We see in the case of the two
Barbarossas that they had no drop of Moslem blood in them, as both parents
came from Christian stock: and yet no greater scourges ever afflicted the
people from whom both their father and mother originally sprang than did
Uruj and Khizr Barbarossa.
[Illustration: URUJ AND KHEYR-ED-DIN BARBAROSSA.]
The characters of the two brothers were widely different. The elder was no
doubt a "first-class fighting man," a fine seaman, a born partisan leader;
but here his qualities came to an end. Rough, cruel, imperious, brutal, he
imposed himself upon those who became his followers; but in him were to be
found none of the statesmanlike qualities which distinguished his far
greater younger brother. His was the absolutely finite intellect of the
tactician as opposed to the strategist, who, seeing his objective, was
capable of dealing with circumstances as they immediately arose; but,
partly no doubt from defective education, but principally from the lack of
intellectual appreciation of the problems of the time in which he lived,
could never rise to the heights which were scaled by Khizr, better known by
the title conferred upon him later on by the Grand Turk as "Kheyr-ed-Din,"
or "The Protector of Religion."
The sons of Mahomed, that "gran marinero," naturally took to the sea, and
as a young man Uruj became possessed of a ship--how we do not know, and it
were better perhaps not to inquire.
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