Roxelana

Hürrem Sultan
خُرَّم سلطان
Meryem-hilkat
Asiye-'iffet
Hatice-hürmet
Fâtımâ-'ismet
Vâlide-i sa'ide
Mehd-i Ulya-i Sultanat
Vâlide-i Padişah

Portrait by Titian titled La Sultana Rossa, c. 1550
Haseki Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
Tenure 1533/1534 – 15 April 1558
Predecessor New title
Successor Nurbanu Sultan
Born c. 1502–04
Rohatyn, Kingdom of Poland (currently the territory of Ukraine)
Died 15 April 1558 (aged 53–56)
Topkapı Palace, Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
Burial Süleymaniye Mosque, Constantinople[1][2]
Spouse Suleiman the Magnificent
Issue Şehzade Mehmed
Mihrimah Sultan
Şehzade Abdullah (possibly)
Sultan Selim II
Şehzade Bayezid
Şehzade Cihangir
Father Havrylo Lisowski[3][4]
Mother Leksandra Lisowska
Religion Islam, previously Orthodox Christian

Hürrem Sultan (Turkish pronunciation: [hyɾˈɾem suɫˈtaːn]; Ottoman Turkish: خُرَّم سلطان‎; c. 1502 – 15 April 1558, also known as Roxelana[note 1]) was the favorite consort and later the legal wife of Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and the mother of Şehzade Mehmed, Mihrimah Sultan, Şehzade Abdullah, Sultan Selim II, Şehzade Bayezid, and Şehzade Cihangir.[6] She was one of the most powerful and influential women in the Ottoman history and a prominent and controversial figure during the era known as the Sultanate of Women. She was "Haseki Sultan" (chief wife of the Sultan) when her husband, Suleiman I, reigned as the Ottoman sultan. She achieved power and influenced the politics of the Ottoman Empire through her husband and played an active role in state affairs of the Empire.[7]

Names

According to some historians, Roxelana was born as Aleksandra Ruslana Lisowska, or Anastasja Lisowska while her childhood nickname was Nastia. Among the Ottomans, she was known mainly as Haseki Hürrem Sultan or Hürrem Haseki Sultan; also known as Roxolena, Roxolana, Roxelane, Rossa, Ružica; in Turkish as Hürrem (from Persian: خرم‎‎ Khurram, "the cheerful one"); and in Arabic as Karima (Arabic: كريمة‎, "the noble one"). in Turkish as Hür (the free one) "Roxelana" might be not a proper name but a nickname, referring to her Rusyn heritage (cf. the common contemporary name "Ruslana"); "Roxolany" or "Roxelany" was one of the names of Ukrainians, up to the 15th century, after the ancient Roxolani. Thus her nickname would literally mean "The Ruthenian One".[8]

Early life

Modern sources do not contain information on Hürrem's childhood, limiting themselves to information about her Polish , Rusyn or Ukrainian ethnic origin, and mentioning the Kingdom of Poland as her birthplace. In the middle of the 16th century, the ambassador of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Crimean khanate Mikhalon Lytvyn in the composition of 1548–1551 "About customs of Tatars, Lithuanians and Moscow" (Latin: De moribus tartarorum, lituanorum et moscorum) at the description of trade specifies that "[...] the most beloved wife of the present Turkish emperor - mother of his primogenital [son] who will govern after him, was kidnapped from our land".[9]

According to late 16th-century and early 17th-century sources, such as the Polish poet Samuel Twardowski (died 1661), who researched the subject in Turkey, Hürrem was seemingly born to a father who was a Ukrainian Orthodox priest.[10][11][12] She was born in the town of Rohatyn, 68 km south-east of Lwów, a major city of the Ruthenian Voivodeship in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland (today in Western Ukraine).[12] In the 1520s Crimean Tatars captured her during one of their frequent raids into this region, took her as a slave (probably first to the Crimean city of Kaffa, a major centre of the slave trade, then to Constantinople) and selected her for Suleiman's harem.[10][12]

Relationship with Suleiman

Roxelana probably entered the harem around fifteen years of age, sometime between 1517 and 1520, but certainly before Suleiman became sultan in 1520. She quickly came to the attention of her master and attracted the jealousy of rivals. She soon became Suleiman’s most prominent consort beside Gülfem and Mahidevran (also known as Gülbahar). Her joyful spirit and playful temperament earned her a new name, Hürrem, from Persian Khorram, "the cheerful one". In the Istanbul harem, Hürrem became a rival to Mahidevran and her influence over the Sultan soon became legendary.

Hürrem was allowed to give birth to more than one son which was a stark violation of the old imperial harem principle, “one concubine mother — one son,” which was designed to prevent both the mother’s influence over the sultan and the feuds of the blood brothers for the throne.[9] She was to bear the majority of Suleiman's children. Hürrem gave birth to her first son Mehmed in 1521 (he died in 1543) and then to four more sons, destroying Mahidevran's status as the mother of the sultan's only son.[13] Suleiman's mother, Ayşe Hafsa Sultan, partially suppressed the rivalry between the two women.[14] As a result of the bitter rivalry a fight between the two women broke out, with Mahidevran beating Hürrem, which angered Suleiman.[15]

In 1533 or 1534 (the exact date is unknown),[9] Suleiman married Hürrem in a magnificent formal ceremony, making him the first Ottoman Sultan to wed since Orhan Ghazi (reign 1326–1362), and violating a 200-year-old custom of the Ottoman imperial house according to which sultans were not to marry their concubines.[16] Never before was a former slave elevated to the status of the sultan’s lawful spouse, much to the astonishment of observers in the palace and in the city.[17] Hürrem also received the title Haseki Sultan and became the first consort to hold this title. This title, used for a century, reflected the great power of imperial consorts (most of them were former slaves) in the Ottoman court, elevating their status higher than Ottoman princesses, and making them the equals of empresses consort in Europe. In this case, Suleiman not only broke the old custom, but created new tradition for the future Ottoman Sultans to marry with a formal ceremony and make their consorts have significant influence on the court, especially in matter of succession. Hürrem's salary was 2,000 aspers a day, making her one of the highest paid haseki.[9]

Roxelana memorial in Rohatyn, Ukraine.

Later, Hürrem became the first woman to remain in the Sultan’s court for the duration of her life. In the Ottoman imperial family tradition, a sultan’s consort was to remain in the harem only until her son came of age (around 16 or 17), after which he would be sent away from the capital to govern a faraway province, and his mother would follow him. This tradition was called Sanjak Beyliği. The consorts were never to return to Istanbul unless their sons succeeded to the throne.[18] In defiance of this age-old custom, Hürrem stayed behind in the harem with her hunchback son Cihangir, even after her three other sons went to govern the empire’s remote provinces.

Moreover, she moved out of the harem located in the Old Palace (Eski Saray) to Suleiman’s quarters located in the New Palace (Topkapi) after a fire destroyed the old palace.

Under his pen name, Muhibbi, Sultan Suleiman composed this poem for Hürrem Sultan:

"Throne of my lonely niche, my wealth, my love, my moonlight.
My most sincere friend, my confidant, my very existence, my Sultan, my one and only love.
The most beautiful among the beautiful...
My springtime, my merry faced love, my daytime, my sweetheart, laughing leaf...
My plants, my sweet, my rose, the one only who does not distress me in this world...
My Istanbul, my Caraman, the earth of my Anatolia
My Badakhshan, my Baghdad and Khorasan
My woman of the beautiful hair, my love of the slanted brow, my love of eyes full of mischief...
I'll sing your praises always
I, lover of the tormented heart, Muhibbi of the eyes full of tears, I am happy."[19]

Issue

With Suleiman, she had five sons and one daughter.[6]

State affairs

Hürrem not only became Suleiman’s partner in household, but also in state affairs. Thanks to her intelligence, she acted as Suleiman’s chief adviser on matters of the state, and seems to have had an influence upon foreign policy and international politics.[7] This position made her one of the most powerful and influential women in Ottoman history and in the world that time, even when compared with women who held the title valide sultan. For this reason, she became a controversial figure in Ottoman history, who was subject to allegations of plotting against and manipulating her political rivals.

Controversial figure

Hürrem’s influence in state affairs not only made her one of the most influential women, but also a controversial figure in Ottoman history, especially her rivalry with Mahidevran and her son Mustafa, Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha (husband of Suleiman’s sister Hatice), and Kara Ahmed Pasha (husband of Suleiman’s sister Fatma).

A portrait of Roxelana in the British Royal Collection, c. 1600–70

Hürrem and Mahidevran had borne Suleiman six şehzades (Ottoman princes), four of whom survived past the 1550s: Mustafa, Selim, Bayezid, and Cihangir. Of these, Mustafa was the eldest and preceded Hürrem's children in the order of succession. Traditionally, when a new sultan rose to power, he would arrange the deaths of all of his brothers to ensure the stability of the empire. Mustafa was recognized by many of the people as the most talented of all the brothers and was supported by Ibrahim, who became Suleiman's Grand Vizier in 1523. A number of sources have suggested that Ibrahim had been a victim of Hürrem's intrigues and rising influence on the sovereign, especially in view of Ibrahim's past support for the cause of Şehzade Mustafa. Hürrem is usually held at least partly responsible for the intrigues in nominating a successor. Although she was Suleiman's wife, she exercised no official public role. This did not, however, prevent Hürrem from wielding powerful political influence. Since the empire lacked, until the reign of Ahmed I, any formal means of nominating a successor, successions usually involved the death of competing princes in order to avert civil unrest and rebellions. In attempting to avoid the execution of her sons, Hürrem used her influence to eliminate those who supported Mustafa's accession to the throne.[20]

A skilled commander of Suleiman's army, Ibrahim eventually fell from grace after an imprudence committed during a campaign against the Persian Safavid empire during the Ottoman–Safavid War (1532–55), when he awarded himself a title including the word "Sultan".[21] Another conflict occurred when Ibrahim and his former mentor, Iskender Çelebi, repeatedly clashed over military leadership and positions during the Safavid war. These incidents launched a series of events which culminated in his execution in 1536 by Suleiman's order. It is believed that Hürrem's influence contributed in Suleiman's decision.[22] After three other grand viziers in eight years, Hürrem's sympathetic son-in-law, Damat Rüstem Pasha, husband of Mihrimah, was selected by Suleiman to become the grand vizier.

Many years later, towards the end of Suleiman's long reign, the rivalry between his sons became evident. It is believed, both Hürrem and the grand vizier Rüstem helped turn Suleiman against Mustafa and Mustafa was accused of causing unrest. During the campaign against Safavid Persia in 1553, because of a fear of rebellion, Suleiman ordered the execution of Mustafa.[23] According to a source he was executed that very year on charges of planning to dethrone his father; his guilt for the treason of which he was accused remains neither proven nor disproven.[24] After the death of Mustafa, Mahidevran lost her status in the palace (as the mother of the heir apparent) and moved to Bursa .[13] She did not spend her last years in poverty as her stepson, Selim II, the new sultan after 1566, put her on a lavish salary.[24] Her rehabilitation have been possible after the death of Hürrem in 1558.[24] Cihangir, Hürrem's youngest child, allegedly died of grief a few months after the news of his half-brother's murder.[25]

After Suleiman executed Mustafa in October 1553 a high degree of dissatisfaction and unrest arose among soldiers who blamed Rüstem and Hürrem for Mustafa's death. As a result, Suleiman exiled Hürrem to Edirne possibly to calm his soldiers and Hürrem remained there for two years until she fell sick and returned to the Palace.

Suleiman dismissed Rüstem and appointed Kara Ahmed as his grand vizier in October 1553. But almost two years later, Kara Ahmed was strangled by Suleiman's order in September 1555. It is said that the reason for the execution was due to political manoeuvrings of Hürrem, who wanted Rüstem to become the grand vizier again. After death of Kara Ahmed, Rüstem Pasha became the grand vizier (1555-1561) once more.

Foreign policy

Hürrem acted as Suleiman's advisor on matters of state, and seems to have had an influence upon foreign policy and on international politics.[7] Two of her letters to King Sigismundus II Augustus of Poland (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.

Letter of Hürrem Sultan to Sigismund II Augustus, congratulating him on his accession to the Polish throne in 1549.

In her first short letter to Sigismund II, Hürrem expresses her highest joy and congratulations to the new king on the occasion of his ascension to the Polish throne after the death of his father Sigismund I in 1548. She also pleads with the King to trust her envoy Hassan Aga (her close servant who was by some accounts a convert to Islam of Ukrainian descent) who took another message from her by word of mouth. In her second letter to Sigismund August, written in response to his letter, Hürrem expresses in superlative terms her joy at hearing that the king is in good health and that he sends assurances of his sincere friendliness and attachment towards Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. She also quotes the sultan as saying, “with the old king we were like brothers, and if it pleases the All-Merciful God, with this king we will be as father and son.” With this letter, Hürrem sent Sigismund II the gift of two pairs of linen shirts and pants, some belts, six handkerchiefs, and a hand-towel, with a promise to send a special linen robe in the future.

There are reasons to believe that these two letters were more than just diplomatic gestures, and that Suleiman’s references to brotherly or fatherly feelings were not a mere tribute to political expediency. The letters also suggest Hürrem’s strong desire to establish personal contact with the king. “Perhaps,” writes one Ukrainian author, “they express her concern about her land, which was under Polish Kings, and her desire to help it out in any possible way?” In his 1551 letter to Sigismund II concerning the embassy of Piotr Opalinski, Suleiman wrote that the Ambassador had seen “Your sister and my wife.” Whether this phrase refers to a warm friendship between the Polish King and Ottoman Haseki, or whether it suggests a closer relation, the degree of their intimacy definitely points to a special link between the two states at the time.[9]

Charities

The Turkish bath (hamam) constructed by Hürrem Sultan, Constantinople, 1556

Aside from her political concerns, Hürrem engaged in several major works of public buildings, from Mecca to Jerusalem, perhaps modelling her charitable foundations in part after the caliph Harun al-Rashid’s consort Zubaida. Among her first foundations were a mosque, two Koranic schools (madrassa), a fountain, and a women's hospital near the women's slave market (Avret Pazary) in Constantinople (Haseki Sultan Complex). It was the first complex constructed in Istanbul by Mimar Sinan in his new position as the chief imperial architect. The fact that it was the third largest building in the capital, after the complexes of Mehmed II (Fatih) and Suleyman (Süleymaniye mosque), testifies to Hurrem’s great status. She also built mosque complexes in Adrianopole and Ankara.

She commissioned a bath, the Haseki Hürrem Sultan Hamamı, to serve the community of worshippers in the nearby Hagia Sophia.[26] In Jerusalem she established in 1552 the Haseki Sultan Imaret, a public soup kitchen to feed the poor and the needy.[27] This soup kitchen was said to have fed at least 500 people twice a day.[28] She also built Imaret Haseki Hürrem, public soup kitchen in Mecca.[9]

Some of her embroidery, or at least that done under her supervision, has also survived, examples being given in 1547 to Tahmasp I, the Shah of Iran, and in 1549 to King Sigismund II Augustus.

Esther Handali acted as her secretary and intermediary on several occasions.

Death

The türbe (mausoleum) of Hürrem Sultan in Süleymaniye Mosque at Fatih, Istanbul.

Hürrem died on 15 April 1558 and was buried in a domed mausoleum (türbe) decorated in exquisite Iznik tiles depicting the garden of paradise, perhaps in homage to her smiling and joyful nature.[29] Her mausoleum is adjacent to Suleiman’s, a separate and more sombre domed structure, at the courtyard of the Süleymaniye Mosque.

Legacy

Hürrem Haseki Sultan, or Roxelana, is well-known both in modern Turkey and in the West, and is the subject of many artistic works. In 1561, three years after Hürrem's death, the French author Gabriel Bounin wrote a tragedy titled La Soltane about the role of Hürrem Sultan in Mustafa's death.[30] This tragedy marks the first time the Ottomans were introduced on stage in France.[31] She has inspired paintings, musical works (including Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 63), an opera by Denys Sichynsky, a ballet, plays, and several novels written mainly in Ukrainian, but also in English, French, and German.

In early modern Spain, she appears or is alluded to in works by Quevedo and other writers as well as in a number of plays by Lope de Vega. In a play entitled The Holy League, Titian appears on stage at the Venetian Senate, and stating that he has just come from visiting the Sultan, displays his painting of Sultana Rossa or Roxelana.[32]

In 2007, Muslims in Mariupol, a port city in Ukraine, opened a mosque to honour Roxelana.[33]

In the 2003 TV miniseries, Hürrem Sultan, she was played by Turkish actress and singer Gülben Ergen. In the 2011–2014 TV series Muhteşem Yüzyıl, Hürrem Sultan is portrayed by Turkish-German actress Meryem Uzerli from season one to season three and at the series last season she is portrayed by Turkish actress Vahide Perçin.

Gallery

See also

References

  1. ↑ Birth name unknown, according to later traditions either Anastasia, or Aleksandra Lisowska[5]
  1. ↑ The Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol.7, Edited by Hugh Chisholm, (1911), 3; Constantinople, the capital of the Turkish Empire...
  2. ↑ Britannica, Istanbul:When the Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923, the capital was moved to Ankara, and Constantinople was officially renamed Istanbul in 1930.
  3. ↑ Dr Galina I Yermolenko (2013). Roxolana in European Literature, History and Culturea. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 275. ISBN 978-1-409-47611-5.
  4. ↑ Ukrainian Orthodox priest, Havrylo Lisowsky, father of Roxelana
  5. ↑ Leslie P. Peirce, The imperial harem: women and sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire, Oxford University Press US, 1993, ISBN 0-19-508677-5, pp. 58-59.
  6. 1 2 The Imperial House of Osman GENEALOGY
  7. 1 2 3 Ayşe Özakbaş, Hürrem Sultan, Tarih Dergisi, Sayı 36, 2000
  8. ↑ Ahmed, Syed Z (2001). The Zenith of an Empire : The Glory of the Suleiman the Magnificent and the Law Giver. A.E.R. Publications. p. 43. ISBN 978-0-9715873-0-4.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Yermolenko, Galina (April 2005). "Roxolana: "The Greatest Empresse of the East"". DeSales University, Center Valley, Pennsylvania.
  10. 1 2 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.
  11. ↑ Kemal H. Karpat, Studies on Ottoman Social and Political History: Selected Articles and Essays, (Brill, 2002), 756.
  12. 1 2 3 Elizabeth Abbott, Mistresses: A History of the Other Woman, (Overlook Press, 2010), .
  13. 1 2 Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire
  14. ↑ Selçuk Aksin Somel: Historical Dictionary of the Ottoman Empire, Oxford, 2003, ISBN 0-8108-4332-3, p. 123
  15. ↑ Peirce 1993, p. 59-60.
  16. ↑ Kinross, Patrick (1979). The Ottoman centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire. New York: Morrow. ISBN 978-0-688-08093-8. p, 236.
  17. ↑ Mansel, Phillip (1998). Constantinople : City of the World's Desire, 1453–1924. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 978-0-312-18708-8. p, 86.
  18. ↑ Imber, Colin (2002). The Ottoman Empire, 1300–1650 : The Structure of Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-61386-3. p, 90.
  19. ↑ A 400 Year Old Love Poem
  20. ↑ Mansel, Phillip (1998). Constantinople : City of the World's Desire, 1453–1924. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. p. 84. ISBN 978-0-312-18708-8.
  21. ↑ Kinross, 230.
  22. ↑ Mansel, 87.
  23. ↑ Kinross, 233.
  24. 1 2 3 Leslie, 55.
  25. ↑ Mansel, 89.
  26. ↑ "Historical Architectural Texture". Ayasofya Hürrem Sultan Hamamı. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  27. ↑ Peri, Oded. Waqf and Ottoman Welfare Policy, The Poor Kitchen of Hasseki Sultan in Eighteenth-Century Jerusalem, pg 169
  28. ↑ Singer, Amy. Serving Up Charity: The Ottoman Public Kitchen, pg 486
  29. ↑ Öztuna, Yılmaz (1978). "Şehzade Mustafa". İstanbul: Ötüken Yayınevi. ISBN 9754371415.
  30. ↑ The Literature of the French Renaissance by Arthur Augustus Tilley, p.87
  31. ↑ The Penny cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge p.418
  32. ↑ 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.
  33. ↑ Religious Information Service of Ukraine

Further reading

External links

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Ottoman royalty
New title Haseki Sultan
1533/1534 – 15 April 1558 		Succeeded by
Nurbanu Sultan
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