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

“She came from that Eurasian steppe which was a major hunting ground for slave merchants at this time…Hürrem would probably have been converted to Islam before she entered Süleyman’s household. It’s likely that she received some education in the household. We know through her correspondence that she knew how to read…By all accounts, Hürrem was an extremely gifted, intelligent person…Hürrem was one of Süleyman’s biggest supporters. Süleyman manumitted her and she died as a free person in 1558. Süleyman had multiple children by Hürrem, including four boys. Immediately after she died, her two surviving sons entered into a deadly succession contest that determined the tenor of the last years of Süleyman’s reign…So, yes, this is the right book to read about Hürrem.” Read more...

The best books on Sultan Süleyman

Kaya Şahin, Historian