Large numbers of native people converted to Islam in Euro-Islamic states of Spain and Sicily. Large numbers of converts from non-Muslim controlled areas of Europe also occurred during the end of the Middle Ages. A height came during the age of corsairs in the 16th and 17th centuries where many men (and some women) embraced Islam upon escaping unfavorable conditions in Europe. Various diplomats, scholars, and monks also found peace with Islam throughout history.
| 1370 | Anselm Turmeda, born in Palma de Mallorca around 1350, travels to Bologna to study theology as a novice in the Franciscan Order. |
| 1385 | Anslem Turmeda, now a friar, travels to Tunis. Here he embraced Islam marrying a rich heiress and becoming a customs officer under the name Abdullah al-Taryuman al Mayurqui. Writing in both Catalan and Arabic, Turmeda gains respect from both Christians and Muslims; the Pope even offers him a pardon for his conversion. |
| 1430 | Abdullah al-Taryuman al Mayurqui, the former Friar Anselm Turmeda, dies in Tunis. |
| 1502 | Rodrigo de Triana (Rodrigo de Lepe), the first to sight land on Columbus's ship, converts to Islam. |
| 1520 | The Calabrian Luca (possibly Giovanni) Galieni is born. At the age of sixteen he will be captured by Muslim corsairs and convert to Islam. As Uluj Ali, Galieni will become one of the Mediterranean's most famed corsairs. |
| 1553 | John Ward, one of the most famous of North Africa's European corsairs, is born in Kent, England to a poor fisherman. |
| 1583 | The Spanish word "renegado" meaning a convert to Islam from Christianity enters the English language. The voyage made to Tripolis is the first English source to mention an English convert to Islam. The convert is John Nelson, the son of a yeoman. |
| 1590 | Christian monk Fra Marino converts to Islam upon finding the <>iGospel of Barnabus in the Library of Pope Sixtus V.This highly controversial and aporcryphal manuscript claims that Jesus was not crucified and that another prophet, Muhammad, would come after him. |
| 1599 | A Venetian ship captures Albert Drew, an English renegade. |
| 1603 | John Ward finds himself impressed into the Royal Navy. Due to the horrible conditions of navy life, Ward and other disgruntled sailors embark on a career of piracy. |
| 1604 | Ward arrives in Salé in Morocco; his first trip sees a run in with the English adventurer Richard Gifford, who is burning ships in that harbor. Ward resolves to continue to roam the Mediterranean accumulating a vast amount of wealth and power. |
| 1606 | John Ward, with his 200-ton flyboat the Gift, settles in Tunis with the aid of Kara Uthman, ruler at the time. From his new base in Tunis, Ward captures the English vessel John Baptist.The English appoint Benjamin Bishop consul to Egypt. He eventually embraces Islam and disappears from the public records. |
| 1607 | Ward captures the Venetian galleys the Rubi and the Carminati. A third Venetian vessel he captures, the 600-ton <>iReniera e Soderina off the coast of Cyprus, creates considerable disturbance to the Italian republic's maritime business. |
| 1608 | Sir Francis Verney, a young nobleman, leaves England after a dispute with his stepmother over his inheritance. Verney settles in Algiers where he joins up with the North African corsair exploits. Venetian galleys defeat a squadron led by a leading captain of Ward's, the Flemish Jan Casten. Casten, along with fifty men, fall in battle. |
| 1609-1619 | Large numbers of Europeans –including Germans, English, Dutch, Flemish, Poles, Hungarians, and Muscovites– begin abandoning Christianity for Islam. North African states become a haven for these renegades looking for a new life. |
| 1609 | John Ward converts to Islam taking the name Yusuf Reis. He marries a convert from Palermo named Jessimina; despite this marriage, Ward continues to send money to his wife in England. He builds a beautiful marble and alabaster palace for himself in Tunis. Europe, especially England, vilifies him as an apostate; two pamphlets about Ward are printed in London that year: Andrew Baker's True and Certaine Report of the Beginning, Proceedings, Overthrowes, and now Present Estate of Captaine Ward and Dansiker, the Two Late Famous Pirates and the anonymously authored Newes from Sea, of Two Notorious Pirates, Ward … and Danisker. |
| 1610 | Sir Francis Verney converts to Islam. Sampson Denball, another English renegade, takes the name Ali Rais and becomes admiral of Tunisian ruler Yusuf Dey's navy. |
| 1613 | An English ship captures an Algerian vessel commanded by the English renegade Ambrose Sayer. The captain of the English ship sends Sayer to England to stand trial for piracy. Despite being convicted, Sayer manages to escape. |
| 1615 | Francis Verney dies in Messina after being a galley slave for two years. He supposedly reconverted through the efforts of an English Jesuit. |
| 1618 | The Holland native Jan Janz converts to Islam upon capture by the Algerians. Although initially the religion may have been forced upon him, Janz seems to have sincerely embraced it as he never showed signs of wanting to apostatize. |
| 1619 | Murad Reis, formerly Jan Janz, settles in Salé, where he is elected leader of this newly declared republic. To show his devotion to his adopted home, Murad marries a Muslim woman; like John Ward, he also left behind a wife and family in his native Harlem. His son, a "Troublesome Turk", Anthony Van Sale, will come to New Amsterdam in America and become the first non-Native American settler of Brooklyn. His lands in Coney Island will be known as "Turk's Plantation." Although his religious views are not well established, he is believed to have brought a copy of the Quran with him to the New World. |
| 1622 | While on an expedition into the English channel, Murad Reis decided to restock on provisions in the port of Veere in his former home Holland. Due to the peace between Holland and Salé, Murad is left unmolested, but he receives far from warm treatment. There, his Dutch wife and children attempt to convince him to give up his new life but to no avail. Due to the large number of European enslaved by Muslims, captivity narratives become popular in Europe. John Rawlins writes of his plight in The Famous and Wonderful Recovery of a Ship of Bristol, Called the Exchange, from the Turkish Pirates of Argier, with the Unmatchable Attempts and Good Success of John Rawlins, Pilot in Her, and Other Slaves in this year. This work names many Englishmen who accepted Islam: John Goodale; Henry Chandler, a chandler's son in Southwark, who adopted the name of Ramadhan Reis; Richard Clarke who had changed his name to Jafar; George Cooke who had become "Ramedam"; John Browne who had become "Memme"; and William Winter who took the name Mustapha. |
| 1623 | Yusuf Reis, formerly John Ward, succumbs to the plague and is buried at sea. Despite being vilified by contemporary ballads and other media, Ward was known to have freed Englishmen enslaved in Tunisia and was even considered generous by the Scottish traveler William Lithgow. |
| 1625 | Francisco de Luque, a renegade who not only became a Barbary corsair but made the pilgrimage to Mecca, is captured and brought to Cordova. He is given two hundred lashes, four years in the galleys, and perpetual imprisonment. |
| 1626 | The Spanish capture two renegade captains: a Francis Barney, pilot of a Tunisian ship, and a Robin Locar of Plymouth, who adopted the name Ibrahim. |
| 1637 | The Sultan of Morocco hires French convert Morat Reis to take advantage of dissension in Salé and capture the Casbah. |
| 1638 | Picenino, also known as Ali Bitchnin, flourishes on the Barbary corsair scene. An Italian by birth, Picenino converted to Islam and settled in Algiers. He becomes a prominent figure in the region becoming admiral, owning two palaces, building a mosque, and maintaining thousands of slaves. Other renegades in Muslim service during this period include the English Reis Jafar and Case Mareys, the Dutch Maime Reis, the Ligurian Osa Morato, and the Spanish Ali Campos. |
| 1643 | Spaniards catch the English convert Suleiman, formerly known as John Talla. |
| 1646 | The Dutch pirate Cornelis Verbeck captures the Portuguese convert Chaban Reis, who at the time commanded the Algerian vessel The Crabbe. |
| 1658 | Dutch seamen capture Ahmad al-Cortobi, a Spanish renegade or morisco. Due to the relations between Holland and Salé, the nation pays reparations to the North African republic including the release of Ahmad. |
| 1658s | Johan Hjuljammar, a Swede sergeant of the Life Guards, embraces Islam. |
| 1705 | The Historia de la villa imperial de Potosí by Nicolás de Martínez Arzans y Vela recounts the tale of a Captain Giorgio Zapata, who in 1561 claiming to be under the service of European officials, came to Potosi in Spanish Peru. Working under a German miner, Zapata amassed an enormous wealth and respect from the profitable silver mines partnering with a Rodrigo Pelaez. After many years, Zapata decided to return home to his native Istanbul. His real name was Amir Çighala and after presenting himself to the Ottoman Sultan received significant political positions (including in the navy and governorship in Algeria). In 1596, Pelaez went to return to Spain when English corsairs captured him. After a number of resales, he ended up being bought in North African by Amir Çighala's older brother. Upon discovering this, Amir freed his old partner and sent him back to Spain laden with gifts. |
| 1727 | Claude-Alexandre, Comte de Bonneval, enters Ottoman service at age 52. A former French general who served under Louis XIV (and against him) and Prince Eugene went to Venice seeking support before crossing into Bosnia and Ottoman lands.He later became known as Kumbaraci Osman Ahmed Pasha and took great steps to modernize the Ottoman army. This, however, did bring him into conflict with certain Ottoman officials opposed to reform. |
| 1783 | Orazio Paterno Castello, of the Catanian family of the marquis of San Giuliano, becomes a fugitive after killing his wife. Corsairs from Tripoli will capture him; he will convert to Islam taking the name Hamad and serve as an interpreter. |
| 1809 | Omer Lufti Pasha (Omar Pasha) is born Michael Lattus in Croatia. As an army cadet for Austria, Michael will desert, enter the Ottoman service, and embrace Islam (adopting the name Omar). The Austrian government, who will regard him as a renegade and resent him, while the Ottoman Empire will respect him as the great commander of their forces during the Crimean War. |
| 1850 | Ottoman pasha Murad Tewfik dies. Born as Jozef Bem in 1794, he rose to prominence as a distinguished Polish military officer. He joined the Polish Revolution of 1830, but upon its defeat fled to Western Europe. He then joined the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 (known as the March Revolution) where he became one of its top generals and most popular figures. After the defeat of the Revolution, with thousands of Hungarians, Bem crossed into Ottoman territory. To avoid being extradited to Austria, he converted to Islam and joined the Turkish military. He died as governor of Aleppo in Syria and to this day is a national hero of Poland and Hungary. |
| 1887 | While touring the Ottoman Empire and Morrocco, Shaykh Abdullah (Henry William) Quilliam accepts Islam. The Ottoman Sultan appoints him Shaykh al-Islam of the United Kingdom and the Shah of Persia appoints him consul at Liverpool. |
| 1891 | Shaykh Abdullah Quilliam in Liverpool founds a Muslim center in a group of terraced houses. He establishes prayer, festivals, weddings (the first Muslim marriage occurred this year between a London Indian barrister and Charlotte Fitch, an Englishwoman), funerals, classes, a hostel, library, and printing press. |
| 1904 | Isabelle Eberhardt (b. 1877 in Geneva) dies in a flood in Algeria at age 27. She lived a romantic life between two worlds. She became a polyglot at an early age, Arabic included, and became enamored with the Orient. She became a prolific author, even writing under Arabic pseudonyms. She converted to Islam (she stated that she had always been a Muslim) and lived a very unorthodox life, often dressing in men's clothes, in both Algeria and Europe. This same year saw the death of Lalla Fatima Zeineb, a spiritual mentor for Isabelle and an Algerian national hero for her resistance against the French and deep religious knowledge. |
| 1908 | Shaykh Abdullah Quilliam departs Liverpool for good amidst accusation of treason due to his support for the Caliphate of the Ottoman Sultan and the protests against British operations against the Mahdi of Sudan. Much of his domestic Muslim work in the community weakens with his exit. |
| 1917 | Ivan Agueli, a famous Swedish artist born in 1869, dies. As a Muslim convert, he took the name Abdul Hadi al-Maghrabi and spent his life in publications, including a Cairo newspaper. |
| 1930 | British Muslim Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall publishes a translation of the meaning of the Quran. |
| 1937 | Gustaf Noring, a Swedish author and diplomat born in 1861, dies. This convert to Islam had moved to Constantinople taking the name Ali Nouri. |
