Memoirs of Khair al-Din Barbarossa Its Truth, Importance and Historical Value

Personal memoirs are among the most important sources that researchers and historians rely on in writing history. This is because it includes information, testimonies and details that we rarely find in other traditional sources. This is because the memoirist is usually not a historian in the strict sense of the term. Rather, it is usually a personality that contributed to the making of the events that appear in the memoirs. Also, the notes were not written or dictated by their author in his capacity as a professional writer; Rather, he does so in order to testify to the events that he experienced. Whether he saw it himself, contributed to its making, or heard it from someone who was a witness to it. Despite the importance of memoirs in the history of nations and peoples, they are criticized for being subjective, personal, and sometimes even narcissistic. This is when its author makes himself the center of events, and depicts him as the most influential in the events he narrates. In view of this, we find that he often ignores the role of others in making events, so the memoirs for this reason and others lack objectivity and impartiality. Whatever the evaluation of Khair al-Din Barbarossa's personal memoirs were, they are among the few ones that dated the first phase of the history of the Ottoman rule of Algeria in its early stages. By looking closely at these memoirs, we find that they are rich as far as matter, information and details are concerned and that are rarely found in other sources that talk about this important stage in the history of the Ottoman Empire and the history of Algeria in the first stage of Ottoman rule.