Page "Piri Reis" Paragraph 6

He was the son of Hadji Mehmed Piri, and began engaging in government-supported privateering ( a common practice in the Mediterranean Sea among both the Muslim and Christian states of the 15th and 16th centuries ) when he was young, in 1481, following his uncle Kemal Reis, a well-known corsair and seafarer of the time, who later became a famous admiral of the Ottoman Navy.

During this period, together with his uncle, he took part in many naval wars of the Ottoman Empire against Spain, the Republic of Genoa and the Republic of Venice, including the First Battle of Lepanto ( Battle of Zonchio ) in 1499 and Second Battle of Lepanto ( Battle of Modon ) in 1500.

When his uncle Kemal Reis died in 1511 ( his ship was wrecked by a storm in the Mediterranean Sea, while he was heading to Egypt ), Piri returned to Gelibolu, where he started working on his studies about navigation.