The Barbary corsairs were pirates and privateers that operated from North African ( the " Barbary Coast ") ports of Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli and ports in Morocco, preying on shipping in the western Mediterranean Sea from the time of the Crusades as well as on ships on their way to Asia around Africa until the early 19th century.

The coastal villages and towns of Italy, Spain and Mediterranean islands were frequently attacked by them and long stretches of the Italian and Spanish coasts were almost completely abandoned by their inhabitants ; after 1600 Barbary corsairs occasionally entered the Atlantic and struck as far north as Iceland.

According to Robert Davis between 1 million and 1. 25 million Europeans were captured by Barbary corsairs and sold as slaves in North Africa and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 19th centuries.

A few Barbary corsairs, such as the Dutch Jan Janszoon and the English John Ward ( Muslim name Yusuf Reis ), were renegade European privateers who had converted to Islam.

According to the U. S. Supreme Court, the United States treated captured Barbary corsairs as prisoners of war, indicating that they were considered as legitimate privateers by at least some of their opponents, as well as by their home countries.

The Barbary pirates of North Africa as well as Ottomans were sometimes called " Turkish corsairs ".

* Barbary corsairs

The Barbary corsairs of North Africa often attacked the Balearic Islands, and in response coastal watchtowers and fortified churches were erected.

Set free, he supported his mother and three sisters by working in a Rotterdam shipyard, went to sea again at 19, briefly worked for the navy, but having rejoined the merchant fleet was captured once more in 1621 — this time by Barbary corsairs off Tunis.

At the same time, the Muslim Barbary corsairs, acting under the general authority and supervision of the Sultan, regularly devastated the Spanish and Italian coasts, crippling Spanish trade and chipping at the foundations of Habsburg power.

Operating off the Barbary Coast he captured several infamous corsairs and having negotiated a peace agreement with Salé, De Ruyter returned home May 1656.

Xebecs were similar to galleys used by Algerian Berber corsairs and Barbary pirates having both lateen sails and oars for propulsion.

Barbary corsairs led attacks upon American merchant shipping in an attempt to extort ransom for the lives of captured sailors, and ultimately tribute from the United States to avoid further attacks, much like their standard operating procedure with the various European states.

The Barbary pirates of North Africa as well as Ottomans were sometimes called " Turkish corsairs ".

In 1558 Barbary corsairs captured the town of Ciutadella ( Minorca ), destroyed it, slaughtered the inhabitants and carried off 3, 000 survivors to Istanbul.

But they are followed by the Duc de Beaufort, on his way to Algiers for an expedition against the Barbary corsairs.

* First the Barbary Coast ( Maghrebinian countries in North Africa ) was de facto independent ( dominated by military governors, soon de facto princes, styled dey, bey or beylerbey, and by the raïs, Muslim corsairs ), but nominally an Ottoman province.

The Barbary pirates, sometimes called Barbary corsairs or Ottoman corsairs, were pirates and privateers who operated from North Africa, based primarily in the ports of Tunis, Tripoli and Algiers.

While such raids had occurred since soon after the Muslim conquest of the region, the terms Barbary pirates and Barbary corsairs are normally applied to the raiders active from the 16th century onwards, when the frequency and range of the slavers ' attacks increased and Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli came under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire, either as directly administered provinces or as autonomous dependencies known as the Barbary States.

The Berbers along the Barbary Coast ( modern day Libya ) sent pirates to capture merchant ships and hold the crews for ransom.

The crews of the Maria and Dauphin remained in captivity for over a decade, and soon were joined by other ships captured by the Barbary States.

The Barbary pirate states took this opportunity to return to their practice of attacking American, as well as European merchant vessels in the Mediterranean Sea and holding their crews and officers for ransom.

Merchant ships continued to be harassed by Barbary pirates, and undefended crews were regularly captured into slavery.

* 1540 8 September – Corsairs from the Barbary Coast ( ruled by Barbarossa ) landed at Gibraltar in sixteen galleys, looting the town and taking away many captives.

Barbary pirates from North Africa became an increasing problem.

He had witnessed the Barbary Wars against the Islamic pirates of North Africa, and the Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman Turks.

Before Independence, American merchant ships were protected from the Barbary pirates by the naval and diplomatic influence of Great Britain.

The song, known as " When the Warrior Returns ", written in honor of Stephen Decatur and Charles Stewart on their return from the First Barbary War.

It is believed, that those lions, which were imported to Europe until the middle of the 19th century, were mainly Barbary lions from North Africa or lions from the Cape.

* P. l. leo, known as the Barbary lion, originally ranged from Morocco to Egypt.

Fifteen to 20 riderless horses, originally imported from the Barbary Coast of North Africa, ran the length of the Via del Corso, a long, straight city street, in about 2½ minutes.

Fifteen to 20 riderless horses, originally imported from the Barbary Coast of North Africa, ran the length of the Via del Corso, a long, straight city street, in about 2½ minutes.

As happened in the previous conflict, even before the formal outbreak of war, the English tried to intercept the Dutch Smyrna Fleet, a yearly convoy of Dutch merchants from the Levant sailing with a flotilla to protect them from the Barbary Corsairs.

The geographical term Barbary or Barbary Coast, and the name of the Barbary pirates based on that coast ( and who were not necessarily Berbers ) were also derived from it.

The term has also been used to refer to people from Barbary, a region encompassing most of North Africa.

The name of the region, Barbary, comes from the Arabic word Barbar, possibly from the Latin word barbaricum, meaning " land of the barbarians ".

In 1808, the name was changed to Somers to honor Richard Somers, a naval captain from New Jersey, who died in combat during the First Barbary War.

Barbary Falcons have a red neck patch but otherwise differ in appearance from the Peregrine proper merely according to Gloger's Rule, relating pigmentation to environmental humidity.

Controversy exists over the ancestry of the Godolphin Arabian ; some writers referred to him as a Barb, because of his believed country of origin, Tunisia, on the Barbary Coast, but portraits, showing a horse with a high-carried tail and dished profile, features that differentiate Arabians from Barbs, lead experts to believe he was more likely an Arabian.

The Second Barbary War ( 1815, also known as the Algerine or Algerian War ) was the second of two wars fought between the United States of America, England, and The Netherlands loosely allied against the Ottoman Empire's North African regencies of Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis, known collectively as the Barbary States.

The piracy carried on thereafter by the Barbary pirates of North Africa can be seen in the context of the wars against Spain.

From the 11th to the 19th century, North African Barbary Pirates engaged in Razzias, raids on European coastal towns, to capture Christian slaves to sell at slave markets in places such as Algeria and Morocco.

According to Robert Davis between 1 million and 1. 25 million Europeans were captured by Barbary pirates and sold as slaves in North Africa and Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 19th centuries.

Barbary Coast of North Africa 1806. map left is Morocco at Gilbraltar, center map isTunis ; right, Tripoli stretches east

* The First Barbary War ( 1801 – 1805 ) is fought between the United States and the Barbary States of North Africa.

East Africa displays Cape buffalo, Southern white rhinoceros, Ugandan giraffe, several other savanna species, and a lagoon with East African Crowned Crane The North Africa exhibit represents the Sahel and Sahara and houses scimitar-horned oryx, Barbary stag, red-fronted gazelle, and Ankole cattle.

Examples include the Barbary Macaque, the Atlas Bear ( Africa's only species of bear ; now extinct ), the Barbary Leopard, the Barbary stag, Barbary Sheep, the Barbary Lion ( extinct in the wild ), the Atlas Mountain Badger, the North African Elephant ( extinct ), the African Aurochs ( extinct ), Cuvier's Gazelle, the Northern Bald Ibis, Dippers, the Atlas mountain viper, the Atlas Cedar, the European Black Pine, and the Algerian Oak.

Before that, contact with African slave markets was made to ransom Portuguese that had been captured by the intense North African Barbary pirate attacks on Portuguese ships and coastal villages, frequently leaving them depopulated.