Pirates, Renegades, and Refugees in the Early Modern Mediterranean

Undergraduate / Graduate

An enslaved Italian woman becomes the de facto ruler of the Ottoman Empire. A Muslim diplomat expelled from Spain exchanges letters with a renowned Dutch Orientalist. A Spanish soldier held captive for five years in Algeria returns home to write the first modern novel. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the encounter between Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Mediterranean made thousands of lives like these possible, men and women who traversed the borders between countries, languages, and religions. This course will examine cross-cultural encounters in the early modern Mediterranean world by focusing on three closely related dynamics: piracy, captivity, and religious conversion. We will explore questions such as: How did an upsurge of piracy contribute to the enslavement of millions of people on both shores of the Mediterranean? How did captives advocate for themselves and write about their experiences? What motivated early modern people to adopt a new faith? By reading firsthand accounts from captives, travelers, and migrants, we will look closely at the processes that made early modernity a time of unprecedented mobility for people around the globe. This course is open to all students in the College, and no prior knowledge of early modern history is required.