Female

I was born in the town of Rohatyn, 68 km southeast of Lvov, a major city of Red Ruthenia (Chervona Rus') which was then part of the Kingdom of Poland, today in western Ukraine. I was captured by Crimean Tatars during one of their frequent raids into this region and taken as a slave, taken first to the Crimean city of Kaffa, a major centre of the slave trade, then to Istanbul, and was selected for Süleyman's harem.
My beautry and my wit quickly came to the attention of her master, and attracted the jealousy of my rivals. One day Süleyman's favorite, the concubine Mahidevran (also called "Gul Bahar", the Flower of Spring), got into a fight with me and beat me badly. Upset by this, Süleyman banished Mahidevran to the provincial capital of Manisa, together with her son, the heir apparent, Prince Mustafa. Thereafter, I became Süleyman's unrivalled favorite or haseki.

My influence over the Sultan soon became legendary; I delivered to my Sultan, Süleyman, five children and, in an astonishing break with tradition, eventually I was freed and became his legal wife. This strengthened my position in the palace and eventually led to one of my sons, Selim, inheriting the empire. Upon his generosity, I acted as Süleyman's adviser on matters of state, and sought to have had an influence upon foreign affairs and international politics. I wrote two letters to the Polish King Sigismund II Augustus which have been preserved, and during my lifetime, the Ottoman Empire generally had peaceful relations with the Polish state.

I engaged in several major works of public buildings, from Mecca to Jerusalem, perhaps modeling my charitable foundations in part after the caliph Harun al-Rashid's consort Zubaida. Among my first foundations were a mosque, two Koranic schools (madrassa), a fountain, and a women's hospital near the women's slave market (Avret Pazary) in Istanbul. I also commissioned a bath, the Haseki Hürrem Sultan Hamamı, to serve the community of worshipers in the nearby Hagia Sophia. In Jerusalem she established in 1552 the Hasseki Sultan Imaret, a public soup kitchen to feed the poor and the needy.

LIfe was indeed generous to me, and hence my Arabic name Karima has special feeling for me. I join in spirit with the tribal dancers of the Faire, and seek to provide good things to all those in need.