In the sign of reciprocity: Muslim Slaves in Genoa and Genoese ones in Maghreb

The definitive reaffirmation of Ottoman control over Tunis in 1574, after a brief period as a Spanish protectorate following the Battle of Lepanto, ended Christian ambitions over northern Africa and represented the beginning of the rise of the Barbary Regencies of Tunis, Tripoli and Algiers, state entities de facto autonomous from Istanbul. This polarization of the two shores of Mare nostrum began the golden age of what Salvatore Bono defined as a real corsair war, causing the exponential increase in the number of captives, the coveted human prey of mutual offensives. In the present paper, taking Genoa as a significant case study, I mainly focused on the living conditions of the Muslim captives in Christian Europe, comparing them with their Christian counterparts in the Maghreb and trying to understand if and to what extent the two realities influenced each other.