In 1508 Kurtoğlu Muslihiddin obtained permission from the
Hafsid Sultan Abu Mohammed Abdullah to use
Bizerte as his base for operating in the western coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. The Sultan, in return, was to receive one fifth of his profits. Kurtoğlu assembled a fleet of some thirty ships, carrying 6,000 corsairs, and in the summer of 1508 he attacked
Liguria, where he landed his troops at
Diano Marina and sacked the town. The following year he received an appeal from the
Ottoman Sultan
Bayezid II to participate in the assault against
Rhodes, and in February 1509 he took part in the Ottoman expedition to Rhodes against the
Knights of St. John in command of 17 ships, transporting the
Janissaries to the island. However, the siege did not succeed and was eventually lifted. In August 1509, near the mouth of the
Tiber River in central
Italy, he engaged two
Papal galleys under the command of Baldassarre di Biassa and captured one of them. In September 1510, with a squadron of nine fustas, he landed at the island of
Andros, which was then under
Venetian control, and took dozens of captives who were later ransomed. Later in September, with a squadron of six fustas, he landed at the
Genoese-controlled island of
Chios and forced the governor to pay 100,000
aspri (silver coins) in return for the release of the island. Between 1510 and 1514 Kurtoğlu operated in the
Tyrrhenian Sea and the coasts of
Spain, bringing the maritime traffic in the areas around
Sicily,
Sardinia,
Calabria, and the
Kingdom of Naples to a near halt. In the summer of 1514, with one galley and three fustas, he captured a Genoese flotilla near
Corsica, including its captain, Matteo Trucco. In February 1515 Kurtoğlu assaulted
Rhodes and in July he landed at
Chios, from where he set sail to raid the coasts of
Sicily. Later that year he appeared off the coasts of
Liguria where he captured a Genoese galley and towed it, along with its crew, to his base in
Bizerte. In February 1516 he appeared off the island of
Corfu where he received a message from the Ottoman sultan
Selim I, who was in
Edirne (Adrianople) at the moment, and invited Kurtoğlu to serve in the Ottoman navy. Kurtoğlu was to play a key role in the Ottoman conquests of
Egypt in 1517 and
Rhodes in 1522. In April 1516, with a force of 20 ships, he assaulted and sacked the coastal towns of Liguria, where he also captured a galley. In mid April, he captured a fleet of 18 Sicilian trade ships which were heading to
Genoa, and sent them to his base in Bizerte. From there he went to
Tuscany and blocked almost every single vessel near the port of
Civitavecchia. The Papal States prepared a fleet under the command of Giovanni di Biassa and Paolo Vettori to engage him. Later in that month Kurtoğlu assaulted the coasts of
Catalonia in Spain. In May 1516, together with Hayreddin Barbarossa and
Piri Reis, Kurtoğlu once again landed in Liguria, and the Genoese allied themselves with the Papal forces under the command of
Federigo Fregoso,
archbishop of Salerno, in their fight against him. They were also joined by the forces under
Prégent de Bidoux, Bernardino d’Ornesan and Servian, which together amounted to 6 galleys e 3 galleons. In the meantime, the combined fleet of Kurtoğlu, Hızır Reis and Piri Reis, which amounted to a total of 27 ships (4 galleys and 24 fustas) assaulted the port of Civitavecchia, before sailing through the Channel of
Piombino and landing at the islands of
Giannutri and
Elba, where they sieged the local fortress. In June 1516 Kurtoğlu landed on the coast of
Apulia and took nearly 800 prisoners. From there he sailed around
Calabria to the Tyrrhenian Sea, where he captured a Sicilian ship which had recently arrived from
England and emptied its cargo at the port of Genoa before returning to Sicily. He then sailed back to
Djerba. ==Admiral of the Ottoman Navy==