The Pirate States Barbary and Christian

Were the Barbary Corsairs and the Knights Hospitaller enemies in a holy war, or mirror-image state-sponsored businesses running a brutal Mediterranean slave trade?

For centuries, the Mediterranean was dominated by two rival corsair powers that operated on nearly identical economic models: the Muslim Barbary Corsairs (based in Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli) and the Christian Knights Hospitaller (based in Malta). While often framed as a clash of civilizations between the Crescent and the Cross, both groups were state-sanctioned privateers who used letters of marque to legitimize their raids. Their economies were built on a ruthless cycle of capturing...