Yakup Ağa

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Yakup Ağa, (Ebu Yusuf Nurullah Yakub) was the father of the Barbarossa Brothers, Oruç and Hızır. According to Ottoman archives Yakup Ağa was a Tımarlı Sipahi, i.e. a Turkish feudal cavalry knight, whose family had its origins in Eceabat and Balıkesir, and later moved to the Ottoman city of Vardar, near Selanik. Yakup Ağa was among those appointed by Sultan Mehmed II to capture Lesbos from the Genoese in 1462, and he was granted the fief of Bonova village as a reward for fighting for the cause.

Yakup Ağa married a Greek local girl from Mytilene named Katerina who some say was the widow of a Greek Orthodox priest. From that union they had two daughters and four sons; Ishak, Oruç, Hızır and Ilyas. Yakup became an established potter and bought a boat of his own to trade his products. The brothers helped the father out with his business but not much is known about the sisters. At first Oruç helped with the boat while Hızır helped with pottery. All four brothers became seamen engaged in marine affairs and international sea trade. The first brother to be involved in seamanship was Oruç, who was joined by his brother Ilyas. Later, obtaining his own ship, Hızır also began his career at sea. The brothers initially worked as sailors, and then turned privateers in the Mediterranean to counteract the privateering of the Knights of St. John of the Island of Rhodes. Oruç and Ilyas operated in the Levant, between Anatolia, Syria, and Egypt. Hızır operated in the Aegean Sea and based his operations mostly in Selanik. Ishak the eldest son remained on Mytilene and was involved with the financial affairs of the family business. In this period Oruç learned to speak Italian, Spanish, French, Greek and Arabic.

Oruç the second son was a very successful seaman. While returning from a trading expedition in Tripoli, Lebanon with his younger brother Ilyas, they were attacked by the Knights of St. John who were based in Rhodes at that time, and Ilyas was killed during combat. Their father's boat was captured and Oruç, who was wounded while fighting, was taken as a prisoner and detained in the Bodrum Castle, which was controlled by the knights, for nearly three years. Upon learning the location of his brother, Hızır went to Bodrum and managed to help Oruç escape from Bodrum Castle.

In the following years, Oruç and Hızır operated together, entering history as the most famous corsairs of all times, the Barbarossa Brothers.