Hurrem Sultan

Origin

Jan 1, 1502

Born in Rohatyn, in the Kingdom of Poland (now Ukraine), Hürrem was born between 1502 or 1504 under the name Aleksandra or Anastazja Lisowska (in Spanish: Alexandra or Anastasia). It is believed that Alexander Józef Lisowski was a descendant of a distant relative of hers due to their surnames, but this is not confirmed. In Western sources she is known as Roxelana or Alexandra, Rojelana, Rosselana, Roxolana, Rossa and Fortunata, but her official name was Hürrem Sultan

Who was she?

Jan 1, 1504

was the chief consort, the first Haseki Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and the legal wife of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, and the mother of Suleiman's successor Selim II.

Appearance and personality

Jan 1, 1504

The European ambassadors of the time portrayed her as a redhead with green (or blue) eyes and a whitish complexion. Among the harem she was a girl with a lively temperament, being very cheerful: the reason why she was baptized as "cheerful" or "smiling."
The Venetian ambassadors described her as attractive but not beautiful, slender and elegant.

Biography

Jan 1, 1509

During the reign of Bayezid II, from 1509 to 1512, she was abducted by the Tatars. In fact, it is reported that in 1509, during one of the slave raids in Eastern Europe, her native Rohatyn was attacked by a Tatar raid, so it is likely that she was enslaved in that year.

Personality

Jan 1, 1520

Hürrem's contemporaries describe her as a woman who was strikingly good-looking, and different from everybody else because of her red hair. Hürrem was also intelligent and had a pleasant personality. Her love of poetry is considered one of the reasons behind her being heavily favoured by Suleiman, who was a great admirer of poetry.

Relationship with Suleiman

Jan 1, 1520

Hürrem Sultan probably entered the harem around sixteen years of age. The precise year that she entered the harem is unknown, but it's believed that she became Suleiman's concubine around the time he became sultan in 1520, because their first child was born in 1521.

The love between Hurrem and Suleiman

Jan 1, 1520

The love story between Hürrem and Suleiman became a legend. In one version, Suleiman is said to have passed by the part of the palace where Hurrem worked, and was enchanted by her beautiful voice, stopped to chat with her, and was impressed by her carefree nature and ability to converse. In other versions, it was Suleiman's mother, Ayşe Hafsa Sultan, who finished raising the young woman and selected Hürrem to spend a night pleasing her son.

Children

Nov 7, 1521

Sehzade Mehmed, Mihrimah Sultan, Selim II, Sehzade Abdullah, Sehzade Bayezid and Sehzade Cihangir

Daugther

Jan 1, 1522

Hürrem's only daughter. On November 26, 1539, he married Damat Rüstem Paşa, later Grand Vizier (1544–1553) and (1555 – 1561). She was one of the wealthiest and most powerful sultanas by birth in Ottoman history.

Advisor (1533-1558)

Jan 1, 1533

After her marriage to Suleiman, Hürrem Sultan would be granted the power to be her advisor and to have an opinion on decisions in the council, she was below the sultan both in the harem and in the state, achieving unprecedented power, known as the cradle of the female sultanate. This made Hürrem a most influential woman in the history of the Ottoman Empire, where her successors would have similar treatment.

Charities

Jan 1, 1539

Aside from her political concerns, Hürrem engaged in several major works of public buildings, from Makkah to Jerusalem (Al-Quds), perhaps modelling her charitable foundations in part after the caliph Harun al-Rashid's consort Zubaida. Among her first foundations were a mosque, two Quranic schools (madrassa), a fountain, and a women's hospital near the women's slave market (Avret Pazary) in Constantinople (Haseki Sultan Complex).

Foreign policy

Jan 1, 1548

Hürrem acted as Suleiman's advisor on matters of state, and seems to have had an influence upon foreign policy and on international politics. Two of her letters to Sigismund II Augustus King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (reigned 1548–1572) have survived, and during her lifetime the Ottoman Empire generally had peaceful relations with the Polish state within a Polish–Ottoman alliance.

Visual tradition

Jan 1, 1550

Although male European artists were denied access to Hürrem in the harem, there are many Renaissance paintings of the famous sultana. Scholars thus agree that European artists created a visual identity for Ottoman women that was largely imagined. The artists Titian, Melchior Lorich and Sebald Beham were all influential in creating a visual representation of Hürrem. Images of the chief consort emphasized her beauty and wealth, and she is almost always depicted with elaborate headwear.

Death

Jan 1, 1558

Hürrem died on 15 April 1558 due to an unknown illness. In the last years of her life she was in very poor health. It is said that the Sultan, in order not to disturb the peace of his wife during the course of her illness, ordered all the musical instruments in the palace to be burned. He did not leave Hürrem's bed until the last day, when she died.

Legacy

Jan 1, 1561

Hürrem is well-known both in modern Turkey and in the West, and is the subject of many artistic works. In 1561, three years after her death, the French author Gabriel Bounin wrote a tragedy titled La Soltane. This tragedy marks the first time the Ottomans were introduced on stage in France.