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OTTOMAN WOMEN

Her portraits suggest a mosaic refinement, with classical features and blazing red hair. There is depth and inte1ligence in her eyes. An extraordinary strategist and a true political artist, Roxalena planned her moves as if she were playing chess.
At the beginning, Süleyman was attracted to her silent charm, and she became his favorite. Soon she bore him a son, which elevated her to third kadin the third most powerful woman in the hierarchy of the harem. Roxalena was aware that, according to the Code of Laws established by Mehmed the Conqueror, the throne passed to the oldest male, obliging him to get rid of a1l his brothers in order to secure it for his own offspring. As such, from the beginning, Prince Mustafa, the heir apparent, was the death warrant of her own male children.
Roxalena was so full of light that Süleyman seemed blind to her dark side. He named her Hürrem, ''the laughing one,'' because ofher crystalline laughter and freedom from inhibition.

Yet Hürrem was secretly tormented. In 154l, when the Old Palace, which housed the sultan's harem, partially burned down, Roxalena, with her entourage of odalisques and eunuchs, moved to the Grand Seraglio, where she could be closer to Süleyman and the seat of power, a move that marked the beginnİng ofthe Grand Harem and ''The Reign ofWomen.''

With Mustafa and Gülbahar tucked far away , Roxalena had still another antagonist to deal with, the man who had originally owned her, the inseparable friend and companion of Süleyman, Ibrahim, who shared Süleyman's tent and his dreams, who had been promoted from the status of royal falconer to Lord of Rumelia and, later , grand vizier .Ibrahim had been chosen to marry the sultan's own sister, Hatice Sultana, and had been the object of endless wealth and honor. He may have presented Roxalena to Süleyman as a move to consolidate his power; if so, the scheme backfıred.

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