Campaign of Trebizond (1505) Shah Ismail's brother Ibrahim marched on
Trabzon, which belonged to the Ottomans, with an army of 3,000 in 1505. Thereupon, Selim went on an expedition against Ibrahim. With 450 soldiers under the command of Selim, he repelled the army of 3,000 under the command of Ibrahim and chased the Safavids to Erzincan. As a result of this expedition, Shah Ismail complained about Selim to Sultan Bayezid II, but he did not get any results.
Battle of Erzincan (1507) In 1507, the
Safavids under the command of
Shah Ismail organized an expedition against
Ala al-Dawla Bozkurt of
Dulkadir. During this expedition, Shah Ismail, who had crossed into
Ottoman territory without permission, also included
Turkmen warriors who were Ottoman subjects in his army. These actions of Shah Ismail were a violation of Ottoman sovereignty.
Bayezid II did not respond to these violations, but Selim, the governor of
Trabzon at the time, attacked
Erzincan and
Bayburt, which belonged to the Safavids, and defeated the 10,000 men Safavid army sent by Shah Ismail in Erzincan.
Campaign of Trebizond (1510) After Selim's last actions, Shah Ismail sent an army to
Trabzon again in 1510. This army, under the command of Shah Ismail's brother, marched to Trabzon. However, Selim, who was in Trabzon, defeated the
Safavids.
Georgian Campaign (1508) In 1507 Selim successfully defeated the Safavid army at Erzincan. The following year, in 1508, he organised an attack against Georgia. He invaded and captured western Georgia bringing Imereti and Guria under Ottoman rule. During his campaign he enslaved a large number of women, girls and boys, reportedly more than 10,000 Georgians.
Battle of Tekirdag (1510) As a result of the struggle for the throne that Selim started against his father, Sultan Bayezid II, in 1512, a battle was fought between the parties near
Tekirdag. Selim lost the battle.
Battle of Yenişehir (1513) By 1512
Şehzade Ahmed was the favorite candidate to succeed his father. Bayezid, who was reluctant to continue his rule over the empire, announced Ahmed as
heir apparent to the throne. Angered by this announcement, Selim
rebelled, and while he lost the first battle against his father's forces, Selim ultimately dethroned his father. Selim commanded 30,000 men, whereas his father led 40,000. Selim only escaped with 3,000 men. This marked the first time that an Ottoman prince openly rebelled against his father with an army of his own. Selim ordered the exile of Bayezid to a distant "
sanjak",
Dimetoka (in the north-east of present-day Greece). Bayezid died immediately thereafter. When Selim ascended to the throne, his first task was to suppress his brother Ahmed's rebellion. The army under the command of Selim and the army under the command of Prince Ahmed met near Yenişehir. Ahmed was defeated in the battle between the two sides. Selim put his brothers (Şehzade Ahmet and
Şehzade Korkut) and nephews to death upon his accession. His nephew
Şehzade Murad, son of the legal heir to the throne Şehzade Ahmed, fled to the neighboring
Safavid Empire after his expected support failed to materialize. This fratricidal policy was motivated by bouts of civil strife that had been sparked by the antagonism between Selim's father and his uncle,
Cem Sultan, and between Selim himself and his brother Ahmet.
Alevi unrest After many centuries of calm, the
Alevi population began an open rebellion while Selim I was the sultan, and they seem to have been backed by the
Qizilbash of
Safavid Iran. This led to harsh reprisals against the Alevis by the
Ottoman Army under Selim I.
Conquest of the Middle East Safavid Empire in
Isfahan One of Selim's first challenges as sultan involved the growing tension between the Ottoman Empire and the
Safavid Empire led by
Shah Ismail, who had recently brought the Safavids to power and had switched the Persian state religion from
Sunni Islam to adherence to the
Twelver branch of
Shia Islam. By 1510 Ismail had conquered the whole of
Iran and
Azerbaijan, southern
Dagestan (with its important city of
Derbent),
Mesopotamia,
Armenia,
Khorasan,
Eastern Anatolia, and had made the
Georgian kingdoms of
Kartli and
Kakheti his vassals. He was a great threat to his Sunni Muslim neighbors to the west. In 1511 Ismail had supported a pro-Shia/Safavid uprising in Anatolia, the
Şahkulu Rebellion. His mufti,
ibn Kemal, issued a fatwa of
takfir against shah Ismail I and his followers, declaring his lands
the abode of war. Early in his reign, Selim created a list of all Shiites ages 7 to 70 in a number of central Anatolian cities including Tokat, Sivas and Amasya. As Selim marched through these cities, his forces rounded up and executed all the Shiites they could find. Most of them were beheaded. The massacre was the largest in Ottoman history until the end of the 19th century. In 1514, Selim I attacked the Safavid Empire to stop the spread of Shiism into Ottoman dominions. Selim and Ismā'il had exchanged a series of belligerent letters prior to the attack. On his march to face Ismā'il, Selim had 50,000 Alevis massacred, seeing them as enemies of the Ottoman Empire. Selim I defeated Ismā'il at the
Battle of Chaldiran in 1514. Ismā'il's army was more mobile and his soldiers better prepared, but the Ottomans prevailed due in large part to their efficient modern army, possession of artillery,
black powder and
muskets. Ismā'il was wounded and almost captured in battle, and Selim I entered the Iranian capital of
Tabriz in triumph on 5 September, but did not linger. The Battle of Chaldiran was of historical significance: the reluctance of Shah Ismail to accept the advantages of modern firearms and the importance of artillery proved decisive. After the battle, Selim, referring to Ismail, stated that his adversary was: "Always drunk to the point of losing his mind and totally neglectful of the affairs of the state". Following their victory, the Ottomans captured the Safavid capital city of
Tabriz on 7 September, which they first pillaged and then evacuated. That week's Friday sermon in mosques throughout the city was delivered in Selim's name. Selim was however unable to press on after Tabriz due to the discontent amongst the janissaries. The Ottoman Empire successfully annexed Eastern Anatolia (encompassing
Western Armenia) and Upper Mesopotamia from the Safavids. These areas changed hands several times over the following decades; however, the Ottoman hold would not be set until the 1555 Peace of Amasya following the
Ottoman–Safavid War (1532–1555). Effective governmental rule and
eyalets would not be established over these regions until the 1639
Treaty of Zuhab.
Battle of Marj Dabiq Selim I launched an attack on the Mamluks in 1516. The Ottoman army and the Mamluk army met near Marj Dabiq. The Mamluk army advanced and on 20 August made camp at the plain of Marj
Dabiq, a
day's journey north of
Aleppo. There, al-Ghawri and his men awaited the enemy's approach on this plain, where the sultanate's fate would soon be decided. According to the History of Egypt composed by
Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Iyas, the Mamluks arranged themselves with the Sultan occupying the center column. Sibay, the Governor of Damascus, commanded the right flank, and Khai'r Bey, governor of Aleppo, took the left. The marshal Sûdûn Adjami was the first to enter combat, followed by Sibay, leading an experienced corps of veteran Mamluk warriors. They rushed into battle and managed to kill several thousand Turkish soldiers in the first hours of fighting. This advantage forced the opposite Ottoman wing to begin a withdrawal, and the Mamluk forces under Sibay succeeded in taking several pieces of artillery and capturing some fusiliers. Selim considered retreat or requesting a truce. It was at this point that the battle turned against the Mamluks. A rumor began to spread that al-Ghawri had ordered the recruits to hold their position, avoid combat, and leave the fighting to the veteran soldiers who were already engaged in battle. When Marshall Sûdûn Adjami and Sibay, who were leading the attack, were suddenly killed, panic broke out in the Mamluks' advancing right flank. Meanwhile, Khai'r Bey, in command of the left flank, called for a retreat. The fact that his forces were the first to quit the field was considered evidence of the man's betrayal. Ibn Iyas offered the following account of the Mamluk defeat: Selim I, welcomed by the inhabitants as a deliverer from the excesses of the Mamluks, entered
Aleppo in triumph. He received the Abbasid caliph warmly, but upbraided the Islamic judges and jurists for their failure to check Mamluk misrule. Joined by Khai'r Bey and other Egyptian officers, he proceeded to the
Citadel. From Aleppo, he marched with his forces to
Damascus, where terror prevailed. Beyond some attempts to protect the city by flooding the plain around, the remnants of the Mamluk forces had done nothing substantial to oppose the enemy. Discord amongst the emirs had paralyzed the army and prevented any decisive action that might have affected the subsequent course of events. Some of al-Ghawri's lieutenants supported Emir Janberdi Al-Ghazali as the new sultan, but others favoured the deceased ruler's son. As the
Ottomans approached, however, resistance dissolved, as the remaining forces either went over to their side or fled to
Egypt. Selim I entered Damascus in mid-October, and the inhabitants readily surrendered to the conquerors.
Battle of Ridaniya Sultan Tuman bay II now resolved himself to march out as far as
Salahia, and there meet the Turks wearied by the desert march; however, at the last he yielded to his Emirs who entrenched themselves at Ridanieh a little way out of the city. Tumanbay escaped from Cairo and tried to organize a new army composed of Egyptians together with what was left out of the Mamluk army. His army was smaller in size and capacity compared to the Ottoman army. But he was planning to raid Selim's camp on Vustatiye island. However, Selim heard about his plan and sent a force on Tumanbay to forestall his plans. After some small-scale clashes, Tumanbay was arrested on 26 March 1517. Selim's initial decision was to send Mamluk notables to İstanbul. But after a while, he changed his decision. Tumanbay and the other notable Mamluks were executed on 13 April 1517 at the
Bab Zuweila by a former Mamluk commander who had switched sides.
Battle of Cairo (1517) The Battle of
Cairo was an attempt by Sultan Tuman Bay II's forces to liberate Cairo from
Ottoman rule in January 1517. Although the
Mamluks were successful in the first raid, they were later defeated when Selim I personally took control of the Ottoman army and lost control of the city again.
Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and the Arabian Peninsula being remitted to Selim I Sultan Selim then conquered the
Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt, defeating the Mamluk Egyptians first at the
Battle of Marj Dabiq (24 August 1516), and then at the
Battle of Ridanieh (22 January 1517). This led to the Ottoman annexation of the entire sultanate, from
Syria and
Palestine in
Sham, to
Hejaz and
Tihamah in the
Arabian Peninsula, and ultimately
Egypt itself. This permitted Selim to extend Ottoman power to the Muslim holy cities of
Mecca and
Medina, hitherto under Egyptian rule. Rather than style himself the ''Ḥākimü'l-Ḥaremeyn
, or The Ruler of The Two Holy Cities
, he accepted the more pious title Ḫādimü'l-Ḥaremeyn
, or The Servant of The Two Holy Cities''. The last
Abbasid caliph,
al-Mutawakkil III, was residing in Cairo as a Mamluk puppet at the time of the Ottoman conquest. He was subsequently sent into exile in Istanbul. In the eighteenth century, a story emerged claiming that he had officially transferred his title to the
Caliphate to Selim at the time of the conquest. In fact, Selim did not make any claim to exercise the sacred authority of the office of caliph, and the notion of an official transfer was a later invention. After conquering Damascus in 1516, Selim ordered the restoration of the tomb of
Ibn Arabi (d. 1240), a famous
Sufi master who was highly revered among Ottoman Sufis. Mamluk culture and social organization persisted at a regional level, and the hiring and education of Mamluk "slave" soldiers continued, but the ruler of Egypt was an Ottoman governor protected by an Ottoman
militia. The fall of the Mamluk Sultanate effectively put an end to the
Portuguese–Mamluk naval war, but the Ottomans then took over the attempts to stop Portuguese expansion in the
Indian Ocean. The conquest of the Mamluk Empire also opened up the territories of
Africa to the Ottomans. During the 16th century, Ottoman power expanded further west of Cairo, along the coasts of northern Africa. The corsair
Hayreddin Barbarossa established a base in
Algeria, and later accomplished the
Conquest of Tunis in 1534. This established the
Ottoman Caliphate, with the sultan as its head, thus transferring religious authority from Cairo to the Ottoman throne. Cairo remained in Ottoman hands until the 1798
French conquest of Egypt, when
Napoleon I claimed to eliminate the Mamluks. , from the ''Theatro d'el Orbe de la Tierra'' de
Abraham Ortelius,
Antwerp, 1602, updated from the 1570 edition The conquest of the Mamluks was the largest military venture that which any of the Ottoman sultans had ever attempted on, specifically whose first to declared war on them was Selim I himself. In addition, the conquest has put the Ottomans in control of two considered-largest, notable cities situated in Africa, the Middle East and in Europe at the time, generally
Constantinople and Cairo. Its not since the height of the Roman Empire conquering in aggregating conquest of territories, thus controlling several seas such as the
Black,
Red,
Caspian, and
Mediterranean (
Mare Nostrum) seas, governed by a single empire. The conquest of Egypt proved extremely profitable for the empire as it produced more tax revenue than any other Ottoman territory and supplied about 100% of all food consumed. However,
Mecca and
Medina were the most important of all the cities conquered since it officially made Selim and his descendants the Caliphs of the entire Muslim world until the early 20th century. == Death ==