Roxelana

Hürrem Sultan (; , "the joyful one";  1504 – 15 April 1558), also known as Roxelana (), was the chief consort of Sultan Suleiman and the first Haseki Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and the legal wife of Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, and the mother of Suleiman's son, Sultan Selim II. She was one of the most powerful and influential women in Ottoman history,Galina Yermolenko (2005). Roxolana: The Greatest Empresse of the East. Muslim World, Volume 95, Issue 2, pp. 231–248. and was the first of the powerful Ottoman women to rule during the era known as the Sultanate of Women.

Hürrem Sultan was born in Ruthenia (then the eastern part of the Kingdom of Poland, now Rohatyn, Ukraine) to a Ruthenian Orthodox family. She was captured by the Crimean Tatars during a slave raid and eventually sold through the Crimean slave trade to Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire.

She was given the name Hürrem after entering the Imperial Harem, and her rank rose, and she became the favorite concubine of Sultan Suleiman. Suleiman broke Ottoman law by marrying Hürrem and recognizing her as his legitimate wife. Sultans had previously only married noble women born into foreign royal families. Hürrem Sultan was the first royal consort to receive the title Haseki Sultan, and the title Haseki Sultan was first created for her.  Hürrem Sultan supported the Sultan in various political matters throughout her life. Suleiman and Hürrem had a very close relationship, and Hürrem and Suleiman had six children, including the future Sultan Selim II. As a result, all subsequent Ottoman sultans and the current living members of the Ottoman dynasty are descendants of Hürrem. Five of Hürrem's six children were boys, but having five sons violated Ottoman custom, as each concubine could only bear one son in order to maintain a balance of power between them. However, after the birth of her first son in 1521, Hürrem not only gave birth to five more children, rather, after Suleiman became Sultan, she also became the mother of all the children born to Suleiman.

When Hürrem gained power, she influenced the politics of the Ottoman Empire. Through her husband, she played an active role in state affairs. She probably consulted with the Sultan on various matters and wrote diplomatic letters to King Sigismund II of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania (1548-1572). Hürrem built many major public buildings (including the Haseki Sultan Complex and the Hürrem Sultan Bathhouse). She died in Constantinople in 1558 and was buried in a mausoleum within the Süleymaniye Mosque complex.

 Names 
Leslie P. Pierce writes that her birth name may have been Alexandra or Anastasia Lisowska. To the Ottomans, she was originally known as Haseki Hürrem Sultan or Hürrem Haseki Sultan. The name Hürrem or Khurrem () means "joyful" in Persian. The name Roxalene comes from the word Roxolanes. The name Roxalene was used by the Ottomans to describe girls from Podolia and Galicia who were captured in slave raids.

 Origin 

Most sources agree that Hürrem was originally from Ruthenia, then part of the Polish kingdom. She was born in Rohatyn,  southeast of Lwów (Lviv), a major city in the Ruthenian region of the Kingdom of Poland, now in Ukraine. Hürrem Sultan's native language was Ruthenian, the proto-language of modern Ukrainian. According to sources from the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the Polish poet Samuel Twardowski (d. 1661), who studied Hürrem Sultan in Turkey, stated that Hürrem was probably born to a man named Hawryło Lisowski, an Orthodox priest of Ruthenian origin, and his wife was named Leksandra."The Speech of Ibrahim at the Coronation of Maximilian II", Thomas Conley, Rhetorica: A Journal of the History of Rhetoric, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Summer 2002), 266.Kemal H. Karpat, Studies on Ottoman Social and Political History: Selected Articles and Essays, (Brill, 2002), p. 756.

Between 1512 and 1520, during the reign of Selim I, Hürrem was abducted by Crimean Tatars during the Crimean-Nogai slave raids in Eastern Europe. The Tatars probably took her first to the Crimean city of Kaffa before taking her to Constantinople. Kaffa was a major center of the Ottoman slave trade. The Meccan religious person Shaykh Qutb al-Din al-Nahrawi, who visited Constantinople in 1558, mentioned in his memoirs that Hürrem was a concubine of Hänserli Hanzade Fatma Zeynep Sultan. Hänserli Hanzade Fatma Sultan was the daughter of Şehzade Mahmud (son of Bayezid II). Hänserli Hanzade Fatma Sultan sent Hürrem to the harem of Suleiman after Suleiman ascended the throne.

In Constantinople, Suleiman's mother Hafsa Sultan chose Hürrem as a concubine for her son. Other versions claim that Suleiman's confidant and future Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha brought Hürrem to Suleiman's harem. Hürrem later became the first Haseki Sultan of the harem of the Ottoman Empire. Mikalos Lituanas wrote in the 16th century that "the most beloved wife of the present Turkish emperor - the mother of the son of the present Turkish emperor - was kidnapped from our country".

European ambassadors of the time called her Roxelana, meaning "Ruthenian woman" or "the Ruthenian one", because she was said to be of Ruthenian descent. She has many portraits and is the only woman to have more than one portrait in the Ottoman Empire, although some images were created through fictional imagination.

 Relationship with Suleiman 

Hürrem Sultan probably entered the harem at the age of sixteen. The exact year she entered the harem is unknown, but it is believed that when Suleiman became Sultan in 1520, she became his concubine, as their first child was born in 1521.

Hürrem's unprecedented rise from harem maid to Suleiman's legal wife made her the object of jealousy and revulsion not only from her rivals in the harem, but also from the general public. Hürrem soon became Suleiman's most influential concubine, similar to Gulbahar Mahidevran Hatun, and a close relationship developed between Hürrem and Suleiman. Although the exact dates of her children's birth are disputed, there is academic consensus that her first five children – Şehzade Mehmed, Mihrimah Sultan, Selim II, Şehzade Abdullah, and Şehzade Bayezid – were all 5 to 6 years younger than each other. Suleiman and Hürrem's last child, Şehzade Cihangir, was born in 1531, but he was physically ill, but even then, Hürrem also gave birth to sons who were healthy enough to ascend to the throne.

Hurrem was allowed to have multiple sons, in complete violation of the old imperial harem policy, "one concubine mother - one son". This rule was designed to prevent both the influence of the mother over the sultan and the conflict between the princes for the throne. In 1521, Hurrem gave birth to her first son, Mehmed (who died in 1543), and then gave birth to four more sons, thereby eroding 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.Selçuk Aksin Somel: Historical Dictionary of the Ottoman Empire, Oxford, 2003, , p. 123  According to Bernardo Navajero's account, the intense rivalry led to a fight between the two women, with Mahidevran beating Hürrem, which angered Suleiman. According to Turkish historian Necdet Sakaoglu, these allegations are completely false. After the death of Suleiman's mother Hafsa Sultan in 1534, Hürrem's influence in the palace increased and she assumed control of the harem. Hürrem later became Suleiman's only wife and received the title Haseki, Haseki meaning "beloved". Suleiman freed Hürrem and married her, already having been a Haseki Sultan (at that time, a woman's name or title with the word sultan in it indicated that she was a member of the dynasty).

Around 1533, Suleiman married Hürrem in a lavish ceremony. Never before had a slave concubine been elevated to the status of a sultan's legal wife, so the marriage of Hürrem and Suleiman surprised palace and city observers.Mansel, Philip (1998). Constantinople : City of the World's Desire, 1453–1924. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. . p, 86. The wedding celebration took place in 1534.

Hürrem was the first Ottoman sultana to receive the title of Haseki Sultan. This title, used for a century, reflected the great power of royal wives (most of whom were former slaves) at the Ottoman court, elevating their status above that of Ottoman princesses. In this, Süleyman not only broke with old customs, but also introduced a new law for future Ottoman sultans: to marry in a formal ceremony and to receive assistance from their wives in various court matters. Hürrem's salary was 2,000 akces per day, which was considered the highest salary in the Ottoman Empire. After the marriage of Hürrem and Sultan Süleyman, a rumor spread among the common people that the Sultan had abdicated the throne to his wife and retired. Also, in Ottoman society, mothers played a dominant role in guiding their sons' education and careers.

After the death of Süleyman's mother Hafsa Sultan in 1534, Hürrem became Süleyman's most trusted source of news. In one of her letters to Süleyman, she informed him of the situation of the plague in the capital. She wrote, 
"My dear Sultan! If you ask about Istanbul, I will say that the city is still in the grip of the plague; however, it has spread much worse this time than last time. God willing, the plague will be gone before you return to the city. My family used to say that the plague goes away when the trees shed their leaves in autumn."
Later, Hürrem would assist Suleiman in various political matters for most of his life, and was the first woman to assist the sultan in political matters. According to Ottoman tradition, a sultan's wife could only remain in the harem until her son was of age (around 16 or 17), after which the prince would be sent to rule a distant province away from the capital, and his mother would accompany him. This tradition was called the Sanjak Beyligi. The mothers of princes would not return to Constantinople until their sons had been crowned sultans.Imber, Colin (2002). The Ottoman Empire, 1300–1650 : The Structure of Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. . p. 90. Breaking with this ancient custom, Hürrem remained in the harem, even when her sons went to other provinces as Sanjak Beys.After her stay in Constantinople, Hurrem moved permanently from the harem in the Old Palace (Eski Saray) to the Topkapi Palace. Many believe that she moved to the Topkapi Palace not because of the fire in the Old Palace, but because of her marriage to Suleiman. However, Hurrem's move to the Topkapi Palace violated another traditional custom, which was that Mehmed the Conqueror had specifically issued a decree that no woman could live in the same building as the Sultan because it was where official business was conducted. After Hurrem's stay in Topkapi, it became known as the New Palace (Saray-i Jedid).

While Suleiman was away on campaign, Hurrem wrote many love letters to Suleiman.  One of his letters is given below:

"When I kiss the soil of your holy feet with my head on the ground, I see the sun and wealth of my homeland, O my Sultan, if you ask about me I will say, I have been burned by the fire of missing you, my heart is only written with your name; my chest is destroyed by pain; my eyes are filled with tears, I can no longer find the difference between night and day; the longing that makes me fall into the sea; I am mad, desperate for your love; I am in a worse situation than Ferhat and Majnun, my passionate love burns because I am separated from you. Like a nightingale, my sighs and cries for help do not stop, I am in such a state because of being away from you. I will pray to Allah not to rain this pain even on your enemies. My dear Sultan! I do not remember the last time you called me Hurrem, it has been a month and a half, Allah knows that I am for you  I am crying day and night. I want you to come home soon. When I was crying and didn't know what to do, only Allah gave me the opportunity to hear good news from you. Allah knows that after hearing the news, I came back to life, because I died waiting for you."

Sultan Suleiman composed this poem for Hürrem Sultan in his pseudo-poem Muhibbi:
"My lonely niche throne, my wealth, my love, my moonlight.

My most sincere friend, my confidant, my existence, my sultan, my only love.

The most beautiful of the beautiful...

My springtime, the love of my joyful face, my daylight, my sweetheart, the smiling leaves...

My plants, my sweetness, my roses, the only one who does not hurt me in this world...

My Istanbul, my Karaman, my Anatolian world

My Badakhshan, my Baghdad and Khorasan

My beautiful-haired woman, the love of a slanting brow, the love of eyes full of mischief...

I will always sing your praises

My, the lover of a tormented heart, Muhibbi of tearful eyes, I am happy."

 State affairs 
Hürrem Sultan was described as the first woman in Ottoman history to participate in state affairs. Hürrem Sultan was able to achieve power that no concubine had been able to achieve before. She officially became Suleiman's wife, and although there was no law at the time prohibiting marriage between a sultan and a concubine, the entire Ottoman court was against the marriage of Hürrem and Suleiman. Suleiman did not obey the law. The marriage probably took place in June 1533, although the exact date of this event is still unknown. Hürrem's power was unlimited, as she received the title of Haseki.

Suleiman spent most of his time on military campaigns, as a result of which he needed someone reliable to provide him with information about the situation in the palace. He received information about the palace from Hürrem Sultan. The letters that Suleiman wrote to Hürrem have been preserved and are still preserved.  These reveal the Sultan Suleiman's great love and affection for Roxelana (Hürrem Sultan). Historical scholars have noted that, in the early stages of his reign, Suleiman did not correspond with Haseki, but with his mother, to obtain information about the palace, because Hurrem did not know enough Ottoman Turkish. In fact, the first letters Hurrem wrote to the Sultan were written in crooked letters. Until she learned the language, she used to write letters with the help of others.

In her letters to her husband, Hurrem greeted politicians and the Sheikh-ul-Islam of Istanbul and talked about the problems of Istanbul.Pierce, Leslie. "The Imperial Harem : Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire". Hurrem was also interested in learning about statesmen and their problems, and she discussed these issues with Suleiman in her letters. For the first time in Ottoman history, Hürrem began to use the title Şah, meaning queen, after becoming a legitimate wife.  In most reports, her signature was written as Hurrem Şah. This expression is found in the Haseki Hospital report and in the Jerusalem Soup Kitchen and again in the Haseki Hospital inscription. "Devletlu Ismetlu Hürrem Şah Sultan Aliyetü'ş-şan Hazretleri". These expressions were shown as evidence of this signature.Pierce, Leslie. "The Imperial Harem : Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire".

Hurrem was one of the most educated women in the world at the time and played an important role in the political affairs of the Ottoman Empire. Due to Hurrem Sultan's intelligence, Sultan Suleiman sought advice from her on various matters and it seems that Hurrem Sultan also had an influence on foreign policy and international politics. She communicated freely with ambassadors from European countries and with the rulers of Venice and Persia, and Hürrem and Sultan Suleiman invited the rulers of Venice and Persia to feasts. She watched the council meetings through a wire mesh window.  She ushered in an era of the Sultanate of Women in the Ottoman EmpireKumar, Lisa, ed. (2017). Encyclopedia of World Biography. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. pp. 305–306.  and was a powerful figure in Ottoman history. Suleiman trusted Hurrem so much that rumors later spread in the Ottoman court that Sultan Suleiman had been bewitched by Hurrem Sultan.

Her influence over Suleiman made her one of the most powerful women in Ottoman history and the world at that time. Even as a wife, she was the most powerful woman in the Imperial Harem. She traditionally held the same power as the Sultan's mother or Valide Sultan. Hurrem Sultan was the most powerful Haseki Sultan, as she was the only person to legally marry the Sultan and hold the same power as the Valide Sultan. For this reason, she has become a mysterious figure in Ottoman history. People still believe that she herself was responsible for conspiring against her political rivals.

 Controversial figure 
Hürrem's influence in state affairs made her not only one of the most influential women, but also a mysterious figure in Ottoman history. She was also rivaled by Mahidevran and Mahidevran's son, Şehzade Mustafa, and the Grand Viziers Pargali Ibrahim Pasha and Kara Ahmed Pasha.

Hürrem and Mahidevran gave birth to six princes (Ottoman princes) of Suleiman: Mustafa, Mehmed, Selim, Abdullah (died at the age of three), Bayezid, and Cihangir. Of these, Mahidevran's son Mustafa was the next in line to become the Ottoman Sultan. Traditionally, when a new sultan came to power, he would order the murder of all his brothers so that there would be no struggle among the princes for the throne. This practice was called Kardes Katliyami, which literally means "fratricidal massacre".

In 1523, Suleiman's Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha supported Mustafa. Hürrem is generally blamed in part for plotting against him, as Mustafa was the successor. The people, concerned about the state of the Ottoman Empire and to avoid rebellion, initiated the practice of fratricide, which lasted until the reign of Sultan Ahmed I (1603–1617). Hürrem used her influence and power to prevent the execution of her sons, and to play the role of Hürrem in killing Mustafa's supporters.

A capable commander in Suleiman's army, Ibrahim was eventually deposed during the Ottoman–Safavid Wars (1532–55), during a campaign against the Safavid Empire, on a false charge that he had bestowed upon himself a title containing the word "sultan".  During the Safavid Wars, Ibrahim and his former advisor, Iskender Çelebi, repeatedly clashed with each other over military leadership positions, which led to another rift. This incident led to Ibrahim Pasha being executed by order of Suleiman in 1536. It is believed that Hurrem was responsible for this.Mansel, 87. After three more viziers over the course of eight years, Suleiman selected Damat Rüstem Pasha, Hürrem's son-in-law and Mihrimah's husband, as vizier. However, scholars have questioned whether Mihrimah Sultan and Rüstem Pasha helped Hürrem secure her son's throne.

Many years later, towards the end of Suleiman's long reign, rivalries arose between his sons, and false accusations were made against Mustafa. During a campaign against Safavid Persia in 1553, Suleiman, fearing a rebellion, ordered Mustafa's execution.  According to another source, Mustafa was executed the same year he plotted to overthrow his father. However, the treason for which Mustafa was accused has not been proven or disproven.Peirce, 55. There are also rumors that Hürrem Sultan, with the help of her daughter and son-in-law Rüstem Pasha, conspired against Mustafa; they wanted to portray Mustafa as a traitor and said that Mustafa was secretly in contact with the Shah of Iran. Acting on Hürrem Sultan's orders, Rüstem Pasha forged Mustafa's seal and sent a letter to Shah Tahmasp I with that seal, and the Shah then sent the letter to Suleiman. After Mustafa's death, Mahidevran lost her status as the mother of the heir to the throne and moved to Bursa. After 1566, Mahidevran no longer spent her last years in poverty when the new Sultan, Hürrem's son Selim II, appointed her to a large salary. Mahidevran was rehabilitated after Hürrem's death in 1558. Hurrem's youngest child, Cihangir, died a few months later from shock at the death of her half-brother Mustafa.Mansel, 89.

Although allegations of Hürrem's role in the executions of İbrahim, Mustafa, and Kara Ahmed are very popular, none of them are based on direct evidence. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Ottoman historians, as well as European diplomats, observers, and travelers, described Hürrem as extremely eccentric upon seeing her portraits.  None of these people, however, were Ottoman visitors. They were not allowed to enter the interior of the walled harem, and they learned about it mainly from the people of the Ottoman Empire and members of the Ottoman parliament.

Even the Venetian ambassadors (baileys) appointed to the Ottoman court sought Hürrem Sultan's help in various matters in their reports, which shows the extent of Hürrem Sultan's influence in politics. Other Western sources from the 16th century, which are still considered very reliable today, are the Turkish letters written by Ogier de Basbeck, the envoy of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I, between 1554 and 1562, Nicolas de Moffan's Turkish novels (English: The Turkish Letters), Paolo Giovio's Turkish historical history, and Luigi Bassano's Travels in the Ottoman Empire.

 Foreign policy 
Hürrem advised Suleiman on various matters of state, and seems to have had an influence on foreign policy and international politics. Two of her letters to King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania (reigned 1548–1572) are still preserved, and during Hürrem's reign the Polish-Ottoman alliance was formed and the Ottoman Empire had peaceful relations with the Polish state.

In her first short letter to Sigismund II, Hürrem congratulated the new king on his accession to the Polish throne after the death of Sigismund II's father, Sigismund I, in 1548. The letter bore a seal on the back. She was the first in the Ottoman Empire and the first woman sultan to correspond with a king, the first time anyone had done so with a king or queen of another state.  Afterwards, although Hürrem's successor Nurbanu Sultan and Nurbanu's successor Safiye Sultan exchanged letters with the queens, no other sultana except Hürrem Sultan personally exchanged letters with any king or queen. She requested the king to trust her envoy Hasan Agha, because Hasan Agha was the personal envoy of the Sultan. Some sentences of the letter sent by Haseki Sultan are as follows:

"We have learned that you have become the King of Poland after the death of your father. Allah knows the truth of everything; we are very happy and satisfied. Light has come to our hearts, joy has come. We wish that your reign may be happy, fruitful and long-lasting. We advise you to act according to the command of your Almighty Lord..."

In her second letter to Sigismund Augustus, Hurrem wrote in response to Sigismund's letter, that she was well and pleased with the air of her sincere friendship towards Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. Hurrem quoted the Sultan as saying, "My relationship with the old king is like that of a brother and sister, and if it pleases Almighty God, I will maintain good relations with this king." Along with this letter, Hurrem sent Sigismund II two pairs of linen shirts and pants, some belts, six handkerchiefs and a hand-towel as gifts, promising to send another special linen garment in the future.

It is believed that these two letters not only indicated diplomatic relations between Poland and the Ottoman Empire, but also revealed Sigismund's friendship with Suleiman. The letters revealed Hürrem's personal correspondence with the king. According to Piotr Opalinski, in Hürrem's letter to Sigismund II in 1551, Suleiman considered Sigismund's sister to be his own sister. This phrase referred to the warm friendship between the Polish-Lithuanian king and the Ottoman Hasek. Or it could have also indicated a close relationship. The degree of their closeness certainly indicated a special alliance between the two states at that time.

Some of Hürrem's embroideries, or at least gifts made under her supervision, were given to Tahmasp I Shah of Iran in 1547 and to Sigismund II Augustus, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, in 1549. Esther Handali served as secretary and mediator on several occasions.

 Charities and Patronage 

In addition to her political involvement, Hürrem built several large government buildings from Mecca to Jerusalem (al-Quds), Hürrem probably organized her charities with the assistance of Zubaida, the wife of Caliph Harun al-Rashid, and Zubaida ran charities of her own choosing.

Among her first constructions were a mosque, two Quranic schools (madrasahs), a fountain, and a women's hospital (Haseki Sultan Complex) near the Women's Slave Bazaar (Avret Pazarları) in Constantinople. This was the first complex built in Constantinople, and as a result, Suleiman the Magnificent was pleased with Mimar Sinan and appointed him as the chief imperial architect. The mosque was completed in 1538–39, the madrasah a year later in 1539–40, and the soup kitchen in 1540–41. However, the hospital was not completed until 1550–51. The mosque built by Hürrem was the third largest mosque in the capital at the time, after the Fatih Mosque and the Süleymaniye Mosque, a testament to Hürrem's high status and power.

She built mosque complexes in Adrianople and Ankara. She also built a bathhouse called the Hürrem Sultan Bathhouse to serve the elderly worshippers of the nearby Hagia Sophia. It was built in 1556 and designed by Mimar Sinan. This 75-meter-long Ottoman bathhouse was designed in a modern style with two separate symmetrical sections for men and women. There were two more rooms located on the north-south side, with two separate rooms for women and men. This Turkish bathhouse was the modern Turkish bathhouse of the time. The men's room was in the north and the women's room was in the south.

In Jerusalem, she founded the Haseki Sultan Emirate in 1552, a public soup kitchen to feed the poor,Peri, Oded. Waqf and Ottoman Welfare Policy, The Poor Kitchen of Hasseki Sultan in Eighteenth-Century Jerusalem, pg 169Khalidi, Walid. "Introduction." In Before Their Diaspora : A Photographic History of the Palestinians, 1876–1948, 27–35. Washington, D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1991, 31. which is said to have fed at least 500 people twice a day.Singer, Amy. Serving Up Charity: The Ottoman Public Kitchen, p. 486  Hürrem Sultan owned land in Palestine and Tripoli, as well as shops, public baths, soap factories, and granaries. The Haseki Hürrem Sultan's deed of donation includes 195 toponyms and 32 estates, mainly located along the road between what is now Jaffa and Jerusalem. The Haseki Sultan Emirate not only fulfilled the religious requirement of giving, but also strengthened social order and showed generosity and aid to the people of the Ottoman Empire in various ways. She established a public soup kitchen in Mecca.


A foundation charter (waqf) of Hürrem Sultan, signed by a judge (kadi) and some witnesses, not only listed the buildings concerned as protected, but also appointed a number of employees for their long-term maintenance.Amy Singer: Constructing Ottoman Beneficence. An Imperial Soup Kitchen in Jerusalem. New York 2002, S. 17ff. Through the maintenance of such documents, the ongoing activities of Hürrem or other donors have been revealed. In Hürrem's foundation charters of 1540 and 1551, dervishes from various districts of Istanbul maintained the foundation and drew up some documents for it.Gülru Necipoğlu: Queens: Wives and Mothers of Sultans. In: The age of Sinan. Architectural Culture in the Ottoman Empire. London 2005, S. 268–271.Klaus Brisch (Hrsg.): Schätze aus dem Topkapi-Serail. Das Zeitalter Süleymans des Prächtigen. Berlin 1988, S. 38 u. 84.

She had a kira who served as her secretary and mediator on several occasions, however, there is controversy over the identity of that Kira, (her name could probably be Strongillah).Minna Rozen: A History of the Jewish Community in Istanbul, The Formative Years, 1453 – 1566 (2002).

 Death 
Hürrem died on 15 April 1558 from an unknown illness. She was very ill in her final years. It is said that the Sultan, in order not to disturb his wife's peace during her illness, ordered all the musical instruments in the palace to be burned. Until the last day of Hurrem's death, Suleiman did not leave her on any expedition. The Sultan's farewell letter to Hürrem, which is preserved to this day, is a reflection of Suleiman's love for Hürrem.

She was buried in a domed tomb (türbe) decorated with sophisticated Iznik tiles depicting the Garden of Eden. These tiles were probably used to pay tribute to her cheerful and joyful nature. Her tomb is in the courtyard of the Süleymaniye Mosque, right next to where Suleiman is buried.

 Issue 
Suleiman and Hürrem had five sons and one daughter:

 Şehzade Mehmed (1521, Old Palace, Constantinople – 7 November 1543, Manisa Palace, Manisa, buried in Şehzade Mosque, Constantinople). Hürrem's first son. He was the Sanjak-bey of Manisa and the potential future sultan from 1541 until his death.

 Mihrimah Sultan (1522, Old Palace, Constantinople – 25 January 1578, Constantinople, buried in the Mausoleum of Suleiman I, Süleymaniye Mosque). Hürrem's only daughter. She was married to Rüstem Pasha on 26 November 1539. They had one daughter and one son.

 Selim II (28 May 1524, Old Palace, Constantinople – 15 December 1574, Topkapi Palace, Constantinople, buried in the Mausoleum of Selim II, Hagia Sophia Mosque). He was Sanjak-bey of Karaman, then Sanjak-bey of Manisa after Mehmed's death, and later governor of Konya and Kütahya. He was the only son of Suleiman to survive Suleiman's death, and ascended the throne on 7 September 1566 as Selim II.

 Şehzade Abdullah (c. 1525, Old Palace, Constantinople – c. 1528, buried in the Old Palace, Constantinople, Yavuz Selim Mosque).Uzunçarşılı, İsmail Hakkı; Karal, Enver Ziya (1975). Osmanlı tarihi, Volume 2. Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi. p. 401.

 Şehzade Bayezid (1527, Old Palace, Constantinople – 25 September 1561, Qazvin, Safavid Empire, buried in Melik-i Asem Turbe, Sivas). He was the governor of Karaman, Kütahya and later Amasya. He rebelled against his father for the throne, and for this Suleiman had him and his sons executed.

 Şehzade Cihangir (1531, Old Palace, Constantinople – 27 November 1553, Aleppo, buried in the Şehzade Mosque, Istanbul). Born with kyphosis and in poor health, he was declared unfit to be an heir and was therefore not appointed to rule any province. For the same reason, he was not allowed to take concubines and therefore had no children.

 Personality 
Hürrem's admirers described her as being extraordinarily beautiful and distinguished from others by her red hair.Talhami, Ghada. Historical Dictionaries of Women in the World: Historical Dictionary of Women in the Middle East and North Africa. Scarecrow Press, 2012. p. 271 Hürrem was intelligent and had a pleasant personality. Hürrem's love of poetry is thought to have been greatly appreciated by Suleiman, who was himself a great admirer of poetry.

Hürrem is known to have been very generous to the poor. She built numerous mosques, madrasas, hammams, and rest houses for pilgrims traveling to the holy city of Mecca. Her greatest philanthropic act was the establishment of the Great Endowment of Alqud, a large soup kitchen in Jerusalem, which was created to feed the poor.Talhami, Ghada. Historical Dictionaries of Women in the World: Historical Dictionary of Women in the Middle East and North Africa. Scarecrow Press, 2012. p. 272

It is believed that Hürrem was a cunning and hard-hearted woman who would execute anyone who stood in her way.  However, she was loved by the common people because she built many buildings for the poor and was always generous to their husbands. Prominent Ukrainian writer Pavlo Zahrebelny described Hurrem as "an intelligent, kind, understanding, open-hearted, articulate, talented, generous, emotional and grateful woman who respected the soul more than the body; who was not obsessed with simple luxuries such as money, but was interested in science and art; in short, a perfect woman."Chitchi, S. "Orientalist view on the Ottoman in the novel Roxalana (Hurrem Sultan) by Ukrainian author Pavlo Arhipovich Zahrebelniy". The Journal of International Social Research Vol. 7, Issue 33, p. 64

 Legacy 
Hürrem is well known in modern Turkey and the Western world and is famous for many artistic works. In 1561, three years after her death, the French writer Gabriel Bunin wrote a tragedy about her, entitled "La Soltane".The Literature of the French Renaissance by Arthur Augustus Tilley, p. 87  This tragedy introduced the Ottomans to the stage in France for the first time.The Penny cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge p.418  Hürrem Sultan was popularized through paintings, musical works (including Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 63), an opera by Denis Sichinsky, a ballet, plays, and several novels, mainly written in Russian and Ukrainian, but also in English, French, German, and Polish.

In early modern Spain, she was mentioned or alluded to by Quevedo and other writers, and by Lope de Vega in several of his plays.  In a play titled "The Holy League", Titian appeared on stage in the Venetian Senate and said that he had just met Sultan Suleiman, and that he was displaying a painting of Sultana Rossa or Roxelana.Frederick A. de Armas "The Allure of the Oriental Other: Titian's Rossa Sultana and Lope de Vega's La santa Liga," Brave New Words. Studies in Spanish Golden Age Literature, eds. Edward H. Friedman and Catherine Larson. New Orleans: UP of the South, 1996: 191–208.

In 2007, Muslims in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol opened a mosque in honor of Roxelana.

In the 2003 TV miniseries, Hürrem Sultan was played by Turkish actress and singer Gülben Ergen. 

In the 2011–2014 TV series Muhtesem Yüzyıl, Hürrem Sultan was played by Turkish-German actress Meryem Uzerli from the first to third seasons. In the final season of the series, Hürrem Sultan was played by Turkish actress Vahide Persin. Megan Gale played the role of Hurrem in the 2022 film "Three Thousand Years of Longing".

In 2013, Croatian singer Severina created a song called "Hürrem" after the TV series Muhtesem Yüzyil, which aired in Croatia, became popular. As of 2024, the song has received 27 million views.

In 2019, the inscription that Hurrem was of Russian descent was removed from the visitor panel near her tomb at the Suleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul at the request of the Ukrainian Embassy in Turkey.

 Visual tradition 
Although male European artists were not allowed to enter the harem, Many paintings of the famous Hürrem Sultan have been preserved in the Renaissance. Scholars therefore believe that European artists painted portraits of Ottoman women from imagination. The artists Titian, Melchior Loric, and Sebald Beham all became famous for their portraits of Hürrem. She was renowned for her beauty, and in most of her paintings she is shown wearing a distinctive hat.

The Venetian painter Titian is said to have painted a portrait of Hürrem in 1550. Although he never visited Constantinople, Titian may have imagined or made a sketch of her. In a letter to King Philip II of Spain, the painter Titian stated that he had painted Hürrem in 1552, imagining the appearance of "the queens of Persia".  The Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida, acquired the original or a copy of the portrait of Hürrem Sultan around 1930.Harold Edwin Wethey The Paintings of Titian: The Portraits, Phaidon, 1971, p. 275. Titian's painting of Hürrem Sultan bears a striking resemblance to the portrait of Hürrem's daughter, Mihrimah Sultan.

Gallery

 In literature and popular culture 

 German-Turkish actress Meryem Uzerli played the young and adult Hürrem, and Turkish actress Vahide Perçin played the middle-aged Hürrem in the television series Muhteşem Yüzyil.

 Turkish actress Gülben Ergen played Hürrem Sultan in the television mini-series "Hürrem Sultan".

 Australian actress Megan Gale played Hürrem Sultan in the film "Three Thousand Years of Longing".

 Hürrem is a fictional character in the novel Roxelana şi Soliman by Romanian author Vintilǎ Corbul. The novel mentions that Hürrem was a Polish citizen and her name was Alexandra Lisowska. The novel tells a fictional story about the love between Hürrem and Suleiman.

 Related pages 

 Suleiman the Magnificent
 Mahidevran
 Nurbanu Sultan
 Safiye Sultan
 Ottoman Empire
 Hafsa Sultan
 Ottoman dynasty
 Topkapi palace
 Selim II
 Mihrimah Sultan
 Constaintinople
Harem
Kingdom of Poland
Crimean Tatars
Avret Pazarları

 Notes 

 References 

 Works cited 

 .

Further reading
 There are many historical novels in English about Roxelana: P.J. Parker's Roxelana and Suleyman (2012; Revised 2016); Barbara Chase Riboud's Valide (1986); Alum Bati's Harem Secrets (2008); Colin Falconer, Aileen Crawley (1981–83), and Louis Gardel (2003); Pawn in Frankincense, the fourth book of the Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett; and pulp fiction author Robert E. Howard in The Shadow of the Vulture imagined Roxelana to be sister to its fiery-tempered female protagonist, Red Sonja.
 David Chataignier, "Roxelane on the French Tragic Stage (1561–1681)" in Fortune and Fatality: Performing the Tragic in Early Modern France, ed. Desmond Hosford and Charles Wrightington (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008), 95–117.
 Parker, P. J. Roxelana and Suleyman (Raider Publishing International, 2011).
 Thomas M. Prymak, "Roxolana: Wife of Suleiman the Magnificent," Nashe zhyttia/Our Life, LII, 10 (New York, 1995), 15–20. An illustrated popular-style article in English with a bibliography.
 Galina Yermolenko, "Roxolana: The Greatest Empresse of the East," The Muslim World, 95, 2 (2005), 231–48. Makes good use of European, especially Italian, sources and is familiar with the literature in Ukrainian and Polish.
 Galina Yermolenko (ed.), Roxolana in European Literature, History and Culture (Farmham, UK: Ashgate, 2010).  318 pp. Illustrated. Contains important articles by Oleksander Halenko and others, as well as several translations of works about Roxelana from various European literatures, and an extensive bibliography.
 For Ukrainian language novels, see Osyp Nazaruk (1930) (English translation is available), Mykola Lazorsky (1965), Serhii Plachynda (1968), and Pavlo Zahrebelnyi (1980).
 There have been novels written in other languages: in French, a fictionalized biography by Willy Sperco (1972); in German, a novel by Johannes Tralow (1944, reprinted many times); a very detailed novel in Serbo-Croatian by Radovan Samardzic (1987); one in Turkish by Ulku Cahit (2001).

 Other websites 

 University of Calgary | Roxelana
 Hürrem Sultan's tomb

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