Raïs Hamidou

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For other uses, see Raïs Hamidou (disambiguation).
For the location, see Raïs Hamidou, Algeria.
Raïs

Hamidou ben Ali
رايس حميدو بن علي
Rais hamidou.jpg
Statue of Hamidou in the in Algiers
Born1770
Algiers, Deylik of Algiers
Died1815
Cape Gata, Near of Spain
Resting placeMediterranean Sea
NationalityAlgerian
Piratical career
NicknameAmir el bihar (leader of the seas)
Other namesAmidon
Hamuda
TypeCorsair
Allegiance
Years active1795 - 1815
RankCaptain, then Admiral
Base of operationsOran, Algiers
CommandsMeshuda

Portuguesa

Stedio
Battles/warsAlgerian-Tunisian naval war (1811)
Second Barbary War

Hamidou ben Ali , known as Raïs Hamidou (Arabic: الرايس حميدو‎), or Amidon in American literature, born around 1770 in Algiers, and died on June 17, 1815, near Cape Gata, was an Algerian privateer. He captured up to 200 ships during his career.[1] Hamidou ensured the prosperity of the Deylik of Algiers, and gave it its last glory before the French invasion. His biography is relatively well known because the French archivist Albert Devoulx has found important documents, including a precious register of prizes opened by the authorities of the Deylik in 1765.[2] Songs and legends have also taken hold of this charismatic character.

Origins[]

He was the son of Ali,[3] an artisan tailor.[4]

According to documents discovered by the archivist , Hamidou "belonged to a class of Arabs settled in the cities for a more or less long time, which the Europeans called Moors".[5] Nevertheless, he was Kabyle according to testimonies collected later from his own officers.[6] He is also described as a “native Algerian” by European sources.[7]


At age 10 he gave up the tailor trade to work aboard a pirate ship commanded by . There he learned many different things, and he gained much experience from it.[8]

His career[]

There are no documents on the activity of Raïs Hamidou during the first years of his functions as a pirate captain in Algiers, but we can assume that he was under the tutelage of an older privateer, and that he was doing his apprenticeship.[9]

After Oran was recaptured in 1792,[10][11] the then Bey of Oran, appointed Hamidou as the chief of the Oranian navy, which was used both as a privateer fleet, and a defence one. During that time the navy around Oran consisted of three Xebecs, and several Feluccas. The Dey also granted him another three-masted Xebec.[12]

In 1795 or 1796 after returning from a raid in Italy he got into a storm and decided to anchor at La Calle, a French outpost in nominally Algerian territory. His anchors broke and his ship, carried by a storm, was smashed against the rocks of the shore. This event nearly ruined Hamidou's career. The loss of a ship entrusted to a raïs was most often very severely punished. He decided not to make his report, and he was caught and brought back by force to Algiers. But he was able to calm the anger of the Dey and soon, he had a frigate built by the Spanish Maestro Antonio, a renegade carpenter in Algiers.[13]

In 1797 a corvette of the Dey of Algiers returned to the port without displaying the Algerian flag or saluting the mosque of Sidi Abderrahman, patron of the city of Algiers. This symbolic act meant the loss of its captain either in battle, or desertion. In fact, the latter, having many misdeeds and serious navigation errors to be forgiven, had preferred to desert, and went to take refuge in Morocco. The Dey, wishing to reward Hamidou for his recent successes, appointed him to the command of the vessel.[9] Hamidou is mentioned regularly in the register of catches, especially involving Genoese, Venetian, Neapolitan and Greek vessels.[14]

On March 8, 1802,[15] after a few days of cruising, Hamidou commanding a Xebec of 40 guns met a Portuguese warship of 44 guns. Aware of the military superiority of the Portuguese frigate, he employed cunning. He hoisted an English flag to approach the Portuguese. The Portuguese let themselves be approached by the Algerians, as they realize far too late that they are facing pirates. The Algerians boarded and devastated the ship. 282 Portuguese were taken prisoner. The corsairs captured the ship.[16][17]

The frigate would become a unit of the Algerian fleet under the name of La Portugaise. Hamidou was given an honorary Yatagan, and was received in solemn audience.[18] The Portuguese frigate was not the only one that the Algerians or Hamidou captured.[19] On 28 May the same year, Hamidou captured another Portuguese war frigate of 36 guns.[20] These successes earned the Rais the title of the admiral of the Algerian fleet, and his own villa in El Biar from Hussein Khodja who would later become Dey.[21]

Death[]

He died in 1815 after being ambushed by an American fleet during the US-Algerian war.

References[]

  1. ^ BEAUCARNOT, Jean-Louis; DUMOULIN, Frédéric (2015-06-11). Dictionnaire étonnant des célébrités (in French). edi8. ISBN 978-2-7540-7767-5.
  2. ^ Devoulx 1859
  3. ^ Devoulx et al. 1859, p. 17.
  4. ^ Devoulx et al. 1859, p. 25.
  5. ^ Devoulx et al. 1859, p. 16.
  6. ^ Leiner, Frederick C. (2006). The End of Barbary Terror: America's 1815 War Against the Pirates of North Africa. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-532540-9.
  7. ^ Leiner, Frederick C. (2006-05-01). The End of Barbary Terror: America's 1815 War against the Pirates of North Africa. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-804095-8.
  8. ^ Havu, Eva (1996). De l'emploi du subjonctif passé (in French). Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia. ISBN 978-951-41-0818-1.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b Rais Hamidou: Le dernier corsaire barbaresque d'Alger (2007); p. 13.
  10. ^ Murray (Firm), John; Playfair, Sir Robert Lambert (1887). Handbook for Travellers in Algeria and Tunis, Algiers, Oran, Constantine, Carthage, Etc. J. Murray.
  11. ^ FEY, Henri Léon (1858). Histoire d'Oran, etc (in French).
  12. ^ Desprès, Paul (2007-04-02). Rais Hamidou (in French). Editions L'Harmattan. ISBN 978-2-296-16788-9.
  13. ^ Souidi, Djamel (2005). Grands personnages de l'histoire ancienne de l'Algérie: des origines à 1830 (in French). Editions du Tell. ISBN 978-9961-773-29-1.
  14. ^ Devoulx 1859 , p.  38-39.
  15. ^ algérienne, Société historique (1869). Revue africaine (in French).
  16. ^ Devoulx 1859, p. 86-90.
  17. ^ Courtinat, Roland (2003). La piraterie barbaresque en Méditerranée: XVI-XIXe siècle (in French). SERRE EDITEUR. ISBN 978-2-906431-65-2.
  18. ^ Devoulx 1859 , p.  81
  19. ^ Hubac, Pierre (1949). Les Barbaresques (in French). Berger-Levrault.
  20. ^ Panzac, Daniel (1999). Les corsaires barbaresques: la fin d'une épopée, 1800-1820 (in French). CNRS. ISBN 978-2-271-05688-7.
  21. ^ Sabrina L., Le Soir d'Algérie, 9 février 2011

Sources[]

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