The Turkish Raid of 1627 – a contemporary account by Rev. Ólafur Egilsson
Arab pirates from Algiers came to Iceland in the summer of 1627; Algiers then belonged to the realm of the Turkish sultan. Four ships came to the country to seize goods and to take people into slavery. In all, the pirates captured 370 people and killed about 35–45 Icelanders. One of them was Rev. Jón Þorsteinsson, a hymn writer at Kirkjubær in the Westman Islands, who was afterwards called the Martyr.
The raiders landed in Grindavík and at Bessastaðir, and two ships called at the Eastfjords. The Algerian pirates’ attack was heaviest in the Westman Islands, where they arrived in three ships on 16 July. They seized 242 men, women and children and took them on board their ships, and killed 30–40 people.
The pirates robbed and plundered and, among other things, set fire to the trading houses and to Landakirkja church. Then they sailed with their booty to Algiers and sold the captives into slavery. Rev. Ólafur Egilsson of the Westman Islands was one of those abducted, with his wife and two children; another child was born to them at sea. Ólafur wrote a book about these events, describing both what happened in the Westman Islands and the slave trade and way of life in Algiers. Ólafur’s account, “Lítil saga umm herför Tyrkjans árið 1627” (A short account of the Turks’ raid in the year 1627), is the Highlight of the month for July.
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