The name of that woman is lost. Europeans called her Roxelana, “the maiden from Ruthenia,” a land in what is today Belarus and Ukraine. Captured around the age of 13 by Tatar slavers, Roxelana ended up in the markets of Ottoman Constantinople, and ultimately in the sultan’s harem. There she learned Turkish, the precepts of Islam and the amorous arts. She was given a new name, Hurrem, “the laughing/joyful one.” Sultan Suleiman I (“the Magnificent”) first slept with her around 1520, about the time he took the throne. He never stopped, neglecting all other women in his harem. Before long, Roxelana bore a son, Mehmed, which elevated her status yet should have removed her from the sultan’s bed. But, defying tradition, Suleiman refused to abandon his beloved. After the birth of Mehmed, Suleiman continued to have sex with Roxelana. Soon, she gave birth to a daughter, Mihrimah, and three more boys. By 1532, she had borne the sultan six children — something so unheard of that many suspected witchcraft. Several years later Suleiman stunned the population by marrying Roxelana, thus making her a free woman. Having overturned centuries of traditions, Roxelana exerted extraordinary influence over her husband, the most powerful man in Ottoman history.

This lively book resurrects Roxelana by digging into letters, account books and diplomatic dispatches to illuminate a life meant to be hidden from view. It is a difficult task. Ottoman culture prized the invisibility of its women, forcing Peirce to judiciously conjecture or creatively imagine much of Roxelana’s life. This requires more creativity than professional historians usually allow themselves, but Peirce, an expert on the Ottoman Empire, is careful to wall off her speculations with fair warnings. Less convincing are her strained exculpations for Roxelana, insisting that she was not behind various unsavory murders that benefited her. One is left with the impression that Roxelana consistently wielded impressive power, except when things went badly.

Roxelana died in 1558, but her life changed Ottoman politics for centuries. No longer on the periphery, the cloistered harem was moved to the center of imperial government, where it would bubble with ambition and intrigue. This new book sympathetically brings Roxelana beyond the hidden world of her rich palaces, at last exposing her, if incompletely, to public view.