Quotes About Barbary

one of the duties of the U.S. Navy, going all the way back to the early 1800s, the days of the Barbary pirates of North Africa, involves showing the flag. Safe passage of Navy ships ensures unmolested transit of merchant shipping, always the main conduit of all overseas trade whether in 1800 or 2000. Port calls projected U.S. influence ashore and kept markets open. Freedom of the seas, like all freedoms, must be exercised or it will atrophy.

There are in Timbuktu numerous judges, doctors [of letters] and priests [i.e., learned Muslims]. [The ruler] greatly honors scholarship. Here too they sell many handwritten books that arrive from Barbary [i.e., North Africa]. More profit is had from their sale than from any other merchandise. –Leo Africanus (1550)

more than 300 other ships bound for Algeria steamed from anchorages on the Clyde and along England's west coast. For all these vessels to shoot the Strait of Gibraltar in sequence and arrive punctually at various Barbary coast beaches, the

more than 300 other ships bound for Algeria steamed from anchorages on the Clyde and along England's west coast. For all these vessels to shoot the Strait of Gibraltar in sequence and arrive punctually at various Barbary coast beaches, the two-week voyage must, in Churchill's phrase, "fit together like a jewelled bracelet." The challenge had roused the Royal Navy to

Evils are to be traced to their sources, and struck at there. Like Barbary pirates, they are to be destroyed through the suppression of the state that sends them forth.

The Barbary states were already at war with America, and they seemed to understand only one kind of diplomacy—the kind that was accompanied by a cannon.

Tired of Americans being captured and held for ransom, our third president decided to take on the Barbary powers in a war that is barely remembered today but is one that, in many ways, we are still fighting.

The Barbary powers, with their mixture of greed, religious fanaticism, and self-interest, would not listen to reason. They

asked how the Barbary states could justify "[making] war upon nations who had done them no injury." The response was nothing less than chilling. According to his holy book, the Qur'an, Abdrahaman explained, "all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave." Christian sailors were, plain and simple, fair game.

Half of the castle has, at one point or another, been burned down by a combination of Barbary corsairs, lightning bolts, Napoleon, and smoking in bed.

The Moors, who settled many parts of southern Europe in the eighth century, proved to be enthusiastic naturalisers. They are strongly suspected of, or were clearly responsible for, the introduction of at least four important mammal species into Europe: the Barbary macaque, porcupine, genet and mongoose.

Wherever he goes he is cheered by the people.' 'The people?' Norfolk says. 'They'd cheer a Barbary ape. Who cares what they cheer? Hang 'em all.' 'But then who will you tax?' he says.