The Battle of Derna: Morocco's Forgotten Corsair Admiral in Ottoman Libya

In 1805, a Moroccan-born corsair admiral named Hamidou bin Ali — known to history as Raïs Hamidou — died at the Battle of Derna, fighting the U.S. Navy during the First Barbary War. This episode follows his extraordinary career: from his early days as a corsair out of Algiers, to commanding an Ottoman fleet, to his final moments in a battle alongside the famous Tripolitan corsair Raïs Mahomet. We explore the golden age of Barbary privateering, the politics of the Ottoman regencies, and the forgotten Moroccan connections to the broader Mediterranean world. Along the way, we touch on the corsair economy, the role of renegades (European converts to Islam), and the shifting alliances between Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and the fledgling United States. Hamidou's story offers a rare window into the world of North African maritime power — a world where Moroccans, Algerians, Tunisians, and Libyans fought, traded, and raided across the sea, often under the same corsair flag. #BarbaryCorsairs #RaisHamidou #FirstBarbaryWar #BattleOfDerna #OttomanLibya #Algiers #Tripoli #MoroccanHistory #NorthAfrica #Corsair #MediterraneanHistory #Jefferson #UnitedStatesNavy #MaritimeHistory #Privateering #Renegades #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo