The Barbary pirates raid on Iceland in 1627

[archaeologist]

Iceland experienced a rather violent and traumatic incident during the summer of 1627. At that time Barbary corsairs from North Africa carried out several raids on Iceland. These pirates came from the cities of Salé in Morocco and Algiers in Algeria. They attacked areas such as Grindavík, the Östfjords and Vestmannaeyjar.

In total, between 400 and 500 Icelanders were captured and taken away to be sold as slaves. Around 50 people were killed during the raids. Those captured included men, women and children, and many of them never returned home.

One of the most famous prisoners was the priest Ólafur Egilsson, who later wrote about his experiences. The events are known in Icelandic history as “Tyrkjaránið” or the “Turkish raids”.

Here is an interesting article about the events:

The Barbary Corsair Raid on Iceland, 1627

The early decades of the seventeenth century were the great heyday of the Barbary corsairs. Not only did they swarm the Mediterranean, but with the help of European renegados they also attacked both ships and coastal settlements all along the Atlantic seaboard of Europe, from Spain to the British Isles and beyond.

In the summer of 1627, Barbary corsairs descended upon Iceland, killing dozens of people and abducting more than 400 to sell as slaves in Salé and Algiers. The sheer audacity of this raid—it was a 3,000 mile sail from North Africa to Iceland, a 6,000 mile roundtrip—makes it exceptional. But there’s something else that makes it stand out as well. The Icelanders, who were collectively traumatized by the attack, attempted to process that trauma by writing about what had happened. (Icelanders have always been an astonishingly literate bunch, so writing about the events came naturally to them.) As a result, there is an extensive collection of contemporary descriptions, chronicles, memoires, and letters about the raid—a unique, detailed account quite different from other records of Barbary corsair assaults.

The details of the 1627 corsair raid are not well known outside Iceland, and many references to it are inaccurate. Mainly, this is because few of the Icelandic documents about the raid have been translated. Without access to the primary source documents, amateurs and professional historians alike have had to rely on second-hand précises and summaries of précises.

The Barbary Corsair Raid on Iceland, 1627


In 2016 a book was published which included a translation to English of the book written by Lutheran minister Reverend Olafur Egilsson who was taken prisoner during the raid, and some letters from other captives.

The Travels of Reverend Olafur Egilsson: The Story of the Barbary Corsair Raid on Iceland in 1627

In the summer of 1627, Barbary corsairs raided Iceland, killing dozens of people and abducting close to four hundred to sell into slavery in Algiers. Among those taken was the Lutheran minister Reverend Olafur Egilsson.

Reverend Olafur (born in the same year as William Shakespeare and Galileo Galilei) wrote The Travels to chronicle his experiences both as a captive and as a traveler across Europe (he journeyed alone from Algiers to Copenhagen in an attempt to raise funds to ransom the Icelandic captives that remained behind). He was a keen observer, and the narrative is filled with a wealth of detail―social, political, economic, religious―about both the Maghreb and Europe. It is also a moving story on the human level: we witness a man enduring great personal tragedy and struggling to reconcile such calamity with his understanding of God.

The Travels is the first-ever English translation of the Icelandic text. Until now, the corsair raid on Iceland has remained largely unknown in the English speaking world.

To give a clearer sense of the extraordinary events connected with that raid, this edition of The Travels includes not only Reverend Olafur's first-person narrative but also a collection of contemporary letters describing both the events of the raid itself and the conditions under which the enslaved Icelanders lived. The book has Appendices containing background information on the cities of Algiers and Salé in the seventeenth century, on Iceland in the seventeenth century, on the manuscripts accessed for the translation, and on the book's early modern European context.

The combination of Reverend Olafur's narrative, the letters, and the material in the Appendices provides a first-hand, in-depth view of early seventeenth-century Europe and the Maghreb equaled by few other works dealing with the period. We are pleased to offer it to the wider audience that an English edition allows.

The Travels of Reverend Olafur Egilsson: The Story of the Barbary Corsair Raid on Iceland in 1627

[anansi]

I think after losing real-estate in Europe, they turned to piracy still salty and thus poking the bear,


CORSAIRS CHASING A GALLEON
The Turks loomed large in this as they had to get their cut, part of undermining Christian Europe, the novel




El Hani Taranji was a notorious Barbary Pirate .




This monument commemorates the victory over the Ottomans in North Africa by Ferdinando I de’ Medici, the grand duke of Tuscany in 1607. The collaboration between Giovanni Bandini (marble sculpture) and Pietro Tacca (bronze sculptures), symbolizes his victory over PIRACY in the Tuscan seas.



The statue of Ferdinano is of marble and the slaves are of bronze.
sagaciouspalate.com/2014/10/30/silversea-day-5-july-12-florence-italy/

[archaeologist]

Olafur Egilsson´s wife and two sons were also abducted. His wife returned to Iceland but not his sons.

Ólafur Egilsson (1564 – 1 March 1639) was an Icelandic Lutheran minister. In 1627, he was abducted, along with his wife and two sons, by Barbary Pirates under the Ottoman Empire during their raid on Vestmannaeyjar. The raid is known in Icelandic history as Tyrkjaránið (The Turkish abductions). He returned to Vestmannaeyjar in 1628 but his wife Ásta Þorsteinsdóttir did not return until 1637 and his sons never returned. He later wrote a memoir of his abduction and return, which was published both in Iceland and in Denmark.

Ólafur Egilsson


His book is also available online in Icelandic

Lítil saga umm herhlaup Tyrkjans á Íslandi árið 1627


One can read a sample of the English translation here:

The Travels of Reverend Olafur Egilsson

[archaeologist]

An excerpt from the English translation:

CHAPTER X

About how it went (to the best of my knowledge) for the good people who had been captured and were taken to that place [Asser i.e., Algiers]

When the poor Icelandic people were put on land, such a huge crowd gathered that I think it was impossible to count their number. They did not come for any cruel purpose, but only to look at the poor captives. The Icelanders were separated from each other — friend from friend, children from their parents — and driven through the streets, from one house to another, to the market place where they were put up for auction as if they were sheep or cattle.

The people who had been captured in East Iceland were first offered for sale, the men being kept separate in some houses, the women in other houses. This went on until the 28th of August, by which time most of the East Iceland people were sold.

After that, the people from the Westman Islands were brought to the market place, which was a square built up of stones with seats encompassing it all around. The ground was paved with stones which appeared glossy — which I understand is because they were washed every day, as were the main houses, sometimes as much as three times a day. This market place was next to where their local King had his seat, so that he would have the shortest way there, because, as I was told by those who had been there a long time (and were and are still Christians), their laws concerning the sharing out of prisoners were as follows.

First and foremost, the Commander got to have whichever two of the captives he wanted. Then their King (if I may call him that) took every eighth man, every eighth woman, and every eighth child. When he had taken these, those people who remained were divided into two groups, one for the ship owners and one for the pirates themselves.

We poor Westman Island people were taken to the market place in two groups, each of thirty. The Turkish guarded each group in front and behind and counted heads at each street corner because the inhabitants of that place will steal such captive people if ever they get the chance.

When we came to the market place, we were placed in a circle, and everyone’s hands and face were inspected. Then the King chose from this group those whom he wanted (every eighth, as I mentioned earlier). His first choice amongst the boys was my own poor son, eleven years old, whom I will never forget as long as I live because of the depth of his understanding. When he was taken from me, I asked him in God’s name not to forsake his faith nor forget his catechism. He said with great grief, “I will not, my father! They can treat my body as they will, but my soul I shall keep for my good God.”

I have to say with Job: What is my strength, that I should hope? (Job 6:11). Were one to try to weigh my misery and suffering altogether on a scale, they would be heavier than all the sand in the sea.

The other Icelanders were moved from there to another place, and one of the Turkish led two groups of ten around one stone column with loud screaming which I did not understand. I and my wife and our two younger children, a one-year-old and a one-month-old, were taken from that place up to the King’s hall, and there we sat with the children in our arms for two hours. From there, we were then taken to the King’s prison, where we spent that night. From that time on, I do not know what became of the rest of the Icelandic people. Ah! I would like to comfort and strengthen the people with my words, but I cannot. And whether I speak of such things or not, my suffering does not lessen.

Whatever happens, we are the Lord

[archaeologist]

Some Europeans were also involved in the Barbary piracy. A couple of them participated in the raids against Iceland.

According to the Icelandic sources on the Tyrkjaránið, the Saletian raiders arrived on June 20 and attacked the southwest corner of the island. This group was led by a Dutch renegado ra’is whom the Icelandic sources call Amórað Reis—the (in)famous Jan Janszoon van Haarlem, aka Murat Reis (i.e., Murad the Captain), a Dutch renegado ra’is who operated first out of Algiers and then Salé, where he became the Admiral of the Salé corsair fleet. Murad Reis is typically credited with masterminding the entire raid on Iceland, but Icelandic documents made it clear that his group was separate from, and caused less damage than, the Algerians. The Saletian corsairs were in Icelandic waters a little over a week, and made off with a few dozen captives and a Danish merchant ship—arriving back at Salé on July 30.

The Algerian corsairs appeared in Icelandic waters on July 5 (a fortnight after the Saletian raiders had sailed away) and remained for two weeks, departing on July 19 and arriving back at Algiers on August 16 or 17. This group was led by another Dutch renegado whom the Icelandic sources refer to as “that soul ripper named Mórað Flaming” (an Icelandic rendering of Murad Fleming, i.e., Murad the Flemish, “Flemish” being a common way of referring to the Dutch at the time).

The Barbary Corsair Raid on Iceland, 1627

Some facts about Jan Janszoon van Harlem

Jan Janszoon van Haarlem, commonly known as Reis Mourad the Younger (c. 1570 – c. 1641), was a Dutch pirate who later became a Barbary corsair in Ottoman Algeria and the Republic of Salé. After being captured by Algerian corsairs off Lanzarote in 1618, he converted to Islam and changed his name to Mourad. He became one of the most famous of the 17th-century Barbary corsairs. Together with other corsairs, he helped establish the independent Republic of Salé at the city of that name, serving as the first President and Commander. He also served as Governor of Oualidia.

It seems that in order to find the way to Iceland he used the knowledge of at least one captive Dane.

In 1627, Janszoon used a Danish "slave" (most likely a crew member captured on a Danish ship taken as a pirate prize) to pilot him and his men to Iceland. There they raided the fishing village of Grindavík. Their takings were meagre, some salted fish and a few hides, but they also captured twelve Icelanders and three Danes who happened to be in the village. When they were leaving Grindavík, by means of flying a false flag they managed to trick and capture a Danish merchant ship that was passing.

Jan Janszoon

[djehuti]

^ Excellent exposé Archae. I remember reading about this in my history class back in high school as part of the early conflict between Islamic North Africa and Europe.

Sept 28, 2024 9:49:44 GMT -5 anansi said:

I think after losing real-estate in Europe, they turned to piracy still salty and thus pocking the bear,

Many people don't realize that brigandry/piracy is part of Islamic jihad called 'ghazw' in Arabic. We see this today along the Aden Gulf and Somali waters with Somali pirates who only attack non-Muslim vessels. After the Reconquista of Iberia and the strengthening of that land, piracy is all that part of the Ummayad had left. A good portion of these European slaves from the Barbary coasts were sold as far south as Sahelian kingdoms like Mali and even further still into the Guinea kingdoms.

[djehuti]

There have been countless papers written on this topic yet not many people know about this history because it is not politically correct. What?! White people being enslaved by black Africans?? LOL It pretty much destroys the cultural Marxist and white supremacist notion that blacks could ever hold power over whites.

Here are just a few of the books I know of on the topic:

(1999)


(2003rd ed.)


(2020)

[archaeologist]

Also the Faroe islands were subjected to attacks from pirates, both North African and European. In 1629 there was an attack on the island Suðuroy.

In 1629 Suðuroy came under attack by Barbary pirates who‘d sailed north from their home on the north coast of Africa in search of treasure and slaves. A number of ships attacked the village of Hvalba in the north of the island, making off with around 30 women and children to be sold as slaves. However, the pirates‘ ships foundered on rocks in the bay and sank with all hands on deck. The villagers set about burying the bodies as they washed up on the shore and today the burial mounds on the beach at Nes still bear witness to the raid on Hvalba.

Visit Faroe Islands - SUÐUROY


Locations of Iceland and the Faroe Islands

[djehuti]

^ I find it ironic that the Barbary Pirates ventured that far north as what was once Viking territory to raid slaves from the descendants of those very Vikings. I know the Viking Age ended in 1050 and from what I recall the 1500s was the era of the Reformation Movement with many Lutheran state churches forming in Scandinavia and Britain but what was going on in the early 1600s that left their waters vulnerable to such attacks??

[djehuti]

I know the Faroe Islands are a territory of Denmark, but I'm unfamiliar with the history of this time you're discussing. I did a cursory google search and came up with this:

In the 1600s, the North Sea was a theater of conflict and maritime expansion, with the Dutch Republic and England vying for dominance:
Dutch dominance
The Dutch Republic became the dominant power in the North Sea, with a large merchant marine, powerful navy, and overseas colonies. The Dutch ships were easy to sail, and the Dutch became the world's greatest maritime nation around 1600.
Anglo-Dutch Wars
The Dutch and England's growing rivalry led to the first three Anglo-Dutch Wars, which took place between 1652 and 1673. The Dutch won the wars, but the English did not replace the Dutch as the world's leading trade nation.
Seafaring
The Dutch developed a seafaring tradition and shipbuilding industry. The Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century saw the Dutch at the height of their maritime power.
Shipping dangers
The ocean was dangerous in the 1600s, with ships often damaged or wrecked by storms, or taken over by pirates. Passengers sometimes fell overboard or became sick and died.



I just find it odd that in this midst of conflicting European powers in this contested maritime region that Barbary Pirates were able to travel that far there, and I can't help but to think they were allowed in that area by one nation or another as part of a conspiracy.

[archaeologist]

Seems the North European states were so occupied by their internal strife that the Barbary pirates could use this to their advantage. The pirates also often had help from renegades and converts who had knowledge of the northern waters, as in the case of the first raid to Iceland where the Dutchman Jan Janszoon van Harlem enlisted the help of a Danish slave or prisoner to find his way to Iceland. Both the Faroe Islands and Iceland were so far off in the North Atlantic that the North African pirates probably couldn't have found their way there without help.

One can also wonder how they managed to bypass Dutch, English, Danish and other fleets who were present in these northern waters. It is not impossible that some European nations saw the pirates as a way to further destabilize their enemies. In 1627 and 1629 many of the Northern countries were involved in the Thirty Years' War which lasted from 1618 to 1648. The chaotic situations created by the war, created opportunities for pirates.

The thirty years war took up a lot of resources and it also created a lot of suffering. In parts of Germany more than half of the population died, which is a higher percentage than during both the first and second world war.

The wars also took a severe toll on many countries economy. That is one of the reasons why it took many years until Denmark could help in paying the ransom for the Icelanders who were abducted in 1627. Only a few of the more than 400 prisoners could in the end return back to Iceland.

The situation reminded some of the kind of circumstances with wars, weakening and division in Europe which a few hundred years earlier had created the conditions for the raids and war campaigns of the Vikings.

Thirty Years' War


Link to a larger version of the map
From 1618 to 1648 many European states was involved in the thirty years war, which took up a lot of their resources.




After the thirty years war parts of Europe were divided and weakened

[djehuti]

^ A ha! I knew there was more to the story! I thought the same thing-- how could North African pirates navigate through these northern waters so easily without help from natives? Pirates for hire as mercenaries for one side or the other is nothing new. The British Empire in their wars with the Spanish and Portuguese often hired Jewish Pirates from those same regions as allies.

[archaeologist]

Yes, among the Barbary pirates there were some Europeans who had knowledge about European geography and who had contacts in Europe. They also knew who to ask to get relevant information about possible targets.

Barbary corsairs


According to historian, Adrian Tinniswood, the most notorious corsairs were European renegades who had learned their trade as privateers, and who moved to the Barbary Coast during peacetime to pursue their trade. These outcasts, who had converted to Islam, brought up-to-date naval expertise to the piracy business, and enabled the corsairs to make long-distance slave-catching raids as far away as Iceland and Newfoundland. Infamous corsair Henry Mainwaring, who was initially a lawyer and pirate-hunter, later returned home to a royal pardon. Mainwaring later wrote a book about the practice of piracy in the Mediterranean, aptly titled the Discourse of Pirates. In the book, Mainwaring outlined potential methods to hunt down and eliminate piracy.

Barbary pirates

[archaeologist]

Even on New Foundland in the Americas, the African pirates made a mark in local folklore. Their attacks seem not as well documented as the ones on Iceland and the Faroe islands, but at least their reputation reached there.

Barbary Pirates, Sallee Rovers, and the Legend of Turk's Gut

The community of Marysvale, Conception Bay, was originally known as Turk's Gut. The exact origin of the name is lost in the mists of time. But many legends have sprung up over the centuries to account for it, and most of them agree on the name being linked to the seventeenth-century history of piracy in the waters of Conception Bay. One of the earliest and shortest accounts comes to us from the Most Rev. Michael Francis Howley, in his “Newfoundland Name-Lore” column in the Newfoundland Quarterly, March, 1907. He writes,

Near Brigus we have Turk's Gut. In explaining the name of St. Barbes, I mentioned that in early days our seas were infested by pirates from Barbary. These terrible corsairs, who did much damage around our coasts, were called by the old English settlers by the generic name of Turks, and the names above mentioned record the memory of some adventure, or landing by them in these harbours.

By 1949, the legend had expanded slightly. In that year’s Christmas Annual, writer LEF English noted,

The Sallee Rovers... were supposed to have their lairs on the Barbary Coast in Africa. The vessels were partly manned by Turks, but many renegade French and English took service with these organized robbers. Some of their ships operated in Newfoundland waters as shown by the records. We see then that pirates actually did visit Newfoundland and that the possibility of treasure trove on lonely headlands or in sheltered bays is after all not so remote. There still exist some relics of those old sea rovers, for instance the name Turk's Gut near Brigus recalls a legend that the Sallee raiders once had there a quiet rendezvous. Spanish doubloons and pieces of eight still hold a fascination, and there is no doubt that he who goes treasure hunting in Newfoundland will find at least enough hair raising stories to reward his efforts, and maybe, maybe, will uncover the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Writer and publisher PJ Wakeham expanded the story for inclusion in his New Land Magazine in 1962, and again in 1968. Wakeham spins a bloodthirsty yarn, likely based more on his own imagination than on historical fact. In his version the pirate not only gains a name, Isstovatison, but also gains a captive, Madame LaBlonc, the wife of a French naval officer. Isstovatison’s ship is wrecked, a treasure is recovered and buried, and the ship’s cannons are used to fortify the pirate’s lair. All is well till Admiral LaBlonc sails to Newfoundland to save his wife from the Turk’s clutches:

Realizing that his end was at hand, the infuriated pirate turned and thrust a heavy cutlass into the breast of Madame LaBlonc, and putting a loaded pistol to his own head, he blew his brains out before he could be restrained. When Admiral LaBlonc entered the pirate’s hide-out, he found his wife badly wounded and beside her body lay the crumpled body of the Pirate of Turk’s Gut. Despite the best of medical care, Madame LaBlonc died that afternoon onboard her husband’s ship just as the shadows of night were closing in over Conception Bay.

Barbary Pirates, Sallee Rovers, and the Legend of Turk's Gut.


Also other pirates attacked New Foundland 

One of the best-known pirates to make his mark on Canada was Peter Easton. In 1612, Easton embarked on a series of raids on European fishing fleets in coastal harbours in Newfoundland and Labrador from Trinity Bay to Ferryland. He turned Harbour Grace into his headquarters and destroyed a Basque fleet that was intent on capturing his fort there. Pardoned by King James, Easton abandoned his Newfoundland base and settled in Savoy.

Bartholomew Roberts — also known as Black Bart — was another well-known pirate, who attacked Trepassey, Newfoundland and Labrador, in June 1720. He captured a fleet of 22 fishing ships and plundered the town before moving south down the coast. Roberts, who captured more than 400 ships during his three-year career, was killed in 1722 by ships of the Royal Navy off the coast of Guinea, West Africa.

Piracy in Canada

[djehuti]

^ The (1st Canadian) War on Terror: Is it Possible?

The Royal Navy vs. the Riff Pirates 1848-51