MURAT REIS THE ELDER

ALBANIAN 1534-1609

Murat Reis was one of the greatest captains of the Ottoman Navy. Having played a role in the fleets of Hayreddin Barbarossa and Dragut, he made a name for himself after he captured two treasurefilled papal galleys along the shores of Tuscany in 1580. Five years later, he led the first expedition by Barbary pirates into the Atlantic Ocean, where he successfully seized some of the Canary Islands – and he achieved the same again in 1587.

Murat was a popular figure in Spanish Golden Age literature