Truth and legends about the beloved wife of Sultan Suleiman: What really was Roksolana

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The whole world knows Roksolana as a person who broke all stereotypes about women in Islamic society. And despite the fact that her image has been so popular for almost half a millennium, there is no single true and indisputable thought either about her character or about her appearance. There is only one assumption - how a simple captive could win the heart of one of the most powerful rulers of the Ottoman Empire Suleiman I the Magnificent … Her biography conceals a lot of dark spots. Apparently that is why all her portraits, painted by artists in those days, are so contradictory.

Poems and poems, novels and plays were written about this extraordinary woman; some remembered her anxiously and with delight, others accused of destroying the stereotypes of Islamic society and the Ottoman Empire itself. Therefore, it is not at all surprising that for almost five centuries the biography of Roksolana, concealing many contradictions and mysteries, has become so overgrown with legends and fictions.

Therefore, it is very difficult to speak objectively about this famous woman. Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska Haseki-Sultan - as she was called in the Ottoman Empire, in Europe she was known under the name of Roksolana. The real name is not known for certain. But, relying on literary traditions and the main version, she was born in the small town of Rohatyn, in Western Ukraine. And since at that time that territory was under the Poles, Roksolana was often called a polka. However, according to official figures, she was Ukrainian by nationality.

And her name, which has gone down in history for centuries, she owes to the Ambassador of the Roman Empire De Busbek, who called her in his reports "Roksolana", meaning the name common at the end of the 16th century for those places where the Sultana was from - Roksolania. The name "Roksolana" sounded like "Ryussa", "Rossa", "Rossana".

As for the real name, there are still heated debates among researchers. Indeed, in the primary sources of the 16th century there is no reliable information about him. Only much later did some begin to call her Anastasia, the daughter of the priest Gavrila Lisovsky. And some historians considered them to be Alexandra and a Polish woman by nationality. Now, some researchers often mention the version of the Russian roots of the great sultana, which has no good reason.

And the most popular version says that around 1520, during the next raid of the Tatars, 15-year-old Anastisia Lisovskaya was taken prisoner, taken to the Crimea, and from there transported to Istanbul. There, the vizier Ibrahim Pasha noticed the fine girl, who presented her to Suleiman I.

It was from that time that her majestic biography began. For Anastasia in the harem stuck with the name "Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska", which meant "cheerful". And in a very short time from an ordinary concubine, she will become the beloved wife of Suleiman I the Magnificent, who idolized her, initiated her into his state affairs and wrote his poems for her.

For the sake of his beloved, he will do what none of the sultans before him did: tie himself by the official marriage with a concubine. For this, Roksolana will accept Islam and, having become the main wife, will be for about forty years an influential person in the Ottoman Empire.

In fairness, it should be noted that no one has ever described Roksolana as some very beautiful woman, she had an attractive appearance - nothing more. What then did the Slavic girl of the Turkish Sultan bewitched with? Suleiman the Magnificent loved strong-willed, intelligent, sensual and educated women. And she had no interest in intelligence and wisdom.

This explains the fact that Roksolana managed to fall in love with the young sultan so easily and become the mistress of his heart. In addition, being a very educated woman, she was well versed in art and politics, so Suleiman, contrary to all the customs of Islam, allowed her to be present at the council of the divan, at the negotiations of diplomatic ambassadors. By the way, Suleiman the Magnificent was the greatest sultan of the Ottoman dynasty, and during his reign the empire reached the apogee of its development.

Especially for her, the sultan introduced a new title at his court - khaseki. And since 1534, Roksolana will become the mistress of the palace and the main political adviser to Suleiman. She had to independently receive ambassadors, maintain correspondence with influential politicians of European states, engage in charity work and construction, and patronize art masters. And when the spouses had to be separated for a while, they corresponded with beautiful verses in Arabic and Persian.

Roksolana and Suleiman had five children - four sons and a daughter. However, of the sons, only one survived Suleiman the Magnificent - Selim. Two died in the bloody struggle for the throne, the third died in infancy.

For forty years of marriage Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska succeeded almost impossible. She was proclaimed the first wife, and her son Selim became the heir. At the same time, two youngest sons of Roksolana were strangled. According to some sources, it is she who is accused of involvement in these murders - allegedly this was done in order to strengthen the position of her beloved son Selim. Although reliable data on this tragedy was never found. But there is evidence that about forty sons of the Sultan, born by other wives and concubines, were found and killed by her order.

They say that even the mother of the Sultan was shocked by the harsh methods thanks to which she won the power of Roksolana. The biography of this extraordinary woman testifies that she was also feared outside the palace. Hundreds of persons disliked by her quickly perished in the hands of the executioners.

Roksolana could be understood, living in constant fear that at any moment the sultan could be carried away by a beautiful new concubine and make her a legal spouse, and order the old wife to be executed. In the harem, it was customary to put an unwanted wife or concubine alive in a leather bag with a poisonous snake and an angry cat, and then, having tied a stone, to throw it into the waters of the Bosphorus. The guilty considered it happiness if they were simply quickly strangled with a silk cord.

Time passed, but Roksolana remained the best for Suleiman: the further, the more he loved her. When she was already under 50, the ambassador from Venice wrote about her:

Fortunately, not only deceit and cold calculation glorified Khyurrem Sultan. She managed to do a lot for the prosperity of Istanbul: she built several mosques, opened a school, organized a house for the mentally retarded, and also opened a free kitchen for the poor, established contacts with many European countries.

At the age of 55, the biography of the most influential woman ends. Roksolana was buried with all the honors that no woman in Islam knew. After her death, the sultan did not even think about other women until his last days. Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska remained his only lover. After all, he once dismissed his harem for her sake.

Sultan Suleiman died in 1566, having outlived his wife by only eight years. Their tombs still stand side by side, near the Suleiman Mosque. It is worth noting that for the 1000-year history of the Ottoman state, only one woman was awarded such an honor - Roksolana.

After the death of the Sultan, the throne was taken by the beloved son of Khyurrem-Sultan Selim. During his eight-year reign, the empire began to decline. Contrary to the Koran, he loved to "take on the chest", and therefore remained in history under the name Selim the Drunkard. Fortunately, Roksolana did not live to see this.

The life and rise of Roksolana so excited his creative contemporaries that even the great painter Titian (1490-1576) painted a portrait of the famous sultana. Titian's painting, painted in the 1550s, is called La Sultana Rossa, that is, the Russian sultana.

The German artist Melchior Loris was in Turkey precisely during the years when Suleiman the Magnificent ruled. He painted portraits of Suleiman himself and his courtiers. The likelihood that this portrait of Roksolana, made on a tablet, belongs to the brush of this master is quite probable.

There are many portraits of Roksolana in the world, but there is no consensus among researchers as to which of these portraits is the most reliable.

This mysterious woman still excites the imagination of artists who interpret her image in a new way.

There have been other greats in the history of mankind. women rulersthat left a significant mark after themselves.