Many people, today, wonder why contemporary Egyptians are commonly light skinned. Well, prior to the late 1800s, Barbary Coast corsairs (state-sanctioned pirates) raided the coastlines of Western Europe and Italy taking Europeans to North Africa, e.g. Egypt and Ottoman slave markets. In addition, the earlier Greek, Roman, and Levant incursions into Egypt impacted the characteristics of the people.
Link: Slavery on the Barbary Coast
