Historical Figure
Hurrem Sultan
d. 1558
Wife of Suleiman the Magnificent
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Biography
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.
Timeline
The story of Hurrem Sultan, told in moments.
Born Aleksandra Lisowska in Rohatyn, Ruthenia (now Ukraine). Captured by Crimean Tatars as a teenager and sold into slavery. She ended up in the Ottoman harem. They called her Hurrem. "The Cheerful One."
Caught the eye of Suleiman the Magnificent shortly after he became sultan. She went from concubine to favorite within months. She made him laugh. That was unusual in the harem.
Suleiman married her. A legal wife. No Ottoman sultan had done this in centuries. She was a former slave. She convinced him to free her first, then marry her.
Funded mosques, bathhouses, hospitals, and schools across the empire. The Haseki Sultan Complex in Jerusalem still stands. She corresponded with foreign monarchs as a political figure in her own right.
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