 Fleeing “the Vomit of Infidelity”

Borders, Conversion, and Muslim Women’s

Agency

Eric Dursteler

In late March 1637, the mighty ships of Venice’s Mediterranean fleet dropped

anchor in the bay of Milos, the westernmost island in the Cyclades. Commanded
by Captain Pietro Mocenigo, the fleet was tasked with keeping Venetian ship-
ping safe in the corsair-infested waters of the Aegean Sea. Late one night, Ma-
ria Gozzadini and her daughters—Aissè, seventeen; Eminè, nine; and Catigè,
four—slipped aboard Mocenigo’s ship in the company of several “men from the
galley.” Except for the hour, this was not unusual, Venetian ships often carried
passengers, indeed several women were already on board. This mother and her
daughters were far from normal passengers, however, and their flight from Mi-
los produced a confrontation that eventually threatened the generally peaceful
relations between the Venetian and Ottoman Empires. Their story provides rare
insight into the experiences of women in the early modern Mediterranean, who
infrequently appear in the documentary record, and the ways they were able to
shape their lives and negotiate the patriarchal cultural and political structures of
their day.
Maria was a thirty-seven-year-old widow whose husband, Hassan Pasha, had
been the chief Ottoman military official resident on Milos. She was from the Goz-
zadini family, which had ruled the small islands of Kea, Kythnos, and Siphnos
since the fourteenth century. She claimed to have been kidnapped at age thir-
teen, taken to Milos, and forcibly married to Hassan. It is more likely that Ma-
ria’s family had arranged the marriage, since matches between Christian women
and Muslim men were common. Non-Muslim families could advance their status
through well-arranged mixed marriages, could avoid paying a dowry and a groom
gift, and would often receive a bride-price from the Muslim groom. Voluntary
relationships between Orthodox and Muslim, often in the face of parental disap-
proval, were also not uncommon. Clearly, the marriage of one of the few Ottoman
officials in the region and the daughter of a prominent Greek family could hold
attractions to both parties, though Maria unquestionably felt otherwise.