Ali Arraez Rabazin, bornFrancesco Guicciardo (fl. 1624), was aBarbary corsair of the 17th century. He was born inFerrara and sailed from theOttoman Tunisia, where he was a ferry boy before being captured in theBattle of the Gulf of Tunis.
Son to blacksmith Fabricio Guicciardo, Francesco worked as a ferry boy in thePo river until being captured by Tunisian corsairs, which made him a slave. He converted to Islam and adopted the name of Ali Arraez Rabazin, joining Barbary piracy himself.[1] He was captured by a Spanish fleet underÁlvaro de Bazán y Benavides, who enslaved him again and kept him as a servant until Ali found the chance to escape.[2] He came again to the service ofYusuf Dey of Tunis,[3] he joined a Barbary corsairbrigantine and used the knowledge of navigation and the coasts of Spain, Sardinia and Sicily he had acquired, eventually becoming a powerful local player.[4][2]
By 1624, according to chronicler and soldierDiego Duque de Estrada, Rabazin "could deploy thirty vessels on the sea, and one hundred if he willed to resort to his allies". He was a comrade and rival ofEnglish renegade Sampson Denball, later known as Ali Reis.[2] In June of the same year, Rabazin was at the head of three captured galleons with Denball as his lieutenant when they came upon a large galley fleet commanded by Bazán y Benavides. Despite the tonnage of the galleons, Bazán's superior artillery and tactic prevailed and the Barbary ships were captured.[4][5] Duque de Estrada himself was one of the first to board and dueled personally Rabazin, wounding him in the face with his rapier and helping capture him.[6]
The Spanish found the equivalent to 300,000piezas de a ocho gained through privateering activities, as well as three Russian slaves he kept as hisharem. Rabazin defended himself claiming that before the battle he was going to retire and become aPasha.[7] He was taken to the inquisition's dungeons in Palermo, where he passed several years until being sentenced to galleys in 1632, avoiding a harsher sentence in exchange for grand Tunisian admiralUsta Murad to pardon six Spanish priests imprisoned in Tunis.[8]
