The History of Hayreddin Barbarossa and the Battle of Preveza The Lion of the Mediterranean Hayreddin Barbarossa was the sea king who defied the most powerful monarchs of Christendom and secured Ottoman dominance over the Mediterranean for a generation. Born on the island of Lesbos as Khizr, the son of an Ottoman cavalryman and a local islander, he did not begin his life as an admiral, but as a merchant sailor. Yet, through a combination of naval genius and geopolitical shrewdness, he rose to be