Barbarossa's Fleet Wintering at Toulon, 1543

This Ottoman miniature, attributed to Matrakçı Nasuh and produced around 1550, depicts the fleet of the corsair and Ottoman grand admiral Khayr al-Din Barbarossa wintering in the French port of Toulon during the winter of 1543–1544. This presence, which followed the lavish reception of the Ottoman fleet at Marseille in July 1543 and the combined Franco-Ottoman operation against Nice that same year, illustrates the controversial alliance forged between Francis I and Suleiman the Magnificent against their common enemy, Charles V. Regarded as scandalous by a large part of Christendom, this understanding between the Most Christian King and the Muslim sultan was aimed above all at opening a second front against the emperor, in keeping with a diplomacy already exemplified by France's rapprochement with the German Lutheran princes. Drawn from an Ottoman source contemporary with the events, this miniature offers a rare viewpoint, external to the usual Western iconography, on this singular episode of military cooperation between France and the Ottoman Empire.