Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Our debt to the Barbarossa brothers...


Strange flag isn't it? The writing on the top states: Victory is from Allah and imminent conquest, announce this to the believers (نصرٌ من الله و فتحٌ قريبٌ و بشر المؤمنين) in each of the four crescents are the names of Islam's righteous caliphs: Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali. But what is that on the bottom? The Star of David? No, it is the Seal of Solomon and a popular symbol in Islamic art throughout medieval times. This flag is the flag of Hayreddin Barbarossa, an amazing man who lived in the period which followed the fall of the last Muslim kingdom in Spain. He was an Ottoman admiral charged with raiding the shipping of the European kingdoms and protecting the shipping routes of the Ottoman empire. Thanks to his efforts the entire Mediterranean sea was an Ottoman pond. His elder brother was named Oruc and his heroic efforts at rescuing almost 70,000 Mudejar's from Spain gained him the affectionate name of Baba Aruj (Baba Oruc), this name was inherited by Hayreddin following Oruc's death whilst fighting the Spanish in Algiers. What struck me is that these men lived at a time when the Muslim world shared a very different power dynamic with the European countries than it does today. The contrast could not be more startling, with Hayreddin's men once threatening Rome with the sack, and today, almost 460 years later, where we have the Roman Pope now in Jerusalem, itself now occupied by Zionists since 1948, having the nerve to lecture the Palestinian people about how to accept occupation. We are not talking about a very long time here. The Ottoman state was decapitated by Mustafa Kemal in 1922, a mere 376 years after the death of Barbarossa in Istanbul. This is a reminder if any that it is men with belief who make nations what they are and not intellectually subservient puppets. Were it not for the Barbarossa brothers, tens of thousands of Mudejar's would have been slaughtered in Christian Spain and the entire Maghreb would be Spanish or Italian (rather than just speaking the language of the French).

How we need more men like Hayreddin today...Read more about this remarkable man here.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The mosque by my apartment here in İstanbul is named after Barbaros. I didn't know just how impressive his career was until I perused that Wikipedia link, though. Thanks for an informative post.

Maysaloon said...

Your very welcome midwinterspring. I will be seeing Istanbul soon and it is lovely to find your blog.

Unknown said...

Wasnt Mustafa Kemal also a man with belief?

Maysaloon said...

Hi GospodinBezkrai,
Don't get me wrong, Mustafa Kemal is a big deal and of course he had belief. My problem is that it was the wrong one and I don't like the man for it. That doesn't mean I belittle his passion or underestimate him.

Unknown said...

Unfortunately, they are forgotten by many of muslims in the world. Whereas they appropriately referred to as heroes in Islam.

I am very interested with Barbarossa Brother's life. Therefore I want to write a novel about their amazing story.