Barbary Pirates were pirates and conservatives who used to pillage and plunder in the Mediterranean for centuries with the approval of their Islammic governments. The Koran allows Muslims to enslave non-Muslims, see Slavery under Sharia. Therefore the Muslim governments didn’t mind if Christian seafarer were enslaved and held to ransom. Rich captives were returned to their families after enormous ransoms were paid but poor captives had to live out their lives as slaves. European governments even paid tribute to Muslim governments so the Muslims would leave their sailors alone.