Extraordinary People of the Barbary Sea

This course is designed for ages 6 to 11

Your children already know what a pirate looks like.

The movies taught them. Skull and crossbones. Caribbean island. Jack Sparrow.

What they have never been shown is the REAL story.


  • An Ottoman admiral who rescued 70,000 refugees from Spain.
  • A Muslim woman who ruled a city for thirty years — and made the Sultan come to her.
  • Two European men who chose Islam and became the most feared naval commanders of the 16th century.

And more....


Every word is documented. None of it is invented.

What This Course Is

Extraordinary People of the Barbary Sea is a 3-week live online history course for children aged 6 to 11, built around one of the most remarkable and least-told chapters of Islamic history: the Muslim privateers of the Mediterranean Sea.

For 300 years — from roughly the 1490s to the 1640s — the Mediterranean was shaped by Muslim sailors operating under the authority of the Ottoman Empire. They were not the pirates of Hollywood legend. They were privateers: authorized, disciplined, treaty-bound — and systematically misrepresented by the European sources that most history curricula still rely on.

This course gives children the real story. Not a sanitized version. Not a simplified version. The actual documented history — taught through live lessons, hands-on activities, games, crafts, and stories written in the manner of Roald Dahl.

By the end of three weeks, your child will know who these people were, what they actually did, why it was misrepresented, and what their example means for a Muslim child growing up today.

What Your Child Will Learn

By the end of this course, your child will be able to:

History and Knowledge

  • Explain the difference between a pirate and a privateer — with evidence.
  • Name the Barbary Corsairs and correctly identify them as privateers authorized by the Ottoman Empire.
  • Retell the documented stories of Arooj Barbarossa, Khayr al-Din Barbarossa, Sayyida al-Hurra, John Ward (Yusuf Reis), and Jan Janszoon (Murat Reis).
  • Describe the Battle of Preveza (1538) and explain its significance.
  • Connect the expulsion of Muslims from Al-Andalus (1492) to the world of the Barbary Corsairs.
  • Place key events in chronological sequence on a timeline.
  • Understand that Muslim history includes women who held political, military, and naval authority.


Critical Thinking


  • Separate documented historical fact from cultural myth.
  • Identify loaded language in historical descriptions and name the specific word that carries the bias.
  • Distinguish between a theory and a proven fact — and use careful language to describe both.
  • Ask who made the word choices in a historical account, and why.



Islamic Identity

  • Connect the keeping of covenants (Surah Al-Ma'idah 5:1) to the documented behaviour of the Barbary Corsairs.
  • Name women from Islamic history who held positions of scholarship and authority.
  • Reflect on what the example of five Muslims — who lived their faith openly at great cost — says to a Muslim child today.
  • Describe the course's central argument in their own words.


Ready to Sign up?

Our course is offered globally Alhamdulillah!

Every time zone, every continent — we have arranged things so that your child lands in a class at a sensible hour and alongside children from their part of the world.

The only thing we need from you is one click on the correct link below.

It is considerably more straightforward than navigating the Mediterranean with 122 ships and no GPS.

Find your region. Click your link. We will handle everything else.

USA
Tue & Thu
10-11 am PST		 Australia
Tue & Thu
4:30-5:30 pm
 AEST		 Egypt
Tue & Thu
4-5 pm GMT +3

Grades 1 & 2 

Grades 3 & 4

Grades 5 & 6

Grades 1 & 2

Grades 3 & 4

Grades 5 & 6

Grades 1 & 2

Grades 3 & 4

Grades 5 & 6

Course curriculum

    1. WELCOME TO THE COURSE!

    2. Lesson Link

    3. About Lote Tree Learning

    4. Preparing Before Class

    5. Course Overview

    1. Day 1 : Privateers and Pirates: What Is the Difference?

    2. Day 2 : Fact and Fiction: What the Movies Left Out

    1. Day 1 : Arooj and Khayr al-Din Barbarossa: The Brothers

    2. Day 2 : Sayyida al-Hurra: The Free Woman of Tetouan

    1. Day 1 : Yusuf Reis and Murat Reis: Changed Lives, Changed Names

    2. Day 2 : Putting It All Together

About this course

  • $49.99
  • 11 lessons

Why Enroll Your Child

This history is not in any mainstream curriculum.

The Barbary Corsairs, the Ottoman naval world, Sayyida al-Hurra, John Ward's conversion and his life in Tunis — none of this appears in standard primary school history programmes. Your child will not encounter it in school. They will encounter Jack Sparrow. This course gives them the real version, taught properly, with sources they can see.


Every fact is documented. Nothing is invented.

The course is built on two Lote Tree Learning curriculum books — History Intersections, Edition 2 (2022) and History Connections Book 3 — and a companion storybook in which every claim carries an inline source marker. Children learn from the first lesson to ask where information comes from. The course models that discipline in every session.


It teaches history and critical thinking at the same time.

Children do not just receive the corrected history. They work out why the false version existed, what specific words carried the bias, and what it means that one group's raiders were called knights while another's were called pirates. These are skills that transfer to every subject and every piece of media they will ever encounter.


The Islamic faith connections are woven in — not bolted on.

Every lesson ends with a faith reflection connecting the historical content to a Quranic verse, a hadith, or an established Islamic value. Covenant-keeping. Helping the oppressed. Women in Islamic scholarship. The meaning of a chosen name. These connections arise naturally from what happened — because the people studied were Muslims whose faith was at the centre of their choices. The course does not make that argument abstractly. It shows it through documented history.


It is genuinely fun.

The lessons include games, science experiments, crafts, role-play, debate, and a storybook written to be impossible to put down. Children vote on whether to accept a sixteenth-century emperor's offer. They cover one eye and test a pirate theory in real life. They design their own Arabic honorific titles. They leave with five crafts, a completed timeline, a storybook, and a certificate. This is not passive listening.

What Is Included

  • 6 live online lessons — 60 minutes each, teacher-led, fully interactive

  • 5 hands-on exciting crafts affirming the lessons learned

  • A completed course timeline of all key events

  • Islamic faith connections in every lesson — Quranic references, hadith, and reflection prompts

  • Printable certificate of completion

  • Differentiated instruction for different grades

Ready to Sign up?

Our course is offered globally Alhamdulillah!

Every time zone, every continent — we have arranged things so that your child lands in a class at a sensible hour and alongside children from their part of the world.

The only thing we need from you is one click on the correct link below.

It is considerably more straightforward than navigating the Mediterranean with 122 ships and no GPS.

Find your region. Click your link. We will handle everything else.

USA
Tue & Thu
10-11 am PST		 Australia
Tue & Thu
4:30-5:30 pm
 AEST		 Egypt
Tue & Thu
4-5 pm GMT +3

Grades 1 & 2 

Grades 3 & 4

Grades 5 & 6

Grades 1 & 2

Grades 3 & 4

Grades 5 & 6

Grades 1 & 2

Grades 3 & 4

Grades 5 & 6

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