Name: Battle of Mostaganem (965/1558)
Start: 1558-08

Battle of Mostaganem (965/1558)

معركة مستغانم (٩٦٥هـ/١٥٥٨م)

August 1558 CE · Dhu al-Qa'da 965 AH

Seeing the Ottoman recovery of Tlemcen as a mortal threat, the Count of Alcaudete led twelve thousand men against Mostaganem — the Ottoman base against Oran — hoping to make it his own base against Algiers; the attempt failed, the Spanish force suffered heavy losses in Dhu'l-Qa'da 965/August 1558, and the count himself was among the dead ¹.

Summary

The Spanish governor of Oran's attack on Mostaganem, Dhu'l-Qa'da 965/August 1558 ¹.

The reckoning and the rout

Seeing the Ottoman recovery of Tlemcen as a mortal threat, the Count of Alcaudete led twelve thousand men to take Mostaganem — the Ottoman base against Oran — and make it his own against Algiers; the attempt failed with heavy losses and he was among the dead ¹.

Salih Reis

Beylerbey of Algiers from Safar 960/January 1552. Internally he sought complete unity of all Algeria, the Sahara included, to be free for al-Andalus; externally to expel Spain, fence off Sa'di trouble, and proclaim general jihad toward al-Andalus. Backing the Wattasid Bu Hasun, Ottoman forces entered Fez 3 Safar 961/8 January 1554 (the printed text reads 964) and the Porte declared Morocco annexed; in four months there he recovered Badis from Spain and tried replacing Bu Hasun with the Idrisi sharif Mawlay Bu Bakr before the people's rising forced him back under Ottoman suzerainty terms. When Ottoman intelligence uncovered the Sa'di-Spanish plot, Süleyman sent forty ships and ordered Oran attacked; Salih readied seventy ships and forty thousand men, but died of plague in Rajab 963/1556, aged seventy.

Battle of Mostaganem (965/1558)

At a glance

In time

Summary

The reckoning and the rout

Connections

People and things also explored

Sources

Time

Salih Reis