An Ottoman raid on the Balearic Islands occurred in 1501 under the Ottoman admiral

Kemal Reis Kemal Reis (c. 1451 – 1511) was an Ottoman and Turkish privateer and admiral. He was also the paternal uncle of the famous Ottoman admiral and cartographer Piri Reis, who accompanied him in most of his important naval expeditions. Backgrou ...

.''An Historical Geography of the Ottoman Empire'' p.99
/ref> This raid was combined with attacks on

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

and

Pianosa Pianosa () is an island in the Tuscan Archipelago in the Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy. It is about in area, with a coastal perimeter of . Geography In Roman times the island was named ''Planasia'' (plain) because of its flatness – its highest poin ...

(near the island of

Elba Elba ( it, isola d'Elba, ; la, Ilva) is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino on the Italian mainland, and the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago. It is also part of the Arcipelago Toscano Nationa ...

). The 1501 raid on the Balearics followed some of the earliest interventions of the Ottomans in the western

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

. These interventions were in response to the

Fall of Granada The Granada War ( es, Guerra de Granada) was a series of military campaigns between 1482 and 1491 during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, against the Nasrid dynasty's Emirate of Granada. It e ...

and the help the last Muslim ruler there had requested from the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

in his fight against Castile. Upon this request, the Ottoman sultan Bayezid sent a fleet under Kemal Reis to attack the Spanish coast. In 1487 and again in 1492 when Granada fell, the Ottoman fleet was used to rescue refugees and ferry them to the coast of

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

. A side effect of the raid seems to have been that a Spanish sailor was captured in possession of an early map of Columbus."The Ottoman navy was built up by incorporating pirates, both Christian and Muslim, who raided as far west as the Balearic islands in 1501 - one of the results of which was the capture from a Spanish sailor of an early map of Columbus." in ''Turks and Greeks: neighbours in conflict'', Vamik D. Volkan, Norman Itzkowitz, Eothen Press, 1994, p.40

Notes

{{coord missing, Mediterranean Balearics 1501 Battles in the Balearic Islands Conflicts in 1501 1501 in Europe 1500s in the Ottoman Empire

See also

Notes