Fatima Hatun née Beatrice Michiel: A Renegade Woman Between Early Modern Venice and Istanbul - A talk by Eric Dursteler March 31, 2011

During the last decades of the sixteenth century, Beatrice Michiel fled an unhappy marriage in Venice for Istanbul. She converted to Islam, taking the name Fatima, married a high Ottoman official, and because of her access to the imperial harem, she was able to play a significant role in Veneto-Ottoman relations during this troubled time. Her experience opens a window onto the often ignored experience of renegade women on the Mediterranean frontier, and suggests ways in which women used the physical space and the cultural and political boundaries of the early modern Mediterranean to reformulate their identities, navigate institutions of power, and exert agency and shaping power over their own lives.

Eric Dursteler is a professor of History at Brigham Young University. His most recent work includes "Power and Information: The Venetian Postal System in the Mediterranean, 1573-1645" (2009) and "Fatima Hatun née Beatrice Michiel: Renegade Women in the Early Modern Mediterranean" (2009).

Official Website: http://www.ias.umn.edu/thursdayscals11.php