| Hürrem Sultan | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Portrait by Titian titled La Sultana Rossa, c. 1550 | |||||
| Haseki Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (Imperial Consort) | |||||
| Tenure | c. 1533 – 15 April 1558 | ||||
| Predecessor | position established | ||||
| Successor | Nurbanu Sultan | ||||
| Born | Aleksandra Anastazja Lisowska c. 1504 Rohatyn, Ruthenia, Kingdom of Poland (now Ukraine) | ||||
| Died | 15 April 1558 (aged 53–54) Topkapı Palace, Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now Istanbul, Turkey) | ||||
| Burial | Süleymaniye Mosque, Istanbul | ||||
| Spouse | |||||
| Issue | |||||
| |||||
| Dynasty | Ottoman (by marriage) | ||||
| Father | Hawryło Lisowski[1] | ||||
| Mother | Leksandra Lisowska[1] | ||||
| Religion | Sunni Islam, previously Eastern Orthodox Christian | ||||
Hürrem Sultan (Turkish: [hyɾˈɾæm suɫˈtan]; Ottoman Turkish: خرّم سلطان, "the joyful one"; c. 1504 – 15 April 1558), also known as Roxelana (Ukrainian: Роксолана, romanized: Roksolana), was the chief consort and legal wife of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. She became one of the most powerful and influential women in Ottoman history,[2] and as well a prominent figure during the period known as the Sultanate of Women.
Born in Ruthenia (then an eastern region of the Kingdom of Poland, now Rohatyn, Ukraine) 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.[3]
She entered the Imperial Harem where her name was changed to Hürrem, rose through the ranks and became the favourite concubine of Sultan Suleiman. Breaking Ottoman tradition, he married Hürrem, making her his legal wife. Sultans had previously married only foreign freeborn noblewomen. She was the first imperial consort to receive the title, created for her, to Haseki Sultan. Hürrem remained in the sultan's court for the rest of her life, enjoying a close relationship with her husband, and having six children with him, including the future sultan, Selim II, which makes Hürrem an ancestor of all following sultans and currently living members of the Ottoman dynasty. Of Hürrem's six children, five were male, breaking the Ottoman custom according to which each concubine could only give the Sultan one male child, to maintain a balance of power between the various consorts. 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 into the harem at the beginning of his reign.
Hürrem eventually achieved power, influencing the politics of the Ottoman Empire. Through her husband, she played an active role in affairs of the state. She probably acted as the sultan's advisor, wrote diplomatic letters to King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland (r. 1548–1572) and patronized major public works (including the Haseki Sultan Complex and the Hurrem Sultan Bathhouse). She died in 1558, in Constantinople and was buried in a mausoleum within the Süleymaniye Mosque complex.
- ^ a b Dr Galina I Yermolenko (2013). Roxolana in European Literature, History and Culturea. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 275. ISBN 978-1-409-47611-5. Archived from the original on 14 January 2017.
- ^ Galina Yermolenko (2005). Roxolana: The Greatest Empresse of the East. Muslim World, Volume 95, Issue 2, pp. 231–248.
- ^ "2 Reasons Why Hurrem Sultan and Empress Ki were similar". Hyped For History. 13 September 2022. Retrieved 19 September 2022.