[[Image:Khourrem.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Hürrem Sultan (Roxolana)]]
Suleiman was very much infatuated with [[Roxelana|Hurrem Sultan]], a harem girl of [[Ruthenian]] origin. In the West, foreign diplomats taking notice of the palace gossip about her, called her "Russelazie" or "Roxolana", referring to her slavic origins. <ref>S. Z. Ahmed, p. 43</ref>. The daughter of an [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] [[Ukrainians|Ukrainian]] priest,<ref>Kinross, 236.</ref> she was captured and rose through the ranks of the [[Harem (household)|Harem]] to become Suleiman's favourite wife. Breaking with 300 years of Ottoman tradition followed by subsequent Sultans, Suleiman married Hurrem Sultan in a formal ceremony, making her the first former slave to gain legitimacy as the Sultan's legal wife, to the astonishment of many observers both in the Empire and in Europe. He also allowed Hurrem Sultan to remain with him at court for the rest of her life, breaking another tradition that when imperial heirs come to their age, they would be sent along with the imperial concubine who bore them to govern remote provinces of the Empire, never to return unless their progeny succeeded to the throne.
Under his pen name, Muhibbi, he composed this poem for Roxolana:
