The Salé Rovers, also known as the Sallee Rovers, were a group of

Barbary pirates The Barbary corsairs, Barbary pirates, Ottoman corsairs, or naval mujahideen (in Muslim sources) were mainly Muslim corsairs and privateers who operated from the largely independent Barbary states. This area was known in Europe as the Barba ...

active during the 17th and 18th centuries in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

and

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

. Like other Barbary pirates, they attacked

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

merchant shipping and ransomed or enslaved any crew members and passengers they captured. Numerous Salé Rovers operated out of the

Republic of Salé The Republic of Salé, also known as the Bou Regreg Republic and the Republic of the Two Banks, was a city-state maritime Barbary pirates, corsair republic based at Salé in Morocco during the 17th century, located at the mouth of the Bou Regre ...

, which was established on the mouth of the

Bou Regreg The Bou Regreg () is a river located in western Morocco which discharges into the Atlantic Ocean between the cities of Rabat and Salé. The estuary of this river is termed Wadi Sala. The river is 240 kilometres long, with a tidal estuary of ap ...

river and existed from 1627 to 1668. Many of the corsairs of the Salé Rovers were of European descent, a large number were former English and Dutch Protestants, but every Christian ethnicity from Europe, Asia, Africa and the

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

was represented among them. One such corsair was the Dutchman

Jan Janszoon Jan Janszoon van Haarlem, commonly known as Reis Mourad the Younger (c. 1570 – c. 1641), was a Dutch pirate who later became a Barbary corsair in the Regency of Algiers and the Republic of Salé. After being captured by Algerian corsairs o ...

, who underwent

conversion to Islam Reversion to Islam, also known within Islam as reversion, is adopting Islam as a religion or faith. Conversion requires a formal statement of the '' shahādah'', the credo of Islam, whereby the prospective convert must state that "there is none w ...

after being captured by Barbary pirates in 1618 and was renamed Murat Reis. By the 18th century, anti-piracy operations by European navies such as the British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

led to the eventual decline and disappearance of the Salé Rovers. * * *

References

Barbary piracy Barbary slave raids 17th century in slavery 18th century in slavery {{Pirate-stub

See also

References