The Salé fleet invades Iceland and Ireland

 

The Salé fleet invades Iceland and Ireland

Republic of Salé

This city, which is adjacent to the Moroccan capital Rabat and is considered its older sister, both in terms of historical antiquity (it was founded before Rabat) and in terms of its size (its population is more than double that of Rabat); it was transformed in one of the historical periods following the fall of Andalusia and the disintegration of the central state in Morocco into an independent state called the “Republic of Salé”.

It was founded by exiles from Andalusia, and they turned its coast into a naval military base specializing in “maritime jihad” (piracy), i.e. waging a comprehensive and continuous war on the Western powers (in revenge for their expulsion from Andalusia), and they imposed their own laws on a wide area of ​​the Atlantic Ocean that reaches the American coasts.

Its story is more like an imaginary legend, but it is a historical fact that is only four centuries away from the present time. At that time, the city of Salé was a port where ships flying the flag of the “Republic” docked and sailed the Mediterranean and Atlantic seas, imposing their own law and practicing the arts of piracy against Western powers, both people and goods, obliging them to pay tributes at times and ransoms at other times.

The Salé fleet invades Iceland and Ireland

Among the strangest military invasions carried out by the pirates of the “Republic of Salé” was the one that took them as far as the coast of Iceland in the far North Atlantic, where they captured approximately 15 people, seized two ships, and returned home safely, despite their failure to storm the palace of the Danish king who was extending his control over the island of Iceland.

Historical sources confirm the arrival of Icelandic prisoners to Morocco and their sale in local slave markets, which opened the door to other naval attacks that started from Algeria and reached these distant Atlantic islands.

The Baltimore Pirates, a novel about the Icelandic invasion, is dated to 1627.

In addition to this Icelandic invasion, which is dated by sources to the year 1627, there is another invasion of no less importance, in which the invading ships led by Murad Reis reached western Ireland, where they carried out successful invasions. About 100 English people who were residing in Ireland reached the slave markets in Algeria - which was a major point for selling pirate prisoners - The old Danish monk recounts the details of the Moroccan pirates' attack on the coasts of Iceland and its islands in the memoirs of his journey as a prisoner of the crew of the sailor Murad Reis, saying: That day, three huge ships were seen sailing in the blue space surrounding us. The warning cries rose, and with them the wailing and screaming of the boys rose, even the dogs were startled in terror by their terrifying sight and their sails looming on the horizon, our dark horizon, although it was morning. The inhabitants of the island of Heimahe, which had lived in safety before that day under Danish care, quickly crowded together.