Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana)
c. 1505 – 1558 · 53 years · Istanbul · Middle East
A Ruthenian captive who became the legal wife of Suleiman the Magnificent, unprecedented in Ottoman history; a powerful courtier and patron.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Portrait: Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Michelangelo — sculptor, painter and architect, 30 years older
- Martin Luther — church reformer, 22 years older
- Nicolaus Copernicus — astronomer, 32 years older
- Elizabeth I — Queen of England, 28 years younger
- Leonardo da Vinci — painter, scientist and inventor, 53 years older
- Miguel de Cervantes — Spanish novelist, 42 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan the Terrible — first Tsar of Russia, 25 years younger
- Vasily III — grand prince who completed the unification of the Russian lands, 26 years older
- Yermak Timofeyevich — Cossack conqueror of Siberia, 27 years younger
Middle East
- Suleiman the Magnificent — Ottoman sultan, 11 years older
- Selim II — sultan who took Cyprus and lost at Lepanto, 19 years younger
- Selim I the Grim — sultan who took Cairo and Mecca, 35 years older
- Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf — Ottoman astronomer and engineer, 21 years younger
- Murad III — sultan who won the Caucasus from the Safavids, 41 years younger
Africa
- Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi — Adal imam and general, 1 year younger
- Askia Muhammad I — Emperor of Songhai, 62 years older
Asia
- Akbar the Great — Mughal emperor, 37 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieyasu — first Tokugawa shogun, 38 years younger
- Guru Nanak — founder of Sikhism, 36 years older
- Babur — founder of the Mughal Empire, 22 years older
- Oda Nobunaga — Japanese warlord, 29 years younger
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi — unifier of Japan, 32 years younger
Americas
- Bartolomé de las Casas — friar and defender of Native Americans, 21 years older
- Hernán Cortés — conquistador, 20 years older
- Atahualpa — last Inca emperor, 3 years older
- Ferdinand Magellan — navigator, 25 years older
- Moctezuma II — Aztec emperor, 39 years older
- Huayna Capac — Sapa Inca, 41 years older
The world in their lifetime
- 1508–1512 Sistine Chapel ceiling — aged 3, Europe
- 1511 Portuguese capture of Malacca — aged 6, Asia
- 1517 Luther's Ninety-five Theses — aged 12, Europe
- 1519–1522 Magellan's circumnavigation — aged 14, Americas
- 1520–1566 Reign of Suleiman the Magnificent — aged 15, Middle East
- 1521 Fall of Tenochtitlan — aged 16, Americas
- 1526 First Battle of Panipat — aged 21, Asia
- 1526 Battle of Mohács — aged 21, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1529–1543 Ahmad Gragn invades Ethiopia — aged 24, Africa
- 1532 Capture of Atahualpa at Cajamarca — aged 27, Americas
- 1534 Henry VIII breaks with Rome — aged 29, Europe
- 1542 Orellana sails down the Amazon — aged 37, Americas
- 1543 Copernicus publishes heliocentrism — aged 38, Europe
- 1545–1548 Cocoliztli epidemic — aged 40, Americas
- 1547 Ivan IV crowned Tsar — aged 42, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1555–1561 Saint Basil's Cathedral — aged 50, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1556 Shaanxi earthquake — aged 51, Asia
- 1556 Akbar and the Second Battle of Panipat — aged 51, Asia