Ottoman–Safavid War (1532–1555)

(Redirected from Ottoman–Safavid War (1532–55)) 16th century war between the Ottoman Empire and the Safavid Empire

Ottoman-Safavid War of 1532–1555

Miniature from the Süleymanname depicting Suleiman marching with an army in Nakhchivan, summer 1554, at the end of the Ottoman-Safavid War.

Date	1532–1555
Location	Mesopotamia, Armenian Highlands, Iranian Azarbaijan
Result	Ottoman victory Peace of Amasya
Territorial changes	Ottomans gain large parts of Mesopotamia (Iraq), Western Iraq, Western Armenia, and Western Georgia Persians retain Tabriz, Eastern Georgia, Eastern Armenia, Eastern Kurdistan, Dagestan, and Azerbaijan and the rest of their north-western borders as they were prior to the war Erzurum, Van, and Shahrizor become buffer zones. Kars is declared neutral.

Belligerents

Safavid Empire

Ottoman Empire

Commanders and leaders

Shah Tahmasp I

Shahverdi Sultan

Shahzada Ismail Mirza

Qadi Jahan Qazvini

Sultan Suleiman I

Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha

İskender Çelebi

Grand Vizier Rüstem Pasha

Şehzade Mustafa

Şehzade Selim

Şehzade Bayezid

Alqas Mirza (POW)

Grand Vizier Ahmed Pasha

Strength

60,000 men
10 pieces of artillery

200,000 men
300 pieces of artillery

v t e Ottoman–Persian Wars
Ottoman–Safavid Wars Chaldiran War of 1532–1555 War of 1578–1590 War of 1603–1612 War of 1616–1618 War of 1623–1639 Occupation of Basra 1697–1701 Campaigns of Nader Shah War of 1730–1735 War of 1743–1746 Subsequent conflicts War of 1775–1776 War of 1821–1823 Persian campaign (World War I)

Ottoman–Persian Wars

Ottoman–Safavid Wars

Campaigns of Nader Shah

Subsequent conflicts

The Ottoman–Safavid War of 1532–1555 was one of the many military conflicts fought between the two arch rivals, the Ottoman Empire led by Suleiman the Magnificent, and the Safavid Empire led by Tahmasp I.

Background

The war was triggered by territorial disputes between the two empires, especially when the Bey of Bitlis decided to put himself under Persian protection. Also, Tahmasp had the governor of Baghdad, a sympathiser of Suleiman, assassinated.

On the diplomatic front, the Safavids had been engaged in discussions with the Habsburgs for the formation of a Habsburg–Persian alliance that would attack the Ottoman Empire on two fronts.

Two Iraqi Expedition

The Ottomans, first under the Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha, and later joined by Suleiman himself, successfully attacked Safavid Iraq, recaptured Bitlis, and proceeded to capture Tabriz and then Baghdad in 1534. Tahmasp remained elusive as he kept retreating ahead of the Ottoman troops, adopting a scorched earth strategy.

Second campaign (1548–1549)

Under the Grand Vizier Rüstem Pasha, Ottomans attempting to defeat the Shah once and for all, Suleiman embarked upon a second campaign in 1548–1549. Again, Tahmasp adopted a scorched earth policy, laying waste to Armenia. Meanwhile, the French king Francis I, enemy of the Habsburgs, and Suleiman the Magnificent were moving forward in a Franco-Ottoman alliance, formalized in 1536, that would counterbalance the Habsburg threat. In 1547, when Suleiman attacked Persia, France sent its ambassador Gabriel de Luetz, to accompany him in his campaign. Gabriel de Luetz gave military advice to Suleiman, as when he advised on artillery placement during the Siege of Van. Suleiman made gains in Tabriz, Persian ruled Armenia, secured a lasting presence in the province of Van in Eastern Anatolia, and took some forts in Georgia.

Third campaign (1553–1555) and aftermath

Main article: Safavid Campaign (1554–1555)

In 1553 the Ottomans, first under the Grand Vizier Rüstem Pasha, and later joined by Suleiman himself, began his third and final campaign against the Shah, in which he first lost and then regained Erzurum. Ottoman territorial gains were secured by the Peace of Amasya in 1555. Suleiman returned Tabriz, but kept Baghdad, lower Mesopotamia, western Armenia, western Georgia, the mouths of the Euphrates and Tigris, and part of the Persian Gulf coast. Persia retained the rest of all its northwestern territories in the Caucasus.

Due to his heavy commitment in Persia, Suleiman was only able to send limited naval support to France in the Franco-Ottoman invasion of Corsica (1553).

Notes

Gábor Ágoston-Bruce Masters:Encyclopaedia of the Ottoman Empire , ISBN 978-0-8160-6259-1, p.280
"Ottoman Empire - Süleyman I | Britannica".
The Reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, 1520-1566, V.J. Parry, A History of the Ottoman Empire to 1730, ed. M.A. Cook (Cambridge University Press, 1976), 94.
The Cambridge history of Islam by Peter Malcolm Holt, Ann K. S. Lambton, Bernard Lewis p. 330
The Cambridge history of Iran by William Bayne Fisher p.384ff
The Reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, 1520–1566, V.J. Parry, A History of the Ottoman Empire to 1730, ed. M.A. Cook (Cambridge University Press, 1976), 94.
A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East, Vol. II, ed. Spencer C. Tucker, (ABC-CLIO, 2010). 516.
Ateş, Sabri (2013). Ottoman-Iranian Borderlands: Making a Boundary, 1843–1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 20. ISBN 978-1107245082.
Mikaberidze, Alexander (2011). Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World: A Historical Encyclopedia, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. p. 698. ISBN 978-1598843361.
^ The Cambridge history of Islam by Peter Malcolm Holt, Ann K. S. Lambton, Bernard Lewis p. 330
^ The Cambridge history of Iran by William Bayne Fisher p.384ff

Sources

Yves Bomati and Houchang Nahavandi,Shah Abbas, Emperor of Persia,1587–1629, 2017, ed. Ketab Corporation, Los Angeles, ISBN 978-1595845672, English translation by Azizeh Azodi.
Mikaberidze, Alexander (2015). Historical Dictionary of Georgia (2 ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. p. xxxi. ISBN 978-1442241466.

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