Haseki Hürrem Sultan. Aleksandra or Anastazja Lisowska was the wife of the Ottoman Sultan Süleyman The Magnificent , as well as one of the women who have had the most influence in the government of the Ottoman Empire .
Summary
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- 1 Biographical synthesis
- 1 The harem’s favorite
- 2 Roxelana had six children
- 3 Source
Biographical synthesis
She was born in 1505 in Ukraine , died on April 18 , 1558 in Istanbul , Turkey , the daughter of an Orthodox priest . Around 1520 she was kidnapped by the Tatars and sold by them as a slave in the capital of the Turkish empire, Istanbul, where she became an odalisk (odalisque) of the harem of Sultan Suleiman (in Turkish: Süleyman) The Magnificent.
She is also known as Rosselana, Roxelane, Rosa, Russiak or Roxolana, nicknames that derive from her beautiful red hair and also because many thought she came from Russia. Hürrem for the Ottomans that means the smiling one or that gives joy to the face. As indicated, she became the sultan’s favorite woman, which is why she reached the rank of Hasseki. In its Arabic etymology , walad means “the preferred woman, the one who becomes the main wife of a monarch . “
Harem Favorite
The Turkish Sultan had a large harem of beautiful women including slaves , favorites and concubines who competed for the attention of the great Suleiman. The beauty of Roxelana did not go unnoticed in his eyes and the Sultan noticed her.
For her the sultan would write the most beautiful poems under the pseudonym Muhibbi
«Throne of my lonely mihrab, my good, my love, my moon / My most sincere friend, my confidant, my own existence, my sultana, my only love / The most beautiful of beautiful … / My spring, my beloved face joyful, my daylight, my heart, my laughing leaf … / My flower, my sweet, my rose, the only one that does not disturb me in this world … / My Istanbul, my Caraman, the land of my Anatolia / My Badakhshan, my Bagdad and my Khorasan / My wife with beautiful hair, my beloved with a curved eyebrow, my beloved with dangerous eyes… / I will always sing your virtues / I, the lover with a tormented heart, Muhibbi with eyes overflowing with tears, I am happy » .
Roxelana would have six children of the monarch, five boys and a girl, including the one who would be his successor, Selim. At that time there was already an heir, Mustafa, son of Suleyman’s wife Mahidevran Gulbahar who was the niece of Suleyman’s mother, Sultana Hafsa Ayesha. Many theories are shuffled about the disappearance of the heir, from an assassination attempt orchestrated by Roxelana to a forced exile. Be that as it may, the truth is that Selim would end up placing first in the line of succession to the Ottoman Empire .
Sultana Hurrem wife of Suleiman I
The sultana was an influential woman at the court of Suleiman. Despite the fact that women did not have much power, she managed to take charge of some political affairs and influence her husband in relation to some people in his government, such as the vizier, whom he would have executed after an accusation of attempted murder.
In addition to his political work in the shadows, Hürrem also stood out for his work as patrons of a large number of artists, and carried out important public works from Mecca to Jerusalem, including the construction of a mosque, two schools and a hospital. for women near the women’s slave market (Avret Pazary) in Constantinople.
Another portrait of Sultana Hurrem
Breaking other traditions Suleiman allowed Hürrem to live in the palace with him until the last day of his life, something that had not happened before either, since when the heirs reached the age of majority they had to leave the harem with their mother to rule a province. Empire. He also allowed her to give birth to more than one male child, since until then only one male child was allowed for each favorite.
Roxelana had six children
- Mehmed ( 1521 – 1543 )
- Abdullah ( 1523 – 1526 )
- Selim II ( 28 as maypole as 1524 – December as December as 1574 )
- Bayezid ( 1525 – September 25 , 1561 )
- Cihangir ( 1531 – 1553 )
- Mihrimah ( 1522 – 1578 )
Roxelana died on 18 of April of 1558 at age 55 of a possible cancer in the lymph medical records because of the time describe a rare disease with pustules on the neck of the sultana. Leaving the sultan mired in desolate sadness and came to write:
«I languish on the mountain of sorrow / where I sigh and moan day and night / wondering what fate awaits me / now that my beloved is gone».
She was buried in a dome-shaped mausoleum (türbe) decorated in exquisite Iznik tiles depicting the gardens of paradise, perhaps a tribute showing a joyful nature just like she was. His mausoleum is adjacent to Suleiman’s, a separate and more somber vaulted structure, in the courtyard of the Süleymaniye Mosque.
After Hurrem’s death, Suleyman never married again and was never with another woman. Years later, in 1566 Suleiman also died, leaving the empire that would continue to terrorize the West in the hands of Selim. His turbe or mausoleum is in the Suleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul .
The Venetian painter Titian made a more or less reliable portrait of Roxelana, which was commented with such identity by the historian Giorgio Vasari. This painting is kept in the Ringling Museum in Sarasota ( United States ).
