I recently started watching the Turkish historical drama, Muhteşem Yüzyıl (The Magnificent Century), which portrays the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent and the height of Ottoman power. Although the series centers the empire’s most powerful ruler, its most compelling figure is a woman: Hurrem Sultan. Born Aleksandra Lisowska in what is now Ukraine, Hurrem was captured during a Tatar raid and brought to the Ottoman palace as an enslaved girl. Renamed “Hurrem”, meaning “the cheerful one”, she entered the imperial harem, often imagined as a purely domestic space, but in reality, was a highly political world shaped by rivalry, alliances and constant negotiation for survival. While the show emphasizes her romance with Suleiman, her real story is one of political transformation. She gained the sultan’s trust and affection, converted to Islam and eventually became his legal wife which was an unprecedented decision in an empire where sultans did not traditionally marry their concubines. Through intelligence, careful strategy and an understanding of palace dynamics, she secured lasting influence. Her son, Selim II, later ascended to the throne.
