巴巴里海盗，也被称为奥斯曼海盗，是来自北非的海盗和私掠者。他们以摩洛哥和被称为巴巴里海岸的阿尔及尔、突尼斯、的黎波里等地的港口为据点。“巴巴里”的名称来源于居住于这个地区的柏柏尔人。巴巴里海盗的掠夺范围最初在西地中海一带，其后从地中海开始，向南延伸至西非沿岸甚至南美，向北扩张最远至冰岛。除了掠夺船只，他们还劫掠欧洲沿岸的城镇和村庄。他们在陆上攻击的主要目的是俘虏基督徒，用于奥斯曼和阿拉伯奴隶贸易 。

北非的海盗活动在穆斯林占领这一地区后就开始了，但“巴巴里海盗”这一名词主要指16世纪后的北非海盗，因为自此时期始，海盗活动的频度和范围都大大增加了。在这个时期内，北非的阿尔及尔、突尼斯和的黎波里等地相继成为奥斯曼帝国的势力范围，有些地区成为帝国的直辖省份，有些则成为帝国的自治区域，例如巴巴里州，因而巴巴里海盗又被称为奥斯曼海盗。此外，还有部分巴巴里海盗来自西北非的摩洛哥 。

The Barbary pirates, sometimes called Barbary corsairs or Ottoman corsairs, were pirates and privateers who operated from North Africa, based primarily in the ports of Salé, Rabat, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. This area was known in Europe as the Barbary Coast, a term derived from the name of its Berber inhabitants. Their predation extended throughout the Mediterranean, south along West Africa's Atlantic seaboard and even South America, and into the North Atlantic as far north as Iceland, but they primarily operated in the western Mediterranean. In addition to seizing ships, they engaged in Razzias, raids on European coastal towns and villages, mainly in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal, but also in the British Isles, the Netherlands and as far away as Iceland. The main purpose of their attacks was to capture Christian slaves for the Ottoman slave trade as well as the general Arabic market in North Africa and the Middle East.