Sources indicate that Hurrem Sultan was originally from Ruthenia, which was then part of the Polish Crown. She was born in the town of Rohatyn southeast of Lwów (Lviv), a major city of the Ruthenian Voivodeship of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, in what is now Ukraine. According to late 16th-century and early 17th-century sources, such as the Polish poet Samuel Twardowski (died 1661), who researched the subject in Turkey, Hurrem was seemingly born to a man surnamed Lisovsky, who was an Orthodox priest of Ruthenian origin. Her native language was Ruthenian.