Roxelana
Hürrem Sultan, also known as Roxelana, was the chief consort and legal wife of Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, mother of his successor Selim II, and the first haseki sultan of the Ottoman Empire. She became one of the most powerful and influential women in Ottoman history, and the first in a series of prominent women who lived during the period that came to be known as the Sultanate of Women.
Presumably born in Ruthenia to a Ruthenian Orthodox family, she was captured by Crimean Tatars during a slave raid and eventually taken via the Crimean trade to Constantinople, the Ottoman capital.
She entered the imperial harem, rose through the ranks and became the favorite concubine of Sultan Suleiman. Breaking Ottoman tradition, he unprecedentedly freed and married Hürrem, making her his legal wife. Sultans had previously married only foreign freeborn noblewomen, if at all, and even then they usually reproduced through slave concubines. She remained in the sultan's court for the rest of her life, enjoying an extremely loving and intimate relationship with her husband, and having at least six children with him, including the future sultan, Selim II, which makes her an ancestor of all the following sultans and present descendants of the Ottoman dynasty. Of Hürrem's six known children, five were male, breaking one of the oldest Ottoman customs according to which each concubine could only give the sultan one male child, to maintain a balance of power between the various women. However, not only did Hürrem bear more children to the sultan after the birth of her first son in 1521, but she was also the mother of all of Suleiman's children born after her entry in the harem at the very beginning of his reign.
Hürrem eventually wielded enormous power, influencing and playing a central role in the politics of the Ottoman Empire. The correspondence between Suleiman and Hürrem, unavailable until the nineteenth century, along with Suleiman's own diaries, confirms her status as the Sultan's most trusted confidant and adviser. During his frequent absences, the pair exchanged passionate love letters. Hürrem included political information and warned of potential uprisings. She also played an active role in the affairs of the empire and even intervened in affairs between the empire and her former home, apparently helping Poland attain its privileged diplomatic status. She supposedly brought a "feminine touch" to diplomatic relations, sending diplomatic letters accompanied by personally embroidered articles to foreign leaders and their relatives. Two of these notable contemporaries were Sigismund II Augustus, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and Mahinbanu Sultan, the favorite sister and intimate counselor of Tahmasp I, who exchanged official letters with Hürrem as well as with an Ottoman imperial princess who was probably Mihrimah Sultan, daughter of Hürrem and Suleiman.
Hürrem patronized major public works. She died in April 1558, in Constantinople and was buried in an elegant and beautifully adorned mausoleum adjacent to the site where her husband would join her eight years later in another mausoleum within the grand Süleymaniye Mosque complex in Istanbul.
Name
has written that her birth name may have been either Aleksandra or Anastazja Lisowska, but this is disputed. Primary sources of the 16th century do not record the premarital name and surname of Hürrem Sultan. In Polish tradition, her name was Alexandra, and in Ukrainian, she was called Anastasia. American researcher Galina Yermolenko suggests that the name Anastasia had arisen in literature under the influence of folklore and, referring to Mykhailo Orlich, cites a Bukovinian folk song derived from Mauritius Goslavsky's poem "Podilla". It is not known how original those stories are and whether they date back to before 1880, when the name Anastasia Lisovska first appeared in Mykhailo Orlovsky's Roksolana or Anastasia Lisovskaya. Her father's supposed name — Gavrylo Lisovsky — first appeared in works of fiction as well.In European reports and accounts, Hürrem was always referred to as Rossa, Rosselana, Roxelana, or Roksolana. This name was first used by the Holy Roman Empire ambassador Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq in his compendium Turkish Letters.
Among the Ottomans, she was known mainly as Haseki Hürrem Sultan or Hürrem Haseki Sultan. Hürrem or Khurrem means "the joyful and endearing one" in Persian. However, "Hürrem" was most likely not her first Ottoman name, especially as Suleiman is said to have named her himself. In the naming rite that masters arrogated to themselves, male and female owners often played the poet. They chose to confer — to impose — on their female slaves the names of flowers, precious stones, and other pleasures of life. For imperial concubines, endless variations of "rose", "grace", and "delicacy" were always in vogue. Hürrem must have acquired such a name upon her acceptance of Islam before she entered the imperial harem and became Suleiman's new concubine, but this name, if it existed, remains lost to history.
Origin
While no documentation exists about Hürrem's life before she entered the harem, legends about her origins arose in literary works.Many sources state that Hürrem came from Ruthenia, which was then part of the Polish Crown. Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq called her "Roxelana" based on her supposed origin from the Ruthenian territory in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, at the time often known as Roxolania. Samuel Twardowski in his poem "The Great Embassy" noted that her father was an Orthodox priest from Rohatyn. Michalo Lituanus, former ambassador of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to the Crimean Khanate in the mid-16th century, wrote that "the wife of the present Turkish emperor who loves her dearly — mother of his primogenital son who will govern after him, was kidnapped from our land".
The Venetian ambassador Bernardo Navagero called Hürrem " … di nazione russa". Another Venetian ambassador, Giovanni Battista Trevisano, called her "Sultana, ch'è di Rusi". The Venetian military leader Marco Antonio Bragadin also called Hürrem "donna di nazione russa". The belief that Hürrem was of Russian origin may have been a reinterpretation of the words Rosselana and Rossa.
During the reign of Selim I, sometime between 1512 and 1520, the Tatars of the Crimean Khanate kidnapped her during one of their slave raids in Eastern Europe. The Tatars may have first taken her to the Crimean city of Kaffa, a major centre of the Ottoman slave trade, before she was taken to Constantinople.
According to Kutbeddin el-Mekki, an envoy of the sharif of Mecca, and the memoirs of Shaykh Qutb al-Din al-Nahrawali, a Meccan religious figure who visited Constantinople in 1558, she had been a servant in the household of Hançerli Hanzade Fatma Zeynep Sultan, daughter of Şehzade Mahmud and granddaughter of Sultan Bayezid II, who gifted her to Suleiman when he rose to the throne. Some traditions claim that Hafsa Sultan, mother of Suleiman, selected Hürrem as a gift for her son. Other versions assert that it was Suleiman's confidant and future grand vizier Ibrahim Pasha who gifted Hürrem to Suleiman.
Relationship with Suleiman
Hürrem Sultan likely entered the harem around fifteen years of age. The precise year that she entered the harem is not recorded, but it's accepted that she became Suleiman's new favourite concubine around the time he became the sultan in 1520, because their first child was born in 1521.Hürrem's unprecedented rise from a harem slave to Suleiman's legal wife attracted immense jealousy, acrimony and disfavor not only in the harem, but also from the general populace. By the early 1520s, she had become Suleiman's most prominent consort beside Gülbahar Mahidevran Hatun, who was the mother of Suleiman's eldest surviving son. Before devoting himself exclusively to Hürrem and becoming monogamous, Süleyman had followed the precedent of his ancestors and taken a number of concubines when he was a prince but after becoming the sultan, he fell deeply in love with his new concubine, Hürrem.
Marco Minio, who was in Constantinople from September 1521 to January 1522, noted in his official report that Süleyman frequently visited the Old Palace around that time which was interpreted that as a sign of lasciviousness. However, these visits must have been related to the burgeoning relationship
between him and Hürrem as by the fall of 1524, it was common knowledge in Constantinople that the sultan spent his nights with the same woman and did not seek other sexual partners. Besides, the sultan having recently lost three of his children – Şehzade Mahmud, Şehzade Murad and Raziye Sultan in the fall of 1521, all of a sudden – must have also paid these visits to closely monitor the rearing and health of his children. For instance, a marginal note in a revenue register records significant sums of money paid by the sultan and his mother to a healer named Abdi Dede for Şehzade Mehmed's recovery from an unspecified illness. Indeed, by 1524, when Süleyman and Hurrem had children, the ambassador Zen could comment that "the Seigneur is not lustful” and that he "remained constant to one woman". According to Luigi Bassano, Süleyman ignored the past custom of the sultans and did not take a succession of concubines; rather, to preserve his faithfulness to Hürrem, he married off, as virgins, nearly all the eligible concubines in his harem. While the relationship between Süleyman and Hürrem deepened through mutual devotion, love and many children, Mahidevran must have maintained a level of prestige as the mother of Süleyman's eldest surviving son. However, in 1526, the ambassador Bragadin reported that the sultan no longer paid any attention to the mother of his eldest son, but concentrated and lavished all his love and affection on Hürrem. Bragadin further reported that, after Süleyman had turned away from her, Mahidevran spent all her time caring for her son who was her "whole joy".
After the birth of their first child in 1521, Suleiman scandalized the harem by renouncing all other sexual partners and marrying off the other concubines to servitors and favorites. Suleiman fathered at least six children by Hurrem in ten years.
While the exact dates for the births of her children are disputed, there is academic consensus that the births of her first five children – Şehzade Mehmed, Mihrümah or Mihrimah Sultan, Şehzade Selim, Şehzade Abdullah and Şehzade Bayezid – occurred quickly over the next five to six years. Suleiman and Hürrem's last son, Şehzade Cihangir was born later, around 1531, with what appears to have been a deformity of his shoulder, but by that time Hürrem had borne enough healthy sons to secure the future of the Ottoman dynasty. That Hürrem was allowed to give birth to more than one son was an utter violation of one of the oldest imperial harem principles: "one concubine mother – one son," which was designed to prevent both the mother's influence over the sultan and the feuds of full-brothers for the throne. She was to bear the majority of Suleiman's children. Hürrem gave birth to her first son Mehmed in 1521 and then to at least four more sons, destroying Mahidevran's status as the mother of the sultan's only surviving son.
Suleiman's mother, Hafsa Sultan, partially suppressed the rivalry between the two women. According to Bernardo Navagero's report, as a result of the bitter rivalry a fight between the two women broke out, with Mahidevran beating and humiliating Hürrem, which enraged Suleiman. Peirce concurs to the episode's authenticity but considers it embellished to at least some extent especially given the staunch decorum of the harem. Peirce wondered whether Mahidevran had an irascible personality or was prone to violence but all other references to her in Venetian reports were apparently exemplary but the incident doesn't seem preposterous to her as Mahidevran's self-defense to the sultan—the assault on her rank as senior concubine—is wholly plausible.
Another incident reported in 1526 by Pietro Bragadin delineated Suleiman's deep devotion to Hürrem and that very early in her career she felt secure enough in his esteem to exert her will, and that the sultan was willing to bend protocol to preserve their relationship:
"The sultan was given by a sanjak bey two beautiful Russian maidens, one for his mother and one for him. When they arrived in the palace, his second wife , whom he esteems at present, became extremely unhappy and flung herself to the ground weeping. The mother, who had given her maiden to the sultan, was sorry about what she had done, took her back, and sent her to a sanjak bey as wife, and the sultan agreed to
send his to another sanjak bey, because his wife would have perished from sorrow if these maidens—or even one of them—had remained in the palace."
The chronicled reactions of Hafsa, Suleiman's mother, and the sultan himself illustrated how they attempted to mollify the distraught Roxelana. Suleiman's mother—custodian of the sultan's conduct—did not or perhaps could not act to prevent this unprecedented relationship.
Prof. Leslie Peirce theorises that it was in early May 1534 that Suleiman married Hürrem— her latest stance about the date of marriage is albeit in contrast to her earlier stance— the former being that the marriage happened prior to 1534 as Süleyman wouldn't have married Hürrem in this particular period in observance of the mourning period owing to the death of his mother, Hafsa Sultan who had died on 19 March 1534 and by 6 June 1534, Süleyman had already left the capital to embark on his first Imperial military expedition against the Safavids. This marriage happened in an unprecedentedly magnificent formal ceremony which scandalised the whole empire. Never before had a former slave been elevated to the status of the sultan's lawful spouse, a development which astonished observers in the palace and in the city.
After the death of Suleiman's mother Hafsa Sultan in 1534, Hürrem's influence in the palace increased even further as she took over the ruling of the Imperial Harem. Either when Suleiman freed and married her, or in the years before, Hürrem was bestowed the title of Haseki Sultan. Hürrem became the first consort to receive the title Haseki Sultan. This title, used for a century, reflected the great power of imperial consorts in the Ottoman court, elevating their status higher than Ottoman princesses. In this case, Suleiman not only broke the old custom, but probably tried to begin a new tradition for the future Ottoman sultans: to marry in a formal ceremony and to give their consorts significant influence on the court, but even then only Osman II and Ibrahim I were the exceptions who contracted legal marriages though with much difficulty and which later became one of the reasons that led to the deposition of these two sultans concerned.
Hürrem's salary was 2,000 akçe a day, making her one of the highest-paid Ottoman Imperial women. With respect to stipend, mothers of princes before the reign of Suleiman did not enjoy a status much greater than that of the women that followed beginning from Hürrem: in 1513, as the mother of the heir apparent, Hafsa Sultan received a stipend of 150 aspers a day. The gap between Hafsa's stipend and Hurrem's stipend of 2000 aspers a day at a parallel point in her career only forty years later further underlines the exceptional nature of Süleyman's treatment of Hurrem. Suleiman's singularity as a sultan in remaining faithful and loving to only one woman and then unprecedentedly marrying her amidst unmatched majestic pomp, made Hürrem to be widely deemed a sorceress who by the use of potions, charms, and magic arts had bewitched and completely captured the sultan's heart and soul.
Especially after the death of Suleiman's mother, Hafsa Sultan, in 1534, Hürrem became Suleiman's most trusted news source. In one of her letters to Suleiman, she informs him about the situation of the plague in the capital. She wrote, "My dearest Sultan! If you ask about Istanbul, the city still suffers from the plague; however, it is not like the previous one. God willing, it will go away as soon as you return to the city. Our ancestors said that the plague goes away once the trees shed their leaves in autumn."
Later, Hürrem became the first woman to remain in the sultan's court for the rest of her life. In the Ottoman imperial family tradition, a sultan's consort was to remain in the harem only until her son came of age, after which he would be sent away from the capital to govern a faraway province, and his mother would follow him. This tradition was called Sancak Beyliği. The consorts were never to return to Constantinople unless their sons succeeded to the throne. In defiance of this age-old custom, Hürrem stayed behind in the harem, even after her sons went to govern the empire's remote provinces.
Remaining in Constantinople, she had already moved out of the harem located in the Old Palace and into the Topkapı Palace after her marriage. However, earlier it was often assumed that she and her entourage moved to Topkapı, not because of her marriage but only after a fire in 1541 destroyed much of the Old Palace. Either way, this was another significant break from established customs, as Mehmed the Conqueror had specifically issued a decree to the effect that no women would be allowed to reside in the same building where government affairs were conducted. After Hürrem resided at Topkapı it became known as the New Palace.
She wrote many love letters to Suleiman when he was away for campaigns, only seven of which survive today. In one of her letters, she wrote:
"After I put my head on the ground and kiss the soil that your blessed feet step upon, my nation's sun and wealth my sultan, if you ask about me, your servant who has caught fire from the zeal of missing you, I am like the one whose liver has been broiled; whose chest has been ruined; whose eyes are filled with tears, who cannot distinguish anymore between night and day; who has fallen into the sea of yearning; desperate, mad with your love; in a worse situation than Ferhat and Majnun, this passionate love of yours, your slave, is burning because I have been separated from you. Like a nightingale, whose sighs and cries for help do not cease, I am in such a state due to being away from you. I would pray to Allah to not afflict this pain even upon your enemies. My dearest sultan! As it has been one-and-a-half months since I last heard from you, Allah knows that I have been crying night and day waiting for you to come back home. While I was crying without knowing what to do, the one and only Allah allowed me to receive good news from you. Once I heard the news, Allah knows, I came to life once more since I had died while waiting for you."
Suleiman's letters to Hürrem, however, didn't survive but Muhibbi's plethora of odes did. Suleiman was as magnificent a poet as he was an emperor. He used to compose often under the nom de plume of 'Muhibbi' which meant 'Lover' in Arabic. Following the tradition of diwan poetry, the Sultan becomes his loved one's servant and accepts the suffering and sacrifice caused by neglect.
A sensually fervent poem by Muhibbi:
"Now that you have a free hand,
Kiss the coral lips of your sweetheart,
First press your face to hers,
Then kiss her enchanting eyes!
Your head is crowned with glory,
For you are at her feet!
Take her lips in your mouth,
Be a man, kiss and embrace her properly, with all your heart, body and soul,
There is no sugar sweeter than her, she tastes like wine
She is the one who serves you drinks,
Bow down before her, kiss her clothes.
When her hands are busy playing games,
Close your arms around and caress her,
Fondle her sweet-scented eyebrows,
And the beauty spot that smells sweet.
Muhibbi, she is the gift from Allah to you!
Appreciate her at her true worth
Without ceasing to lavish caresses on her neck,
Kiss her smiling lips again and again."
Yet, Muhibbi's most famous ode to Hürrem remains this:
"Throne of my lonely niche, my wealth, my love, my moonlight.
My most sincere friend, my confidant, my very existence, my Sultan, my one and only love.
The most beautiful among the beautiful...
My springtime, my merry faced love, my daytime, my sweetheart, laughing leaf...
My plants, my sweet, my rose, the one only who does not distress me in this world...
My Istanbul, my Karaman, the earth of my Anatolia
My Badakhshan, my Baghdad and Khorasan
My woman of the beautiful hair, my love of the slanted brow, my love of eyes full of mischief...
I'll sing your praises always
I, lover of the tormented heart, Muhibbi of the eyes full of tears, I am happy."
Suleiman may well have composed this oft-quoted verse letter for his new wife during his first Iranian campaign. In the fifth couplet, she is the empire that he knows intimately but also the eastern lands that he may never possess. By convention, the poet often included his pen name in the final line of a poem; Sultan Suleiman, however, also enshrines the memory of his Empress by pairing her name with his own.
Suleiman after becoming sultan in 1520, had a complete monogamous relationship with Hürrem until her death and remained devout to her for rest of his entire life. He mourned her death throughout rest of his life, banning and avoiding celebrations and festivities in the palace, visiting her tomb often. Hürrem's death deeply affected Suleiman, transforming his final years into a period of increasing anger, isolation and personal suffering as he grappled with the loss of his closest confidante, adviser, and soulmate, a relationship that had defined his life and reign. His physical and emotional health deteriorated, marked by continued frustration with the empire's stagnation and escalating conflicts among his sons, leaving him feeling increasingly bitter and despairing as his rule neared its end. There is no example of an Ottoman sultan other than Suleiman who had a complete monogamous relationship with a woman during most of his life. Although Suleiman did have relationships and children with other concubines before he rose to the Ottoman throne and meeting Hürrem, during most of his life and his entire reign as Sultan, Hürrem was his only consort and the only woman whom he had a relationship with, despite the Ottoman traditions barring it. Therefore, this made their love story fairy-tale looking and even led to accusations and rumors that Hürrem had made the Sultan bewitched and that she was a witch.