Barbarosa Brothers

Barbarossa

(Red Beard)

Aruj was the oldest brother of the Barbarossa brothers. Aruj and his younger brother Hizir were the Barbarossa brothers. Aruj was born in Turkish in 1474. He was a Turkish privateer who lived on the Ottoman. He was freed from slavery to the knights of Rhodes by the Egyptians. They both, Aruj and Hizir began to work out of the port of Alexandria. They both were from a land now known as Lesbos, Greece. Aruj began his popularity by becoming governor of Algeria. Aruj later became chief governor of the west Mediterranean. Both Aruj and Hizir, the Barbarossa brothers, began attacking Argean ships from their home island of Lesbos. Several years later they moved to the port of Djidjelli nears Algiers, after a defeat with the Sultans of Tunis. They both moved there to step up their attacks to the Spanish, because of coastal towns and ports. Aruj invaded the ports of Algiers which helped him become the "main guy in town." However, Aruj was not able to keep control and stop the Spaniard attack that two years later he died on the Ottoman Islands of Midilli, or Lesbos, Greece. His younger brother, Hizir, took control. He took control of the Sultan of Algiers through the alliance with the Ottoman Emperor Sulayman I. He took control to defend his territory and take the Spanish out of Majorca and Nice. Hizir got Ottoman and expanded through the entire Mediterranean. He died around 1547, having gained control of a large portion of North Africa. His goal was to finish what his older brother, Aruj, had started.