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

CHAPTER II
Corsairing between Distortions and Legitimacy
The Barbary corsairs are the plague of nature, the pest of humankind,
the tyrants of common liberty, the executioners of universal innocence,
who incessantly harm by cruelties unknown to the rest of men and
which further surpasses that of tigers and lions born in their country. 1
Pierre Dan (1637)
Introduction
Western writings have reduced the history of Algeria under Ottoman
rule to that of a barbarous state and a nest of pirates that lived parasitically on
plunder and from the sale and ransom of Christian captives. For westerners,
Europeans and Americans alike, Algiers was a source of troubles and a
nuisance for the civilized Christian world. This view was so fossilized that the
epithet ‘Scrounge of Christendom’ became indisputably the twin name for
Algiers. They portrayed the inhabitants of Algiers as savage sub-humans and
ferocious pirates who robbed, killed, captured, and enslaved countless numbers
of helpless white Christians. This, in fact, is part of many legends that were
developed by western writers and historians about the so called pirates of the
1 Dan, Histoire de Barbarie, p. 4.
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