Jan Janszoon, Piraat van de wereld

Hate against spain

In 1573, Haarlem, birthplace of Jan Janszoon, was destroyed by the Spanish. It is here where his dislike of the Catholic Spaniards begins. As a privateer he targets Spanish ships, but after a truce with the Spanish he loses his job, ends up in North Africa and becomes a pirate. He raids Dutch ships and sells Christian slaves on the Algiers slave market. He converts to Islam and takes a new name: Mourad Raïs. Narrator Abelkader Benali has long been fascinated by Jan Janszoon: 'I came to the Netherlands from Morocco with my father and mother, he took the opposite route.'