Ottoman Algeria in Western Diplomatic History with ... - Bibliothèque

that time: for him, a pirate is that who attacks shipping and coastal inhabitants
“from ships without legal authority.” 83 The term pirate, however, dates from
140 B.C.; the Roman historian Polybius used the word peirato (from Latin,
pirata meaning to ‘attempt’ or ‘experience’, implicitly ‘attempt to find luck on
the sea’) to refer to such sea-raiders. 84 In the 10 th and 11 th centuries, the
Scandinavian pirates were known as Vikings, “while in medieval England, the
word pirate was used to refer to just about any type of sea thief.” 85 During the
17 th century, the pirates operating in the West Indies/Caribbean Sea were called
buccaneers. 86
The French called their pirates flibustiers (from the Dutch
vrijbuiter, meaning ‘freebooter’ or ‘plunderer’) and the Dutch called theirs
zeerovers (meaning ‘sea rovers’). 87 While there is no single Arabic term for
“piracy,” there is a wide vocabulary relating to plunder ‘nahb’, either on land
or sea. 88 A particular form of piracy, but this time legalized piracy, developed in
retaliation to rival powers in Medieval Europe. Between the 13 th
and 16 th
centuries, a new type of pirates acting under the cover of legality emerged. 89
Those were individuals who were granted letters of marque and reprisal
authorizing them to capture enemy merchant ships. By attacking commercial
83 Robert M. Jarvis, “Maritime Piracy in the Modern World,” Insights on Law & Society, 6: 3 (Spring
2006), p. 1.
84 Patricia Risso. “Cross-Cultural Perceptions of Piracy: Maritime Violence in the Western Indian
Ocean and Persian Gulf Region during a Long Eighteenth Century,” Journal of World History, 12: 2
(2001), 296-97; Deschamps, Pirates et flibustiers, p. 5.
85 Jarvis, “Maritime Piracy,” p. 1.
86 The term Buccaneer, French boucanier, is derived from ‘boucan’, an Indian word meaning a grid
used for smoking the viande boucanée, or dried meat, for use aboard ships at sea. Deschamps, Pirates
et flibustiers, pp. 39-40; Risso, “Cross-Cultural Perceptions of Piracy,” p. 298.
87 For different terms used for piracy see “Buccaneer,” Encyclopædia Britannica.
88 Risso, “Cross-Cultural Perceptions of Piracy,” pp. 300-1.
89 For a historiography of piracy and Privateering see Pennell, “Who Needs Pirate Heroes?” pp. 61-79.
90