Turkish Abductions
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Turkish Abductions (Template:Lang-is) were a series of raids that took place in Iceland between July 4 – July 19, 1627. Both Austurland (the eastern edge of the country) and Vestmannaeyjar (islands off the south coast) were raided by Barbary pirates from the regency of Algiers.
In 1627, Jan Janszoon hired a Danish “slave” (most likely a crew member captured on a Danish ship taken as a pirate prize) to pilot him and his men to Iceland, where they raided the Icelandic city Reykjavík. Initially they managed to steal only some salted fish and a few hides, so they decided to make the raid profitable by kidnapping potential slaves. The number of slaves kidnapped from Iceland is disputed, with figures as high as 400, and as low as 8.
All those offering resistance were killed. The pirates took only young people and those in good physical condition.
When the pirates invaded Vestmannaeyjar, some of the inhabitants and a minister left for the mountains of the island to hide in a cave. Later that day, the minister left the cave to look; some pirates saw him, killed him, and found the cave with all the people in it.
Those captured were sold into slavery on the Barbary Coast. The most notable captive was Guðríður Símonardóttir who was sold as a slave and concubine in Ottoman Algeria before being bought back by King Christian IV of Denmark.
The pirates also attempted to attack Bessastaðir, but were thwarted by cannon fire from the local fortifications (Bessastaðaskans) and a quickly mustered group of Lancers from the Suðurnes.
Slaves in Barbary
Those captured were sold into slavery on the Barbary Coast. All Icelandic accounts agree the number of captives was below 400. French nobleman Emanuel d'Aranda says in his book, Relation de la captivité et la liberté du sieur (1666), about his time as a slave of the Barbary pirate Ali Bitchin, that an Icelandic fellow captive in Algiers told him 800 people had been enslaved. That number does not agree with any Icelandic sources.
A few letters written by captives reached Iceland. Together with other accounts, they indicate that the captives were treated very differently according to their masters. Guttormur Hallsson, a captive from Eastern Region, said in a letter written in Barbary in 1631: "There is a great difference here between masters. Some captive slaves get good, gentle, or in-between masters, but some unfortunates find themselves with savage, cruel, hardhearted tyrants, who never stop treating them badly, and who force them to labour and toil with scanty clothing and little food, bound in iron fetters, from morning till night."
The most notable captive was Guðríður Símonardóttir. She was sold as a concubine in Ottoman Algeria and was among the few Icelandic who were redeemed nearly a decade later by King Christian IV of Denmark. She returned to Iceland and known for having later married Hallgrímur Pétursson, who became a Lutheran minister and one of Iceland's most famous poets.
See also
- Arab slave trade
- Barbary slave trade
- Slavery in the Ottoman Empire
- Barbary corsairs
- Hayreddin Barbarossa
