish origin. More, the feared corsairs were largely European Christians who converted to
Islam and opted for joining the Algerian navy. Statistics are from Henri-D. de Grammont, “Relations
entre la France & la Régence d’Alger au XVIIe siècle,” 12 parts, Revue Africaine, 23 (1879), p. 136.
47 Wright and Macleod, First Americans, p. 5.
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