Ottoman navy

Bayezid II (1447-1512), eighth Ottoman sultan, followed his father Mehmed II's relentless conquests with three decades of consolidation. He defeated his brother Cem, restored Ottoman finances, built a war fleet, and received the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492.

Hayreddin Barbarossa (c. 1478-1546) succeeded his brother Oruc at Algiers in 1518, placed it under Ottoman sovereignty, and rose to command the Ottoman navy as Kapudan Pasha. His victory at Preveza in 1538 gave the Ottomans naval dominance in the eastern Mediterranean.

Piri Reis (c. 1465-1553) was an Ottoman captain, cartographer and author of the Kitab-i Bahriye, the most detailed sailing guide to the Mediterranean of its age. His 1513 world map, of which a third survives, drew on a chart by Columbus. He commanded Ottoman fleets in the Indian Ocean.

Turgut Reis (c. 1485-1565), known in Europe as Dragut, rose from gunner to Ottoman admiral and Pasha of Tripoli. A former galley slave of the Genoese, he took Tripoli in 1551, won at Djerba in 1560, and was killed at the siege of Malta in 1565.