Kurtoğlu Muslihiddin Reis

He also helped establish the Ottoman Indian Ocean Fleet based in Suez, which was later commanded by his son, Kurtoğlu Hızır Reis.

[1] He is also alternatively referred to as Cadegoli, Cadoli, Gadoli, Kurtog Ali, Kurdogli, Kurdogoli, Kurdoglou, Cartugli, Cartalli and Orthogut in several European resources.

The name Kurtoğlu means Son of Kurt (Wolf) in Turkish, a patronymic epithet derived from the name of Muslihiddin's father, Kurt Bey, a Turkish seaman from Anatolia who went to northwestern Africa for privateering together with the other Ottoman corsairs of that period such as the Barbarossa brothers, Aruj and Hayreddin Barbarossa.

In 1522 Hayreddin Barbarossa sent his private fleet to assist the forces of Kurtoğlu Muslihiddin Reis during the Ottoman conquest of Rhodes, which was the base of the Knights of St. John.

In 1508 Kurtoğlu Muslihiddin obtained permission from the Hafsid Sultan Abu Mohammed Abdullah to use Bizerte as his base for operating in the western coasts of the Mediterranean Sea.

Kurtoğlu assembled a fleet of some thirty ships, carrying 6,000 corsairs, and in the summer of 1508 he attacked Liguria, where he landed his troops at Diano Marina and sacked the town.

In August 1509, near the mouth of the Tiber River in central Italy, he engaged two Papal galleys under the command of Baldassarre di Biassa and captured one of them.

Between 1510 and 1514 Kurtoğlu operated in the Tyrrhenian Sea and the coasts of Spain, bringing the maritime traffic in the areas around Sicily, Sardinia, Calabria, and the Kingdom of Naples to a near halt.

In May 1516, together with Hayreddin Barbarossa and Piri Reis, Kurtoğlu once again landed in Liguria, and the Genoese allied themselves with the Papal forces under the command of Federigo Fregoso, archbishop of Salerno, in their fight against him.

From there he sailed around Calabria to the Tyrrhenian Sea, where he captured a Sicilian ship which had recently arrived from England and emptied its cargo at the port of Genoa before returning to Sicily.

Kurtoğlu accepted the offer and immediately began preparations, but the Franco-Spanish attack on La Goulette and Bizerte in August 1516 delayed his participation.

The combined Spanish-French-Papal-Genoese fleet had searched for Kurtoğlu in the vast area between Elba, Capraia, Corsica and Sardinia before arriving at the coasts of Tunisia.

Later in September 1516, he arrived at Chios with four galliots and 18 fustas, where he filled his ships with water and other supplies, before sacking the ports of Crete (Candia) which was under Venetian control.

He later sailed towards Apulia with two galleys, three galliots, six fustas and four other ships, and landed at Salento before sacking Supersano, where he also captured several prisoners but freed them in exchange of 1200 gold ducats.

At the vicinity of Cape Santa Maria in Lefkada (Leuca) other corsairs joined his fleet, which reached a new total of 22 ships.

Still in June, with several light vessels, he entered the River Nile and sailed southwards until reaching Cairo, before returning to Alexandria where he captured a ship from the Republic of Ragusa.

However, the Ottoman Empire was allied with the Republic of Venice at that time, and Piri Reis sent Selim I’s order to Kurtoğlu for him to release the Venetian captives.

In January 1518 Kurtoğlu arrived at Constantinople (Istanbul) and was reassigned with the command of another large fleet, despite the protests of the Venetian baylo in the city.

In March 1519 Kurtoğlu returned to Constantinople and in September 1519 Selim I assigned him with the command of the Ottoman fleet which was being prepared to capture Rhodes, the seat of the Knights of St. John.

In May 1521 Kurtoğlu set sail from Constantinople with a large fleet of 30 galleys and 50 fustas, and headed towards Rhodes for his first attempt of conquering the island.

Arriving at Cape Maleo in Rhodes with his fleet, Kurtoğlu landed his troops on the island and attempted to capture the Grand Master of the Knights, Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, who managed to escape.

Realizing the impossibility of conquering the island with the number of soldiers in hand at that moment, Kurtoğlu postponed the final siege to a further date, requesting further reinforcements.

In March 1524, Kurtoğlu collected a large force of troops from Anatolia and ensembled his fleet in Rhodes before setting sail to Egypt, where he put down the mutiny of Janissaries in both Alexandria and later on the coasts of Lebanon together with Ayaz Pasha.

In August 1524 Kurtoğlu arrived at Euboea with a force of one galley, two galliots, and fifteen fustas, and after some time there he set sail again towards Apulia, landing at Otranto and Gallipoli, where he captured a large ship along with seven other smaller vessels.

In June 1530 he appeared at the coasts of Sicily with 20 galleys and started chasing Formillon, a famous French corsair of that period, who damaged Ottoman shipping.