Hayreddin

Hayreddin is a given name of Arabic origin used in Turkish-speaking communities and elsewhere. It combines elements meaning “goodness” and “the faith,” and is sometimes used as an honorific or epithet for Muslim leaders. The most famous bearer is Hayreddin Barbarossa, the 16th-century Ottoman admiral and corsair, associated with a generation of Mediterranean expansion.

Hayreddin Barbarossa, born Hızır on the island of Lesbos around 1478, was an Ottoman admiral and pirate who, with his brother Oruç, built a powerful privateering network in the western Mediterranean. The brothers attacked Christian shipping and seized coastal towns along North Africa. In 1516 they captured Algiers, which became a major base for Ottoman naval operations and a springboard for Ottoman influence in the region. In 1533, Suleiman the Magnificent appointed him Kapudan Pasha, the grand admiral of the Ottoman navy. He led Ottoman forces to decisive victories against the Holy League, most notably at the Battle of Preveza in 1538, securing Ottoman naval supremacy in the eastern and central Mediterranean. He died in 1546 in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul).

Barbarossa’s career helped establish and extend Ottoman power across the central and western Mediterranean. The epithet Barbarossa, meaning “Redbeard,” was attributed to him by his enemies; the name Hayreddin became an informal honorific associated with his authority and legacy. In modern times, Hayreddin remains a given name in Turkish and other Muslim communities and appears in historical and literary references to the Barbarossa era.