Moriscos and Renagados: Partners in Privateering
For all bona-fide "piracyphiles" or others who are simply enticed by the seductive and almost mythical quality of the stories they have thusfar heard about pirates: here is a masterpiece by Peter Lamborn Wilson which labors to reconstruct a truer interpretation of a slice out of pirate history. The work focuses specifically on the Barbary Corsairs, a motley bunch who consisted of Ottoman servants, Arab and Berber North Africans, and most interestingly (and the subject of the book) Moriscos freshly expelled from Spain and European Renegados (Christians from Northern Europe "turn'd Turke" begining in the 17th century, converting to Islam and settling in the "Barbary States" cities along the North African coast such as Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli and Rabat-Sale whose local economies were dedicated to the practice of privateering. The author attempts to set the record straight on just what in the world would motivate a good Englishman or Hollander living in the 17th century (such as John Ward, mythologized in English songs as "Ward the Pirate" or Jan Jansz (a.k.a. Morat Reis, who stunningly performed the infamous Sack of Baltimore along the Irish coast in 1631) to actually forsake his country of origin and "turn Turke", that is, to join in the ongoing campaign of piracy attempting to disrupt European shipping and sea commerce, sponsored by the menacing, ever-expanding Ottoman Empire. We have to remember that this was just during the beginning of the period we recall now as the Age of Expansion; however this also was a time when all of Europe was still shivering at the real perceived threat of the neighboring Ottoman Empire, that she someday would yet overrun all of Europe, perceptions which ultimately contributed to the implementation of the Spanish Inquisition and the subsequent tragic expulsions of the Moriscos, (1610-1615 C.E.).
The author demonstrates how the frustrations of the masses of freshly-expelled Moriscos, vengeful towards the country that expelled them from the land of their Moorish ancestors, together with the technological ingenuity of Renegados of European origin, wishing to "drop-out" from the hypocrisy and stuffiness of the Victorian era, conspired to produce in the North African Barbary States an environment particularly conducive to the practice of piracy. The author posits that in fact, in the case of the thousands of Renagados and Moriscos who took up arms against Europe, these activities represented a mode of "social resistance". And who could really blame them, after all? The pirate life, as reconstructed by the author from various sources, might not have been so bad after all! Who wouldn't mind a sunny Morisco hacienda in Tunis by the seashore a few months out of the year after a season of privateering on the high seas?
A wonderfully-composed work, it should be an inspiration for history writers and storytellers everywhere.
