186 | Fleeing “the Vomit of Infidelity”
Aissè, now known by her Christian name Margherita, reversed the more
commonplace practice of Christian women converting to Islam to free them-
selves from an undesired marriage. On July 17, just days after her arrival in Corfu,
she sealed the end of her marriage to Mustafa Efendi by wedding Santo Burlion.
The Burlions were a Roman Catholic family active in trade and shipping whose
roots on the island dated to at least the fifteenth century. They were also politi-
cally influential, with members occupying the highest government offices.
The speed with which Maria arranged such quality marriages for her daugh-
ters, her own rejection of an auspicious marriage offer, and her ability to ef-
fortlessly enter a prestigious monastery, which normally would have required a
substantial spiritual dowry, are surprising if not suspicious, given the family’s al-
legedly desperate financial status. From the moment they arrived in Corfu, Maria
and her daughters repeatedly insisted that they had fled Milos with only clothing
and a few personal items and that they were effectively impoverished. Skepticism
about their economic situation abounded, however, both on Corfu and in Venice.
Some officials in the Venetian senate expressed serious doubts, noting that the
fact that the women had “so easily found a husband and protection” suggested a
better financial situation than Maria claimed. The senate ordered an inquiry into
the finances of the women and their new husbands to find “if they possess[ed]
goods... and in short to penetrate the interests... [possibly] involved.” The
inquiry produced no conclusive evidence that Maria had a secret stash of funds,
though it did identify items “of some value” in her possession, and several other
reports indicate she possessed goods and cash sufficient to cover at least a portion
of her own expenses.
The women’s lack of dowries also gave rise to questions regarding the mo-
tives of the men who rushed to marry them as soon as they appeared in the port,
particularly as the Corfiot nobility was generally poor, and at least one of the suit-
ors, Santo Burlion, had serious financial problems. Throughout the Greek and
Latin Mediterranean, contracting a marriage without a dowry was inconceivable.
Though both men claimed they had agreed to the marriages with “no other ob-
jective than to perform a work of charity,” to bypass a dowry was improbable in
the opinion of the suspicious senate. It is certainly possible that both men acted
out of real piety in an attempt to protect the young women from being returned
to Milos. In the end, however, though no property was discovered, it seems more
likely that Maria had either hidden away assets brought from Milos that she used
to provide dowries for herself and her daughters or, at the very least, that she
made promises of delayed payments using assets she had left on Milos.
However it was accomplished, arranging quick marriages was a clever move
on Maria’s part, as it effectively forced Venice’s hand when the matter mush-
roomed into a major diplomatic controversy. For Venice, allowing these mar-
riages to take place was considered more serious than Mocenigo’s having taken