Aruj Barbarossa (c. 1474 – 1518), known as Oruç Reis (Arabic: عروج بربروس) to the Turks, was an Ottoman corsair who became Sultan of Algiers.

Yakup Ağa took part in the Ottoman conquest of Lesbos (Midilli) from the Genoese in 1462, and as a reward, was granted the fief of the Bonova village in the island.

He married a local Christian Greek woman (from Mytilene), named Katerina, who was the widow of an Eastern Orthodox priest.

Hızır initially helped their father in the pottery business, but later obtained a ship of his own and also began a career at sea.

One night when conditions were favorable[clarification needed] he managed to escape from the ship and was able to flee to a village where he lived for ten days.

Reaching Mytilene with these captured vessels, Aruj learned that Şehzade Korkut, brother of the new Ottoman sultan, had fled to Egypt to avoid being killed over a succession dispute; a common practice at that time in the House of Osman.

Fearing trouble due to his well-known association with the Ottoman prince in exile, Aruj sailed to Egypt where he met Şehzade Korkut in Cairo and managed to get an audience with the Mamluk Sultan Qansuh al-Ghawri, who gave him another ship and charged him to raid the coasts of Italy and the islands of the Mediterranean that were controlled by Christian powers.

[citation needed] In 1503, Aruj managed to seize three more ships and made the island of Djerba his new base, thus moving his operations to the Western Mediterranean.

In 1504, the two brothers asked Abu Abdallah Muhammad IV al-Mutawakkil, Hafsid caliph of Tunisia, for permission to use the strategically located port of La Goulette for their operations.

[citation needed] Aruj, in command of small galliots, captured two much larger Papal galleys near the island of Elba.

[citation needed] In 1510, the three brothers raided Cape Passero in Sicily and repulsed a Spanish attack on Bougie, Oran and Algiers.

In August 1512, the exiled ruler of Bougie invited the brothers to drive out the Spaniards, and during the battle Aruj lost his left arm.

Later that year the three brothers raided the coasts of Andalusia in Spain, capturing a galliot of the Lomellini family of Genoa who owned the Tabarca island in that area.

In 1516, joined by Kurtoğlu, the brothers besieged the Castle of Elba, before heading once more towards Liguria where they captured 12 ships and damaged 28 others.

In 1516 the three brothers succeeded in liberating Jijel and Algiers from the Spaniards, but eventually assumed control over the cities and surrounding region, forcing the previous ruler, Abu Hammu Musa III of the Zayyanid dynasty, to flee.

After consolidating his power and declaring himself the new Sultan of Algiers, Aruj sought to enhance his territory inlands and took Miliana, Medea and Ténès.

The reason they did this was because the Spaniards, who had clashed with Aruj Barbarossa many times, reported to the Spanish King that they had killed him, but none of this turned out to be true.