ly on account of
their red or tawny beards (Lat. _barba_). The founder of the family was
Yakub, a Roumeliot, probably of Albanian blood, who settled in Mitylene
after its conquest by the Turks. He was a coasting trader and skipper, and
had four sons--Elias, Isaak, Arouj and Khizr, all said to have been born
after 1482. Khizr became a potter and Isaak a trader. Elias and Arouj took
to sea roving. In an action with a galley of the Knights of Saint John,
then established at Rhodes, Elias was killed and Arouj taken prisoner; the
latter was ransomed by a Turkish pasha and returned to the sea. For some
time he served the Mamelukes who still held Egypt. During the conflict
between the Mamelukes and the sultan Selim I., he considered it more
prudent to transfer himself to Tunis. The incessant conflicts among the
Berber princes of northern Africa gave him employment as a mercenary, which
he varied by piratical raids on the trade of the Christians. At Tunis he
was joined by Khizr, who took, or was endowed with, the name of
Khair-ed-Din. Isaak soon followed his brothers. Arouj and Khair-ed-Din
joined the exiled Moors of Granada in raids on the Spanish coast. They also
pushed their fortunes by fighting for, or murdering and supplanting, the
native African princes. Their headquarters were in the island of Jerba in
the Gulf of Gabes. They attempted in 1512 to take Bougie from the
Spaniards, but were beaten off, and Arouj lost an arm, shattered by an
arquebus shot. In 1514 they took Jijelli from the Genoese, and after a
second beating at Bougie in 1515 were called in by the natives of Cherchel
and Algiers to aid them against the Spaniards. They occupied the towns and
murdered the native ruler who called them in. The Spaniards still held the
little rocky island which gives Algiers its name and forms the harbour. In
1518 Arouj was drawn away to take part in a civil war in Tlemcen. He
promptly murdered the prince he came to support and seized the town for
himself. The rival party then called in the Spaniards, by whom Arouj was
expelled and slain while fleeing at the Rio Salado. Khair-ed-Din clung to
his possessions on the coast and appealed to the sultan Selim I. He was
named beylerbey by the sultan, and with him began the establishment of
Turkish rule in northern Africa. For years he was engaged in subduing the
native princes, and in carrying on warfare with the Christians. In 1519 he
repelled a Spanish attack on Algiers, but could not exp