Average Mediterranean Shenanigans

And at the same time a similar trade was occuring in Eastern Europe, where Christian and Muslim powers clashed, this time on land, taking each other slaves in the form of the Cossack and Crimean-Nogai slave raids respectively. Also, I could be wrong on this, but I believe Christian corsairs and raiders also frequently attacked their fellow co-religionists and enslaved them as well, such as the Russians selling of Finnish, Swedish, and Baltic captives into the Ottoman Empire during the Great Northern War. In the Mediterranean, Protestants and Jews were frequently used as galley slaves by both sides.

#Hi from r/islamichistorymeme Plenty of people know about the Barbary Corsairs but the Mediterranean privateering and pirating wasnt just one way. As Barbary Corsairs plundered European coasts even going as far as Iceland, European Corsairs plundered North African and Turkish coasts as well. Both sides attacked each others shipping and virtually no merchant ship was safe in the Mediterranean. Maltese Corsairs were feared by Muslims as much as Algerian Corsairs struck fear into Europeans. This two way exchange led to interesting stories about how both sides negotiatiated for each others slaves. The Vatican archives include many examples of how states such as Tunis and the Papal states used traders and missionaries as negotiaters. [This Vatican document](https://earlymoderndocs.omeka.net/items/show/13503) mentions how reports of Muslim slaves in the Popes galleys being forced to convert to Christianity led to Tunis threatening to force their Christian slaves to convert. Ultimately both sides backed down. Meanwhile [this document ](https://earlymoderndocs.omeka.net/items/show/13595) mentions how Muslim slaves created a Muslim cemetery outside Rome and when their graveyard land was taken away the Dey of Tunis threatened to close the Christian graveyards in Tunis. If you would like to read more [heres a good source](https://www.jstor.org/stable/44329665) about the exchange of Muslim and Christian slaves in the western Mediterranean. Heres [a smaller article](https://www.leidenislamblog.nl/articles/muslim-slaves-in-early-modern-europe-a-forgotten-history-of-slavery) that summarizes the extent of Muslim slaves in Europe. While Barbary Corsairs captured more Christian slaves in total, Christian Corsairs such as the Maltese were just as infamous for their raids leading to up to a million Muslim slaves taken into Europe between 1500 and 1800.

And there were christian Barbary pirates and muslim Europeans pirates. It was a bit of a deathmatch, you see? Theres a great Captain Alatriste novel where the famous man of fortune and his sidekick, Inigo Balboa, are hired as marines on a Spanish galley and go hunting Barbary slaveships and doing razzias of their own. Pirates of the Levant. While its not Historical monographies, the Captain Alatriste series are real fun and didnt prick my delicate Historian hide too much. I highly recommend.

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