Page "Pirate utopia" Paragraph 1

Located on the Barbary Coast ( Salé, Algiers and Tunis ), those pirate bases were havens for Muslim Corsairs from the 16th to the 18th century.

The pirates, dubbed " Barbary pirates ", ravaged European shipping operations and enslaved many thousands of captives.

However, thousands of Europeans also converted to Islam, forming the " Renegados " and joining the pirate holy war.

Wilson writes that these men and women were not only apostates and traitors, as they were considered in their homelands, but their voluntary betrayal of Christendom can also be thought of as a praxis of social resistance.

Wilson focuses on the Pirate Republic of Salé, in 17th century Morocco, which can be considered a type of micronation with its own seaport argot known as " Franco ".

Like some other pirate states, it even used to pass treaties from time to time with some European countries, agreeing not to attack their fleets.

Wilson / Bey's idea of Temporary Autonomous Zones developed from his historical review of pirate utopias.