Kemal Reis
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Kemal Reis (circa 1451-1511) was a Turkish privateer and Ottoman admiral. He was also the paternal uncle of the famous Ottoman admiral and cartographer Piri Reis who accompanied him in most of his important naval expeditions.
Kemal Reis was born in Gallipoli on the Aegean shores of Turkey around 1451. His full name was Ahmed Kemaleddin and his father was a Turk named Ali from the city of Karaman in central Anatolia.
Kemal Reis started his early career as the commander of the naval fleet belonging to the Sanjak Bey (Provincial Governor) of Euboea (Turkish: Eğriboz) which was under Ottoman control. Assuming the command of this fleet, he went to Spain in several occasions between 1490 and 1492 for aiding the cause of the local Muslims who were forced to retreat from their lands in the Iberian peninsula, while transporting the Muslims and Jews away from Spain and to the provinces of the Ottoman Empire which welcomed them. The Muslims and Jews of Spain contributed much to the rising power of the Ottoman Empire by introducing new ideas, methods and craftsmanship.
The fame of Kemal Reis as a skilled and daring seaman soon reached Sultan Bayezid II who made him an admiral of the Ottoman navy in 1495 and in 1497 he was appointed with the task of protecting the ships which carried valuable goods belonging to the religious foundations of Mecca and Medina from the frequent raids of the Knights of St. John who were based in the island of Rhodes at that time (in 1522 the Ottomans captured Rhodes and allowed the Knights of St. John to peacefully leave the island, who first relocated their base to Sicily and later to Malta in 1530.)
In 1499 Kemal Reis defeated the Venetian fleet under the command of Antonio Grimani at the Battle of Zonchio which is also known as the Battle of Sapienza of 1499 or the First Battle of Lepanto and was a part of the Turkish-Venetian Wars of 1499-1503. It was the first naval battle in history with cannons used on ships, and took place on four separate days: on August 12, 20, 22 and 25, 1499. After reaching the Ionian Sea with the large Ottoman fleet of Bayezid II, Kemal Reis encountered the Venetian fleet of Antonio Grimani near the Cape of Zonchio and won an important victory. Antonio Grimani was arrested on September 29, but was eventually released. Grimani later became the Doge of Venice in 1521.
In 1500 Kemal Reis once again defeated the Venetian fleet at the Battle of Modon which is also known as the Second Battle of Lepanto.
The Turkish fleet and army quickly overwhelmed most of the Venetian possessions in Greece.
Modon and Coron, the "two eyes of the Republic", were lost. Turkish cavalry raids reached Venetian territory in northern Italy, and, in 1503, Venice again had to seek peace, recognizing the Turkish gains.[1]
In 1501 Kemal Reis captured seven Spanish ships off the coast of Spain, near Valencia. Aboard these ships he found a strange feather headdress and an unfamiliar black stone. He was told by one of his prisoners that both came from newly discovered lands to the west, beyond the Atlantic Ocean. The prisoner claimed to have visited these lands three times, under the command of a man named Colombo, and that he had in his possession a chart, drawn by this Colombo himself, which showed the newly discovered lands beyond the Sea of Darkness. This map was to become one of the main source charts of the famous Piri Reis map of 1513 which was drawn by the Turkish admiral and cartographer Piri Reis who was the nephew of Kemal Reis.[2]
In 1505 Kemal Reis laid siege to the base of the Knights of St. John in Rhodes. In that same year, he went to Spain once again to transport the final remnants of the surviving Muslims and Jews who had to suffer inhuman treatments since the Spanish Inquisition of 1492 and brought them to Istanbul.
Kemal Reis died in 1511 after his ship was caught by a severe storm and lies somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea, where he lived most of his life.
Several warships of the Turkish Navy have been named after Kemal Reis.
[edit] Tribute from Piri Reis
Piri Reis wrote this poem for his uncle, from whom he learned so much, in the opening section of his famous Kitab-ı Bahriye (Book of Navigation):
Good friend, I want you
To remember us in your prayers,
And remember Kemal Reis, our master,
May his soul be content!
He had perfect knowledge of the seas
And knew the science of navigation.
He knew innumerable seas;
No one could stop him...
We sailed the Mediterranean together
And saw all its great cities.
We went to Frankish lands
And defeated the infidel.
One day an order from
Sultan Bayezid arrived.
"Tell Kemal Reis to come to me,"
It said, "and advise me on affairs of the sea."
So in 1495, the year of this command,
We returned to our country.
By the sultan's command we set out
And won many victories...
Kemal Reis sailed hoping to come back,
But was lost at sea.
Everyone once spoke of him;
Now even his name is forgotten...
The angel of death caught him
While he was serving Sultan Bayezid.
May God give peace to those
Who remember Kemal Reis with a prayer.
Kemal died and went to the next world
And we found ourselves alone in this. [3]
[edit] Sources
1) Frederic C. Lane: "Venice, A Maritime Republic" (Baltimore 1973)
2) Paul Lunde: "Piri Reis and the Columbus Map" (May-June 1992)
3) Paul Lunde: "Piri Reis and the Columbus Map" (May-June 1992)
