Hürrem Sultan

Hürrem Sultan (c. 1505 – 15 April 1558), often called Roxelana in Europe, rose from a slave to become the legal wife of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and the mother of his successor, Selim II. She was the first woman in Ottoman history to hold the title of haseki sultan, and she is widely regarded as the most powerful woman ever to bear it. Her influence marked the beginning of the Sultanate of Women, a period when several imperial women wielded significant political power.

She was likely born in Ruthenia to an Orthodox Christian family. During a slave raid, Crimean Tatars captured her and brought her through the Crimean slave trade to Constantinople, the Ottoman capital. Once inside the imperial harem, she rose through the ranks to become Suleiman’s favorite concubine. Breaking centuries of tradition, the sultan freed her and made her his legal wife—an unprecedented move, since sultans typically married only foreign freeborn noblewomen and relied on slave concubines for heirs.

Issue

Hürrem remained at court for the rest of her life, sharing an exceptionally close and affectionate bond with Suleiman. She bore him five children: four sons (Mehmed, Selim, Bayezid, and Cihangir) and one daughter (Mihrimah). This defied the common but informal practice in the Ottoman harem, where concubines were often expected to limit themselves to one son to prevent any single woman from gaining too much influence. After the birth of her first son in 1521, Hürrem continued to have more children, and she was the mother of every child Suleiman fathered after she entered the harem at the very start of his reign.

Her political power was immense. Letters between Suleiman and Hürrem, which were not made public until the nineteenth century, along with the sultan’s own diaries, reveal that she was his most trusted confidante and adviser.

During his long absences, they exchanged passionate letters in which she shared political intelligence and warned of possible rebellions. She actively intervened in state affairs, even helping Poland secure a privileged diplomatic status with the empire. She also brought what some called a “feminine touch” to diplomacy, sending personally embroidered gifts and letters to foreign leaders and their relatives.