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The best-kept secret in the Mediterranean: Barbarossa’s 1534 Tunis campaign 385

Spanish occupation of Koron. Barbarossa was simply not ordered to
launch an attack on Tunis. His words are worth citing at length:

Hayreddin Pasha was sent to the seas. He was supposed to avenge the
atrocities committed by the infidel fleets in the provinces of the Muslims. However,
he did not go to the lands of the infidels but went instead to Tunis, which is in the
Maghreb. He arrived with the fleet at the port of Tunis. There was a castle called
La Goleta that protects Tunis. He took this castle and brought his ships to its
port. He landed there and moved on to Tunis. He captured the city and caused
many troubles and calamities to the Muslims and massacred the population.
Then he declared himself governor and settled in Tunis 37 .

As an independent source who allowed himself to be critical of his
time, Lutfi Pasha’s denial of any official authorization for Tunis is a
strong testimony in favour of the arguments that see the conquest as
Barbarossa’s personal initiative. However, his account stands in
complete opposition to Bostan Çelebi or Matrakçı Nasuh, who praised
with eulogistic overtones how Barbarossa made Tunis part of the
Ottoman realm on the orders of the sultan. Most importantly, Lutfi
Pasha’s account contradicts the official Ottoman register that
indicated the destination of the armada as diyâr-ı Mağrib, somewhere
in North Africa if not exactly Tunis . In fact, even the Gazavât
38
accepted that the fleet before it ostensibly diverted, had been heading
for Algiers. Therefore, Lutfi Pasha seems to be mistaken when he
believes that the objective of the fleet was limited to the infidel lands.
Besides, the fact that he did not mention Barbarossa’s attacks on the
Italian coastline demonstrates that he was not well-intentioned and to
an extent his account also distorted reality .
39
There is also another point worth considering. Lutfi Pasha did not
regard the conquest of Tunis as a legitimate act. On the contrary, he
was outraged by the massacre of Muslim Tunisian coreligionists and
specifically emphasises the fact that Barbarossa attacked a Muslim
polity and killed its Muslim population. Unlike the Süleymannâmes
and the Gazavât, Lutfi Pasha does not mention the alliance between
Mulay Hassan and Charles V as a justification of the conquest. While
this might be ascribed to malice or rivalry, perhaps, as someone who
at the time defended the Ottoman sultan’s right to the caliphate, Lutfi

37 K. Atik, Lütfi Paşa ve Tevârîh-i Âl-i Osman [Lütfi Paşa and his Tevârîh-i Âl-i Osman],
Kültür Bakanlığı, Ankara, 2001, p. 272.
38 See footnote 9.
39 N. Vatin, Sur les objectifs cit., p. 183.

Mediterranea - ricerche storiche - Anno XVII - Agosto 2020
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)