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Ali Arraez Rabazin

Ali Arraez Rabazin, born Francesco Guicciardo (fl. 1624), was a Barbary corsair of the 17th century. He was born in Ferrara and sailed from the Ottoman Tunisia, where he became a before being captured in the Battle of the Gulf of Tunis.

Biography

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Son to blacksmith Fabricio Guicciardo, Francesco worked as a ferry boy in the Po river until being captured by Tunisian corsairs, which made him a slave. He converted to Islam and adopted the name of Ali Arraez Rabazin, joining Barbary piracy himself.[1] He was captured by a Spanish fleet under Álvaro de Bazán y Benavides, who enslaved him again and kept him as a servant until Ali found the chance to escape.[2] He came again to the service of Yusuf Dey of Tunis,[3] he joined a Barbary corsair brigantine and used the knowledge of navigation and the coasts of Spain, Sardinia and Sicily he had acquired, eventually becoming a powerful local player.[4][2]

By 1624, according to chronicler and soldier Diego Duque de Estrada, Rabazin "could deploy thirty vessels on the sea, and one hundred if he willed to resort to his allies". He was a comrade and rival of English renegade Sampson Denball, later known as Ali Reis.[2] In June of the same year, Rabazin was at the head of three captured galleons with Denball as his lieutenant when they came upon a large galley fleet commanded by Bazán y Benavides. Despite the tonnage of the galleons, Bazán's superior artillery and tactic prevailed and the Barbary ships were captured.[4][5] Duque de Estrada himself was one of the first to board and dueled personally Rabazin, wounding him in the face with his rapier and helping capture him.[6]

The Spanish found the equivalent to 300,000 piezas de a ocho gained through privateering activities, as well as three Russian slaves he kept as his harem. Rabazin defended himself claiming that before the battle he was going to retire and become a Pasha.[7] He was taken to the inquisition's dungeons in Palermo, where he passed several years until being sentenced to galleys in 1632, avoiding a harsher sentence in exchange for grand Tunisian admiral Usta Murad to pardon six Spanish priests imprisoned in Tunis.[8]

References

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  1. ^ Duque de Estrada (1860), p. 258.
  2. ^ a b c Duque de Estrada (1860), p. 259.
  3. ^ Gómez (2019).
  4. ^ a b Fernández Duro (1885), p. 184.
  5. ^ Duque de Estrada (1860), p. 257-258.
  6. ^ Duque de Estrada (1860), p. 260.
  7. ^ Duque de Estrada (1860), p. 262.
  8. ^ Fiume, Giovanna. 2012. "L’impossibile riscatto di Aly del Marnegro, «turco vero»." Quaderni storici 2012, no. 2: 385-424.
  • Duque de Estrada, Diego (1860). Memorial histórico español: colección de documentos, opúsculos y antigüedades que publica la Real Academia de la Historia. Comentarios del desengañado · Tomo 12. Academia de la Historia.
  • Fernández Duro, Cesáreo (1885). El gran duque de Osuna y su marina: jornadas contra turcos y venecianos (1602-1624). Sucesores de Rivadeneyra.
  • Gómez, Antonio (2019). Con balas de plata VI. 1621-30. Difundia. ISBN 9788417799991.