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Bonjour,
Voici un extrait intéressant d'un texte de Bernard Lewis sur les détails d'un raid Algérien sur les côtes islandaises durant l'été 1627, mené par un certain Mourad Rais
. Quatres navires ont été impliqués dans l'opération sur un total originel de 12, pour un bilan final de quelques 400 captifs. L'extrait est intéressant d'autant plus qu'on y trouve la description de ce à quoi ressemblait les corsaires Algériens de l'époque, à travers les yeux d'un chroniqueur Islandais.
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home...num_15_1_1233#
Alors les Algérois, ou est-ce que vous les cachez ces Islandaises ?
Voici un extrait intéressant d'un texte de Bernard Lewis sur les détails d'un raid Algérien sur les côtes islandaises durant l'été 1627, mené par un certain Mourad Rais
. Quatres navires ont été impliqués dans l'opération sur un total originel de 12, pour un bilan final de quelques 400 captifs. L'extrait est intéressant d'autant plus qu'on y trouve la description de ce à quoi ressemblait les corsaires Algériens de l'époque, à travers les yeux d'un chroniqueur Islandais.
...Two above mentioned texts, supplemented by letters from captives in Algiers, oral information from ransomed captives, and a number of other written sources that are no longer extant. A critical study of the whole episode was published in Danish in 1 899 by the Icelandic scholar Sigfûs Blôndal (7). It was based not only on the printed sources then available, but also on a number of narratives and records then still in manuscript, including many letters from Icelandic and Danish captives preserved in various collections. Finally, in 1906-9, another Icelandic scholar, Jon Thorkelsson, published a volume of texts, containing all the known sources on the expedition. After a detailed historical introduction on the raid, its origin, course, and results, he gives critical texts of twelve different accounts of the expedition. These are followed by a collection of letters and other documents, including letters from prisoners, negotiations about ransoms, reports on the Icelandic captives in Algiers, accounts and correspondence on the collection of money and the arranging of ransoms. The volume ends with a collection of poems and ballads in Icelandic relating to the raid (8).
The story begins on 20th June 1627, when an Algerian ship entered the little port of Grindavfk, on the south coast of Reykjanes, the southernmost promontory on the west coast of Iceland. The origins of the raid are uncertain. Returned Icelandic captives said that the originator of the raid was a Danish captive in Algiers, whom they name only as Paul. In return for a promise of freedom he gave the corsairs information about the Northern Seas, which he knew well, and accompanied them on the raid. This man is probably identical with the Icelandic renegade mentioned by d'Aranda.
According to Icelandic reports twelve ships set out on the expedition, of which only four actually reached Iceland. The others probably went to England. The leader of the expedition was one Murad Reis, variously described as a German or Flemish ( = Dutch) renegade. The rest of the expedition was, as usual, of mixed origin — some Turks, some Western converts, as well as a number of Western captives employed as slaves. This is how Olafur Egilsson describes his captors. The reader will note Olafs naive astonishment that the dreaded corsairs looked "just like other people", and his remark that it was the converts who behaved worst.
"Now I will say something about how these wicked people looked, both as regards their faces and their clothing, namely, that they were exactly like other people, unequal of height, some white, some with darker faces ; some were not Turks, but people of other countries, such as Norwegians, Danes, Germans and English ; of these, those who had not left their religion still wore their old clothes in which they had been captured, and had to do the most dangerous work that arose, and received blows as wages. But the Turks [i.e. Muslims] all had tall red
(7) Sigfûs Blôndal, "De Algierske Sôrôveres Tog til Island aar 1627", Nord og Syd (Copenhagen), 1898-9, 193-208. This excellent article forms the main basis of the account given here.
(8) Jôn Thorkelsson (éd.), Tyrkjarânid â ïslandi 1627, published by the Sôgufjelag, Reykjavik 1906-9. A very brief account of the raid will be found in Knut Gjerset, History of Icelad, London 1923, 319-320...
The story begins on 20th June 1627, when an Algerian ship entered the little port of Grindavfk, on the south coast of Reykjanes, the southernmost promontory on the west coast of Iceland. The origins of the raid are uncertain. Returned Icelandic captives said that the originator of the raid was a Danish captive in Algiers, whom they name only as Paul. In return for a promise of freedom he gave the corsairs information about the Northern Seas, which he knew well, and accompanied them on the raid. This man is probably identical with the Icelandic renegade mentioned by d'Aranda.
According to Icelandic reports twelve ships set out on the expedition, of which only four actually reached Iceland. The others probably went to England. The leader of the expedition was one Murad Reis, variously described as a German or Flemish ( = Dutch) renegade. The rest of the expedition was, as usual, of mixed origin — some Turks, some Western converts, as well as a number of Western captives employed as slaves. This is how Olafur Egilsson describes his captors. The reader will note Olafs naive astonishment that the dreaded corsairs looked "just like other people", and his remark that it was the converts who behaved worst.
"Now I will say something about how these wicked people looked, both as regards their faces and their clothing, namely, that they were exactly like other people, unequal of height, some white, some with darker faces ; some were not Turks, but people of other countries, such as Norwegians, Danes, Germans and English ; of these, those who had not left their religion still wore their old clothes in which they had been captured, and had to do the most dangerous work that arose, and received blows as wages. But the Turks [i.e. Muslims] all had tall red
(7) Sigfûs Blôndal, "De Algierske Sôrôveres Tog til Island aar 1627", Nord og Syd (Copenhagen), 1898-9, 193-208. This excellent article forms the main basis of the account given here.
(8) Jôn Thorkelsson (éd.), Tyrkjarânid â ïslandi 1627, published by the Sôgufjelag, Reykjavik 1906-9. A very brief account of the raid will be found in Knut Gjerset, History of Icelad, London 1923, 319-320...
Alors les Algérois, ou est-ce que vous les cachez ces Islandaises ?
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