Othello ben Mohammed Anoun (1495-1539) was a general with the Venetian Armed Forces.
Othello was born in Tunis in 1495 to parents of noble lineage. Othello left Tunis aged 7 to join his father who was stationed in Venice as a diplomat. While travelling to Venice the Venetian merchant ship on which Othello was travelling came under attack by Ottoman forces raiding Peloponnesos and he was forced to fight as a soldier. After sustaining heavy damage and consequent flooding, the ship ran aground near Kalamata and Othello was, with the rest of the crew, captured and enslaved by local militias.The young Othello was taken to Alexandria where he encountered a diverse population of people from many parts of the globe and observed how the wealthy consumed the ground up bodies of deceased slaves - a form of medicinal cannibalism. It is unclear how long he was held or how he escaped captivity but records show that later he briefly studied naval warfare at the Scuola del Bombardieri in Venice under Paolo da Canal.
Othello was a lieutenant under Gian Giacomo Trivulzio at the battle of Marignano in 1515. Othello later distinguished himself during the siege of Rhodes in 1522 before being stationed in Cyprus. In 1539 he led the Venetian reinforcements in repelling the Ottoman invasion of Cyprus, after Turkish fleets had been spotted gathering around Rhodes in preparation for attacks on Venetian strongholds on the Aegan sea. Othello is believed to have murdered his wife, Desdemona, whilst in Cyprus. He committed suicide shortly after the incident. His ensign was charged with treason for actions leading up to the event. Contemporary reports suggesting that his wife was bludgeoned to death with a sandbag, and the scene doctored in order to look like an accident, were shown to be false by a subsequent investigation.
His wife's body was shipped back to Venice and was interred in the family tomb at the church of Madonna Dell'Orto. Othello was buried within 24 hours, according to the Islamic custom, in a non-denominational pauper's graveyard in Cyprus.