The origins for Roxelana are obscure. According Polish tradition, she was Aleksandra Lisowska, the daughter of a Ruthenian priest, born in 1504, in the town of Rogatin, near Lvov, in the western Ukraine, which was then part of Poland. During this period, Tartar tribes from the east mad frequent raids into the Ukraine to obtain booty and slaves. One such captive was a girl of fair complexion with reddish-blonde hair, making her a valuable prize and a worthy gift for the sultan.
Despite the trauma of abduction to a foreign land far from all she knew and loved, Roxelana became known in the harem for her merry ways. She was sometimes punished for refusing to follow the harem rules, but when she was beaten she never cried; because of her happy nature, she was call Hurrem, meaning joyful.
The harem in which Roxelana was installed was a social institution with a long history in the Middle East, where polygamy had been a tradition practice long before the region became Muslim. The nomadic, pre-Islamic, Turkic tribes frequently engaged in warfare, and Turkic women often fought side-by-side with the men and otherwise enjoyed considerable equality; Turkish culture prized girls, and mediatory prayers often requested the birth of a female. As Turkish rulers came to dominate the former Byzantine Empire, one of the Persian customs they adopted was the rigid segregation of women, a social convention that actually overcame religious teaching to bring harems into existence. Islam, meanwhile, actually improved women's status, as it guaranteed the greater property rights than those enjoyed by their European counterparts; and it limited to four the number of wives a man could marry.
It is not known when Roxelana came to Suleiman's harem. She may have been presented to him as a gift when he became sultan in September 1520. As a slave, she would have entered the complicated hierarchy of the harem with lowly status.