Mediterranean The battle of Alboran (Spanish: batalla de Alborán) took place on 1 October 1540 off the isle of Alboran during the Ottoman–Habsburg struggle for control of the Mediterranean when a Spanish fleet under the command of Bernardino de Mendoza destroyed an Ottoman fleet commanded by Ali Hamet, sinking a galley and capturing 10 other ships.

In mid-1540 the Barbary pirate Ali Hamet, a Sardinian renegade in service of the Ottoman Empire, formed a small fleet at Algiers, as ordered by Admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa.

[2] In August, knowing that Spanish galleys were in the Balearic Islands, the fleet set sail to the western waters of the Alborán Sea.

[1] Although they failed to capture the well-protected castle, 73 civilians were taken prisoner, 40 vessels moored in the port were plundered, and a galley under construction (owned by Don Álvaro de Bazán the Elder) was burnt.

To celebrate the victory a great procession was organized in Málaga, in which the freed prisoners, the crews of the Spanish galleys, their captains, and Bernardo de Mendoza himself participated.