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

lost as testified by the vivid reply of Dragut Rais to La Valette, later grand
master of the Knights of Malta: “a change of luck!” 56
Although slavery had existed since pre-historic times, the word slave,
from Latin sclavus meaning a Slav captive, did not come into common use in
Europe until the end of the first millennium, AD. 57 By the 12 th century, it
appeared for the first time in Venetian and Genoese documents. 58 At that time,
the Italian city-states were trading in Slavs as well as in Arab, Turk, and Greek
slaves. 59 By the 13 th century, the word ‘turk’ was widely used in Marseille and
Leghorn as a synonym for ‘slave’ even though the slaves originated from
different localities. 60 This substitution of terms was amply justified especially if
one knows that
most of the galley slaves used by European maritime powers … were
Muslims who were generally referred to as “Turks,” even though most
of them originated in North Africa. They were either purchased in
Mediterranean slave markets or captured at sea in operations against
Muslim states on the North African coast. 61
1. 3. 2. Muslim and Christian Captives
In fact, captives from the shores of North Africa had dotted the slave
markets of southern Europe ever since Roman times. By the 15 th century,
56 Lane-Poole, Barbary Corsairs, p. 127. After he was made prisoner in 1540, Dragut Rais was forced
to row in chains on the Maltese galleys. The Maltese knight Jean Parisot La Valette, by the past, was a
prisoner of Barbarossa and he also pulled the oar on Algerian galleys and knew Dragut well. One day,
he saw Dragut toiling: “Señor Dragut,” said he, “usanza de guerra!—’tis the custom of war!” And the
prisoner, remembering La Valette’s previous slave condition replied cheerfully, “Y mudanza de
fortuna—a change of luck!”
57 “Slave,” The Concise English Dictionary, p. 1075.
58 Stella, Histoires d’esclaves, p. 32.
59 Ibid.
60 Pierre Boyer, “La chiourme turque des galères de France de 1665 à 1687,” Revue de l’Occident
Musulman et de la Méditerranée, 6 (1969), p. 54. By the 16 th century, the term ‘Turk’, or ‘turn Turk’
acquired a different meaning: it was used to refer to Christians who converted to Islam, also called
‘renegades.’
61 Scheidel, “Galley Slaves,” p. 355.
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