Quote Originally Posted by Marmara View Post
We know for a fact that his father was not a devshirme. His father was a Timariot Sipahi, as well as his Grandfather.

Timariot Sipahis were made of ethnic Turks, and were granted fiefdom after their military service. His grandfather Adem was granted fief from Giannitsa, and is told to be originally from Balıkesir or Çanakkale. Giannitsa is where Barbarossa's father was born, and he too was granted fiefdom from Lesbos island, where Hayreddin Barbarossa was born.
I am not keen to argue about this kind of topics, since it's off-topic and the guy was irrelevant for Albanians. But his father was really Albanian in origin, and his mother Greek. And, this comes from Turkish sources.

Hayreddin Barbarossa was born “Khizr” sometime between the late 1470s or early 1480s in the Palaiokipos village of Lesbos under Ottoman rule. His father Yakup was a converted Muslim sipahi (contracted soldier) possibly of Albanian origin, who took part in the conquest of Lesbos by the Ottoman navy, while his mother was a Greek lady of Lesbos. Khizr was the third of their four sons, namely Ishak, Oruç, Khizr and Ilyas, all of whom would become famous corsairs. One should also note that the seafarers of Turkey, mostly living in the Black Sea region, have always liked to give Khizr and his brothers’ names to their sons.

https://www.dailysabah.com/portrait/...-mediterranean