Corsairs of Algiers

Corsairs of Algiers
The Tai'fa of Raïs
A Corsair of Algiers
Active	1516–1830
Disbanded	De jure 1830
Country	Regency of Algiers (part of the Ottoman Empire)
Allegiance	Wakil al-Kharadj, or minister of the navy of Algiers and foreign affairs, Kapudan-reïs, "admiral, hierarchical chief of all the reïs"
Main location	Algiers
Equipment	Yatagan, Nimcha, Kabyle musket, and other locally made weapons
Engagements	Algiers expedition (1541) Battle of Lepanto (1571) Odjak of Algiers Revolution French-Algerian War 1681–88 Invasion of Algiers (1775) Battle off Cape Gata (1815) Bombardment of Algiers (1816) Invasion of Algiers in 1830
Commanders
Notable commanders	Oruç Reis Hayreddin Barbarossa Occhiali Jan Janszoon Ali Bitchin Mezzo Morto Hüseyin Pasha Raïs Hamidou

The ta'ifa of raïs (Arabic: طائفة الريس, community of corsair captains) or the Raïs for short, were Barbary pirates based in Ottoman Algeria who were involved in piracy and the slave trade in the Mediterranean Sea from the 16th to the 19th century. They were an ethnically mixed group of seafarers, including mostly "renegades" from European provinces of the Mediterranean and the North Sea, along with a minority of Turks and Moors. Such crews were experienced in naval combat, making Algiers a formidable pirate base. Its activity was directed against the Spanish empire, but it did not neglect the coasts of Sicily, Sardinia, Naples or Provence. It was the taifa which, through its seizures, maintained the prosperity of Algiers and its finances.

The corsair taifa of Algiers reached the zenith of its power in the first half of the seventeenth century as an Ottoman military elite, theoritically. Up until 1626, the Algerian corsair admiral (Kapudan-rais) was invested by the Ottoman sultan and subordinate to the Kapudan Pasha of the Ottoman empire. Often former Christian slaves were promoted up the ta'ifa chain of command, the admirals and their corsairs were a powerful military and political force in the regency of Algiers, and could even challenge the authority of the Pasha and the Odjak Janissary corps.