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later he himself died, he was buried next to her, a token of true love seldom found in the annals of Ottoman history. But even before Suleiman's death, Roxolana’s sons Selim and Bayezid were struggling for power. Selim was the less noble character, but as happened so often in the politics of those days, it was he who eventually came out on top. He is known to posterity as Selim the Sot and Turkish historians generally date the beginning The assassination of Suleiman’s favorite son, Crown Prince Mustafa, as imagined by a European artist. In fact, Mustafa was strangled. (Barber, The Sultans). of the Ottoman decline from his accession to powier in 1556. For many years, the image of Roxolana as the cun ning and ambitious woman who initiated the rule of the harem women and promoted the decline of the Ottoman Empire was generally accepted by Western historians. After all, during her lifetime popular opinion was against the Ukrainian woman, and the Turkish chroniclers were saying nothing new in repeating this. However, with the passage of time, it has become clear that this negative view of Roxolana needs to be somewhat revised. The Ottoman Empire never really solved the question of a peaceful and orderly succession, and insecurity, rivalry, and frequent fratricide among royal princes was a fact of life for almost all of them, as it was in most Islamic states where there was no law of primogeniture. There fore, in protecting her position in the Sultan’s house hold, Roxolana was simply protecting her progeny. She cannot be blamed if she was unusually successful in this. From the time that she entered the Sultan’s harern in 1520 to the time of her death in 1558, Roxolana played a significant role in the internal politics of one of the greatest empires in European history. Her influence probably even extended into foreign policy and interna tional affairs. For good or for ill, she was enormously successful at promoting the interests of her own family and her own line. She remains well-known both among the Turks and among Europeans in general. Historical novels in a number of languages (incuding Ukrainian), plays, and even an opera have been devoted to her amazing life. She will not be forgotten soon. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE: Roxolana is discussed in alm ost every good history of the O ttom an Empire. For a well researched and attractively written narrative, see Lord Kinross, The Ottoman Centuries (N ew York, 1977). For a m ore popular account, see Noel Barber, The Sul tans (N ew York, 1973). Th e most sober English language bio graphy of Suleim an the M agnificent is by R.B. M errim an (C am bridge, Mass., 1944). M errim an's book is based on a m anuscript by the famous Am erican educator, Archibald Cary Coolidge, w ho was responsible for initiating Slavic Studies at Harvard U niversity in the beginning of this century. On the Black Sea slave trade and slavery in the O ttom an Empire, there are a num ber of enlightening scholarly articles by Alan Fischer, which have been sum m arized in Bernard Lewis, Race and Slavery in the Middle East (O xford, 1990), a learned but lively book. On the sultan’s harem , see N .M . Penzer, The Harem (London, 1936) and A.L. C routier’s beautifully illustrated Harem: The World Behind the Veil (N ew York, 1989). Ukrainian O rien talist Ahatanhel Krym sky had a special interest in Roxolana and this com es out in his Ukrainian language History of Tur key, fragm ents of which are reprinted in the fourth volume of his Tvory v p’iat' tomakh (Kiev, 1974). Krymsky stresses the Slavic elem ent in the Sultan’s arm y and his household. From his youth, Suleim an him self spoke a Slavic language, probably Serbo-C ro atian. The most detailed study in Ukrainian is by Yevhen Kramar, ’’Slavetna ukrainka v sultanskomu dvori,” in his Doslidzhennia z istorii Ukrainy (T oron to-B altim ore, 1984). U krainian language novels by Osyp Nazaruk (1930), M ykola Lazorsky (1965), and Pavlo Zahrabelny (1980) all deal with Roxolana. Thomas M. Prymak is Resident Fellow, Center for Russian and Eastern European and Eastern European Studies, Univer sity of Toronto. He is the author of Mykhailo Hrushevsky: the Politics of National Cultures, Maple Leaf and Trident: The Ukrainian Canadians during The Second World War and a forthcoming work Mykola Kostomarov: A Biography to be pub lished by the University of Toronto Press this December. He has taught history at Toronto, Saskatchewan and McMaster universities. 20 ’НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ", ЖОВТЕНЬ 1995 Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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