Roksolana, also known as Hurrem Sultan and Churem Hasseki (“the Merry Sultana”), was the wife of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (1520 – 1566) and the mother of Sultan Selim ІІ (1566 – 1574).

In the Middle Ages and later in Europe, the word “Roxolana” (or “Roxa”, “Rosa”, “Russa”, “Rossa”) was used to refer to women who came from Ruthenia, or Ukraine-Rus. Roxolana’s Ukrainian “Ruthenian” ancestry was confirmed by numerous contemporaries, including the Ambassador of Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Crimea Michalon Litvin (Lituanus) and European diplomats in Turkey. As the old story has it, Roxolana’s real name was Nastia Lysovska. According to the 17th century Polish historian Samuel Twardowski, Roxolana was the nickname of a daughter of an Orthodox priest from the town of Rohatyn (now in the Ivano-Frankivsk region).

Roxolana was captured by the Tartars presumably between 1509 and 1516 and then sold to the Imperial Harem of the Ottoman Empire. In 1520 she became a concubine of Suleiman the Magnificent, and later, in early 1530s, his legal wife. She was actively involved in her husband’s politics, in particular, she influenced his decisions to dismiss the Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha in 1536 and to execute Mustafa, the Sultan’s eldest son from the first wife, thus ensuring that her own son Selim succeeded to the throne.

She maintained correspondence with the Polish King Sigismund II. It is believed that she was instrumental in the “everlasting peace” treaty between Poland and the Ottoman Empire, made in 1533. She was the sponsor of several major works of public buildings in Istanbul, including mosques, hospitals, a homeless shelter, an asylum, public baths, etc. She also financed the construction of a water canal in Jerusalem. Roksolana’s letters to her husband are extant. She was buried in the mausoleum of the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul.