Arabes et Turcs au Maghreb dans les années 1513-1520 d’après les Ġazavât-ı Ĥayrü-ddîn Paşa

44633

This paper deals with the “Arabs” and the “Turks” as they appear in the Ghazavât-ı Khayreddin Pasha, or rather in its first part (ff. 1-123), which ends with Khayreddin leaving Algiers temporarily and going to Djidjelli. We are in the beginning of the Turkish establishment in the Maghrib, in the second decade of the sixteenth century. Written some twenty years afterwards, ordered by the Sultan and meant for a large Ottoman public, but at the same time based on the personal memories of Khayreddin and his comrades, the chronicle is a very interesting document for the light it sheds both on the locals and the conquerors: the “Arabs” and the “Turks” — for these are precisely the terms used by the text — constitute two clearly distinct groups, very conscious of their being distinct, with a very strong and consciously ethnicist mind. This is anyway the impression given by the Ghazavât. A particularly striking point is a kind of condescension (if not even contempt) of the “Turks” towards the “Arabs,” who are characterized by their moral weakness, if not by their immorality: an imperialist and colonial vision which at the same time echoes the Barbarossa brothers’ inability to be accepted in the Maghrib.

365

Arabs and Turks , Maghrib in the sixteenth century , Hayreddin Barbarossa , Oruç Reis , Ottoman chronicle , Ghazavât , ı Khayreddin Pasha

The Journal Of Ottoman Studies

397

The Journal Of Ottoman Studies