Roxelana
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Roxelana, Roxolana, Roxelane, Rossa, Ruziac, known also by her Turkish name of Khourrem (or Hürrem or Karima), meaning "the cheerful one", (circa 1500 - April 18, 1558) was the wife of sultan Süleyman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire. Sixteenth century sources are silent as to her maiden name, but much later Ukrainian and Polish traditions, especially Ukrainian folk traditions first recorded in the nineteenth century, give it as Aleksandra or Anastasia (diminutive: Nastia) Lisovska.
According to late sixteenth century and early seventeenth century sources like the famous Polish poet, Samuel Twardowski, who actually did research on the subject in Turkey, Khourrem was born to a father who was a Ukrainian, or Ruthenian, Orthodox priest, in the town of Rohatyn which is located 68 km, south east of Lviv, the capital city of Galicia which was then part of Poland. She was captured by Crimean Tatars during one of their frequent raids into Ukraine and taken as a slave, probably first to the Crimean city of Kaffa (Kefe in Turkish, Caffa in Italian), a major centre of the slave trade, then to Istanbul, and was selected for Süleyman's Harem.
In the Harem, she gradually worked her way up to become Süleyman's favourite concubine, gaining the name "Hasseki." In 1534 she used her influence to have Süleyman's firstborn son, together with his mother, sent away to be a provincial governor, and several years later apparently persuaded Süleyman to have him strangled - see Süleyman the Magnificent for details.
Khourrem was to bear Süleyman five children and, in an astonishing break with tradition, eventually became his wife, leading to one of her sons, Selim, inheriting the empire. Khourrem also may have acted as Süleyman's advisor on matters of state, and seems to have had an influence upon foreign affairs and international politics. Two of her letters to the Polish King Sigismund Augustus have been preserved and during her lifetime, the Ottoman Empire generally had peaceful relations with the Polish state. Some historians also believe that she may have intervened with her husband to control Crimean Tatar slave-raiding in her native land.
Aside from her political concerns, Khourrem engaged in several major works of public building, from Mecca to Jerusalem, perhaps modeling her charitable foundations in part after the caliph Harun al-Rashid's wife Zubaida. Among her first foundations were a mosque, two koranic schools, a fountain, and a women's hospital near the "Women's Slave Market" (Avret Pazary) in Istanbul. As well, some of her embroidery, or at least embroidery done under her supervision, has survived, examples being given in 1547 to the Shah of Iran and in 1549 to King Sigismund Augustus.
Khourrem died on April 18, 1558. She is buried in a domed mausoleum decorated in exquisite Iznik tiles depicting the garden of paradise, perhaps in homage to her smiling and joyful nature. Her mausoleum is adjacent to Suleyman's, a separate and more somber domed structure, at the Süleymaniye Mosque.
Khourem, or Roxelana, as she is better known in Europe, is well-known both in modern Turkey and in the West, and is the subject of many artistic works. 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 in English, French, and German.
[edit] Further reading
- Thomas M. Prymak, "Roxolana: Wife of Suleiman the Magnificent," Nashe zhyttia/Our Life, LII, 10 (New York, 1995), 15-20. A nicely illustrated popular-style article in English with a bibliography.
- Zygmunt Abrahamowicz, "Roksolana," Polski Slownik Biograficzny, vo. XXXI (Wroclaw-etc., 1988-89), 543-5. A well-informed article in Polish by a distinguished Polish Turkologist.
- Galina Yermolenko, "Roxolana: The Greatest Empresse of the East," The Muslim World, 95, 2 (2005), 231-48. Also available on-line to subscribers. Makes good use of European, especially Italian, sources and is familiar with the literature in Ukrainian and Polish.
- For historical novels in English about Roxelana, see Colin Falconer, Aileen Crawley (1981-83), and Louis Gardel (2003). For Ukrainian language novels, see Osyp Nazaruk (1930), Mykola Lazorsky (1965), Serhii Plachynda (1968), and Pavlo Zahrebelnyi (1980). (All reprinted recently.) In French, there is a fictionalized biography by Willy Sperco (1972), and in German, a novel by Johannes Tralow (1944; reprinted many times). In addition to these, there is a very detailed novel in Serbian by Radovan Samardzic (1987), and a more recent one in Turkish by Ulku Cahit (2001).
