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Aydın Reis (died 1535) was anOttoman admiral, known to the Spanish as "Cachidiablo" and to the Italians as "Cacciadiavolo."[1]
He was aTurk fromKayseri,Central Anatolia (modernTurkey). In the late 15th century he was the subordinate ofKemal Reis, the most important sea man of the Ottoman Empire during the reign ofBayazid II.He took service under Ottoman Empire as a captain. He then worked inEgypt underMamluk rule and after the death ofKemal Reis in 1511, he sailed to theBarbary coast (North WestAfrica) to attend the forces ofOruç Reis, an Ottoman privateer who had established his own state. He took part in the conquest ofAlgiers in 1516. After the death of Oruç Reis in 1518, Oruç's brotherHayreddin Barbarossa voluntarily accepted the suzerainty of the Ottoman sultanSelim I. So Aydın Reis returned to Ottoman service.[2][unreliable source?]
One of the most important projects of the Ottoman Empire in the early 16th century was evacuation and resettlement of some of the Muslims and Jews from the formerAl Andalus lands after the defeat of the last Arab stronghold inSpain byIsabella I of Castile. Aydın Reis participated in this project and in 1529, in collaboration withSalih Reis, he began transferring Muslims from the port ofOliva, east Spain to Ottoman lands. But Spanish fleet chased them. So Aydın Reis landed the passagers inBalearic Islands and engaged with Spanish fleet near the isleFormentera in which the Spanish fleet was defeated and Rodrigo Portuondo, the commander died in the combat. History makes little mention the day when Aydin reis took on Spain's eight large war galleys with his much smaller fleet which by all the rules of war, should have gone the other way, and defeated them (Ernle Bradford, "The Sultans Admiral").
After the battle of Formentera, he was called toConstantinople to be rewarded bySuleyman I (so called theMagnificent). After Hayreddin Barbarossa was appointed as the admiral of the Ottoman navy, Aydın Reis was promoted to be the commander of the fleet in Algiers. He participated in the conquestTunis in 1534 (to be lost to Spain the next year.) He died inBone (modern Annaba,Algeria in 1535) from natural causes.
