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Sinan Reis, also Ciphut Sinan, (, Sinan Rais; , Sinan Rayyis;) "Sinan the Chief", and , "Sinan the Jew", was a Barbary corsairs who Sailing under and was second in command of the famed Kapudan Pasha Hayreddin Barbarossa.
There are other sources though which claim that Sinan's epithet, "the Jew" does not refer to his Jewish origins. The sixteenth-century chronicler Francisco Lopez de Gómara argued that he was named so because he once escaped from an encounter with Christian ships while the nineteenth-century editor of his text speculated, not so quite understandably, that interest in astrology earned him his nickname.
The English State Papers of 1533 bear of his actions:
His moniker "the Great Jew", appears in a 1528 reference by the Governor of Portuguese India, who mistakenly believed that Sinan was sent by Suleiman the Magnificent to aid the King of Kozhikode.
Sinan sailed under the famed Kapudan Pasha Hayreddin Barbarossa at the 1538 Battle of Preveza against Charles' Imperial fleet and its commander, Andrea Doria. Sinan suggested landing troops at Actium on the Gulf of Arta near Preveza, an idea which Barbarossa initially opposed, but which later proved to be important for securing the Ottoman victory.
The Spanish hired Christian forces to protect the barbary coast from the corsairs. Sinan led the battle and the defeat of the Genoan navy hired by the Spanish.
He commanded 6000 troops, stationed in Tripoli, Libya. Sinan's soldiers which were initially stationed in a fortress from eventually conquered the city. It is said Sinan was so angry by the resistance put up against him in Tripoli that he improsined the entire enemy garrison save a few.
He was eventually the supreme commander in the Ottoman Navy.
Sinan Reis died in 1546. It is said that he died just days before a planned departure for a raiding mission to the coast of India.
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