Ottoman raid on the Balearic Islands (1501)

An Ottoman raid on the Balearic islands occurred in 1501 under the Ottoman admiral Kemal Reis. This raid was combined with attacks on Sardinia and Pianosa (near Elba).

The 1501 raid on the Balearics follows some of the earliest interventions of the Ottomans in the western Mediterranean. These interventions were in response to the Fall of Granada and the help the last Muslim ruler there had requested to the Ottoman Empire in his fight against Castilla. Upon this request, the Ottoman sultan Bayezid sent a fleet under Kemal Reis to attack the Spanish coast. In 1487 and again in 1492 when Granada fell, the Ottoman fleet was used to rescue refugees and ferry them to the coast of North Africa.

A side effect of the raid seems to have been that a Spanish sailor was captured in possession of an early map of Columbus.