Hyurrem Sultan, whose biography is known to many people in Europe and even more popular in the Slavic world, was born in Western Ukraine. This happened in the small settlement of Rogatin at the very beginning of the 16th century. An astute reader has probably already guessed that the article will focus on the famous Roksolana. Exactly! Life Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska Sultan - a biography of Roksolana. As she was known in the East and West, respectively.
Hyurrem Sultan. Biography: Slave Story
To this day, quite a bit of evidence has come down to the early period of this woman's life. According to the records of available sources that at least somehow cover this issue, it is known that the future wife of the Sultan was born in the family of an Orthodox priest. Actually, this is almost everything that is known about her childhood. Interestingly, different sources do not even agree on what her real name was, calling her then Alexandra,then Anastasia. The future Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska Sultan, whose biography, as we can already see, is full of dark spots, was kidnapped during one of the regular Tatar raids. Soon she was presented as a concubine to the Turkish prince Suleiman, who was then the sultan's governor in Manisa. Obviously, this happened a couple of years before the accession of Suleiman, which happened in 1520.
Hyurrem Sultan. Biography: wife of the monarch
Quite quickly, the concubine of the freshly baked Sultan managed to become his beloved wife, and already in 1521 she gave birth to his son, Mehmet. Slavyanka achieved significant success in her own education, in fact, over time, as sources say, Suleiman's main adviser in public affairs. Roksolana's favoritism caused jealousy on the part of the other wife of the Sultan - Mahidevran - and their fierce rivalry over the years. Repeatedly, written sources literally mention fights between these women, with scratched faces and torn dresses. At the same time, not only jealousy was the cause of cruel intrigues in the palace. The ambition of the Slav woman also played a significant role here. The fact is that her son, Shehzade Mehmet (and even more so the second son, Selim), was not the first-born of the Sultan and did not have a formal right to inheritance. The son of the same Mahidevran, Mustafa, born in 1515, was considered the eldest offspring at that time and the future sultan.
Roksolana, a woman brought up in moresoft Slavic conditions, was less submissive and more intelligent and educated than her rival, which ultimately allowed her to ensure that it was her son who became the heir to the imperial throne. Many years of enmity and mutual slander led to the fact that Mustafa became the governor of the Sultan in Manisa, where his mother Mahidevran went with him. In fact, this meant the exile of one of the Sultan's wives. And a few years later, rumors began to spread in the empire that Mustafa was preparing a military coup against his father. Accused of conspiracy, he was executed in 1553. This finally opened the way to power for one of the offspring of the Slav. Mehmet never became a sultan, he died in 1543, but the next ruler was Selim.
Hyurrem Sultan. Biography: cause of death
For more than forty years, Roksolana was the wife of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. She managed to gain fame for herself as the wisest and most educated woman in the Muslim world, as well as the dangerous and cruel wife of the ruler. She spent the last years of her life in the palace, dying of natural causes in the spring of 1558 (some sources speak of 1662).
