Pirate Utopias: Moorish Corsairs & European Renegadoes

The history of European Islamic piracy in the 17th Century. From the 16th to the 19th century, Moslem Corsairs from the Barbary Coast ravaged European shipping operations and enslaved many thousands of unlucky captives. During this period, however, thousands of Europeans also converted to Islam and joined the pirate holy war. Were these men and women the scum of the seas, apostates, traitors -- Renegadoes? Or did they abandon and betray Christendom as a praxis of social resistance? The author focuses on the Corsairs' most impressive accomplishment, the establishment of independent Pirate Republic of Sale, in 17th Century Morocco. Corsairs, sufis, pederasts, irresistible Moorish women, slaves, adventurers, Irish rebels, heretical Jews, British spies, and radical working-class heroes all populate this illumination of insurrectionary communities.