Turgut Reis (Dragut Rais)

Turgut Reis (c. 1485–1565), known in the Christian West as Dragut, was an Ottoman naval commander, privateer admiral, and Governor-General of Tripoli. Renowned as the greatest disciple of Hayreddin Barbarossa, Dragut rose from an impoverished Anatolian peasant background to become the most feared corsair in the western Mediterranean.

Captured by Giannettino Doria in 1540, he spent four grueling years chained as a galley slave until Barbarossa blockaded Genoa and paid a ransom of 3,500 gold ducats for his release. Appointed Kapudan of the Ottoman fleet, Dragut captured the Knights Hospitaller stronghold of Tripoli in 1551 and shattered the Christian Holy League armada at the Battle of Djerba in 1560. In 1565, at age eighty, he led the siege artillery assault on Fort Saint Elmo during the Great Siege of Malta, falling mortally wounded by cannon shrapnel just hours before the fort was breached.