Empress of the East: How a European Slave Girl Became Queen of the Ottoman Empire

Peirce (Morality Tales), professor of history at NYU, successfully portrays the Ottoman Empire’s most famous concubine as a woman who parlayed her enslaved status into becoming Suleyman the Magnificent’s queen and a significant philanthropist—all while being unable to appear in public. Using her surviving correspondence and contemporary 16th-century accounts, Peirce fleshes out the queen’s life in a court that seldom recorded women’s activities. As a young slave, the Ruthenian girl, nicknamed Roxelana (her given name, birth date, and exact birthplace remain unknown), tellingly received the Persian name Hürrem, meaning joyful. She later laid the foundation of diplomatic correspondence between powerful women of the East and West. Westerners of that era obsessed over the brief sexual careers of harem members, but Ottoman tradition gave high-ranking members the special role of overseeing the transformation of their singleton princes into potential heirs. Roxelana’s unique position as the probable emotional intimate of the sultan and the mother of multiple princes allowed her to create a strong family unit that, for those same reasons, came into conflict with Ottoman tradition. Peirce’s knowledge of Turkish culture shines through objective, well-reasoned explanations of Eastern law and customs. Fascinating from beginning to end, Peirce’s telling of Roxelana’s story illuminates her remarkable life and the evolution of a long-lived empire that straddled two continents. Illus. (Sept.)