Roxelana: The Woman Who Broke Precedent and Protocol

The Ottoman Imperial Harem, otherwise known as the seraglio, conjures images of an Orient brimming with exoticism and decadence; reclining eastern beauties bathing in marble washing chambers; silver trays of fruits and delicacies served on perfumed divans; lavish apartments decorated in colorful painted tiles and persian carpets. This is the seraglio we see in European paintings, depictions of youthful odalisques that were produced during the era of the Ottoman Empire.

The reality is that while the harem was a place for entertainment where material luxuries were provided, the women who composed the harem were slaves from the outskirts of the empire, and brought to Constantinople to serve the Sultan.

Islamic law forbade the enslavement of Muslim women, and therefore the harem was made up of exclusively non-muslim born women - many from the Caucasus (the english word ‘slave’ comes from Slav, due to the wide enslavement of Eastern Europeans during the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires). Women were plucked from their homes in their youth and brought to the imperial capital. There, they were forced to convert to Islam and were taught the ways of the Ottoman court before being introduced into the harem chambers. 

Interestingly, these foreign slave women were expected to bear legitimate heirs to the Sultan’s throne. Unlike European courts, Ottomans did not support the notion of primogeniture (the right of succession belonging to the firstborn male child). Once a concubine had birthed a son, her sexual relationship with the Sultan was required to end. Mother and prince, when the young man reached the age of adolescence, were assigned a province by the Sultan. Here the young prince was tutored by imperial scholars, and learned to manage a small district. By the time of their death, Sultans would have many male heirs from several women, and the princes would compete for control of the dynasty. 

This system, which naturally caused bloody in-fighting between half-brothers, did produce strong leadership for the Ottoman Empire, as princes would have to prove their valor and aptitude to become ruling Sultan. For the mothers of these princes, it was excruciating. As it happened, on many occasions all male heirs aside from the new ruling Sultan would be executed in order to avoid competing claims to the throne. 

The ethnicities and origins of the harem women were irrelevant. They wielded no significant political power unless their son ascended to the throne, nor did they strengthen ties with other empires as European queens did. In fact, they did not marry the Sultan, as they were not considered free women and slaves were not given the right to marriage. 

Roxelana, beloved Empress of the East

All of this changed with the introduction of Roxelana, a young woman captured from what is now parts of Belarus and Ukraine, by Tatar slave tradesmen at the age of 13. She was acquired by the Court at Constantinople’s slave market, and was introduced to the harem at the age of 17 — Süleyman I was 26 at the time and had just become Sultan.

A slender figure with red hair, Roxelana was considered an attractive woman but not a great beauty. Instead, historians remark on her cunning and intelligence. Despite a troubling childhood, she has been described as a young woman of high spirits; her Ottoman name was Hürrem, coming from a Persian word meaning ‘joyful’ or ‘smiling one’. 

Roxelana would have lived in the Old Palace, where the harem was situated during those years. The Old Palace housed the Sultan’s harem, as well as all high-ranking females of the court: the Sultan’s mother, unmarried sisters, and daughters - as well a large troupe of female servants, scribes, chefs, and entertainers. Here too the young princes would live with their mothers until they were ready to move to the provinces and rule over their own households and harems. 

When Süleyman met Roxelana he would have already had four children (and three potential male heirs), born from concubines at his province’s harem during the reign of his father. Roxelana quickly became his favorite; he spent several months with her in the New Palace (called Topkapi from the 19th century onwards), where the Sultan exclusively resided. Within a year she bore him a son.

Historically, this would have been the end of the intimate relationship between concubine and Sultan. It was Ottoman policy that a woman only bear one male heir for the Sultan - she would then retire to a life of celibacy and total maternal devotion. Princes and their mothers had incredibly strong bonds; mothers would oversee their son’s harem, ensure the prince was being educated, and, if possible, attempt to curry favor for them with the Sultan and military officials.

In a shocking break with tradition, Roxelana and Süleyman continued to share a bed. Within five years Roxelana had four more sons. The court was astonished, some were dismayed. There were rumors of Roxelana being a witch, seducing the Sultan with her powers. In reports to Europe, ambassadors wrote that the Turkish Sultan had become monogamous and, in fact, Süleyman did not have children with any other member of the harem for the rest of his reign.

Jealousy, competition, and power plays in the harem

Roxelana’s significant influence is underlined in an account from one of the court’s European ambassadors. As the story goes, Süleyman received the gift of two beautiful Russian concubine women from a governor's office within the Empire. In a jealous fit, Roxelana, a new mother at the time, threw herself to the floor in anguish. The Sultan sent the women away, as gifts to neighboring nobles, so as to not upset Roxelana. This display would have been unthinkable in previous Ottoman administrations. 

The harem women would have been envious of Roxelana – accounts from Venetian ambassadors that closely observed her, tell stories of hair pulling and face scratching from Roxelana's chief rival. The Old Palace would have been thrown into disarray when in 1534, 15 years after Süleyman and Roxelana first met, the couple announced they were to be wed. Roxelana had become the Queen of the Ottoman Empire, a role that previously didn’t exist. She was given the name Hürrem Haseki Sultan, officially titling her as a member of the royal family.

This shift in royal family dynamics changed the course of Ottoman history and the role of women within the court. Roxelana became a trusted advisor to the Sultan, collecting information from foreign embassies through her own contacts within the women’s sphere of the harem. She facilitated the move of the harem from the Old Palace to the Sultan’s residence at Topkapi, bringing the women of the court closer to the seat of government. She ushered in a new era, one where the wives and mothers of sultans exerted political influence, called the ‘ Sultanate of Women’. Over the next 100 years, the women close to the sultan had unprecedented power, and several ruled the kingdoms as ‘Valide Sultans’ for their infant sons. 

It is unclear whether Roxelana and Süleyman's unique relationship was born from love, or was the product of a young woman’s political acumen (likely a combination of both), but the tale of a slave girl turned Empress has captivated minds since the Ottoman era. Her story lives on in French operas, Turkish drama series, Renaissance paintings, and the legacy of the harem at Topkapi that continues to fascinate today.