page_title: Battle of Samarra (1733)
section_title: The battle of Samarra
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Samarra (1733) / The battle of Samarra
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Der Mufti befeuchtet bei der Eröffnung des Feldzuges die Kanonen mit Rosenwasser, 1788 English: The mufti sprinkles the cannons with rose water at the start of the campaign, 1788
context_page_description: The Battle of Samarra was the key engagement between the two great generals Nader Shah and Topal Osman Pasha, which led to the siege of Baghdad being lifted, keeping Ottoman Iraq under Istanbul's control. The armed contest between the two colossi was very hard fought with a total of roughly 50,000 men becoming casualties by the end of the fighting that left the Persians decimated and the Ottoman victors badly shaken. Other than its importance in deciding the fate of Baghdad, the battle is also significant as Nader's only battlefield defeat although he would avenge this humiliation at the hands of Topal Pasha at the battle of Agh-Darband where Topal was killed.
context_section_description: Topal proved his worth almost immediately. To provoke a bellicose attack by Nader he weakened his advance and rear guards visibly but during the night reinforced them significantly. Nader sent a large body of his cavalry to assault the Ottoman left but this was beaten back as the Ottomans were greater in number than initially thought and had deployed artillery. Nader decided on bringing forth a bulk of his army consisting of some 50,000 men and break the Ottomans using a frontal assault. After an intense collision of troops the Ottoman centre was pushed all the way back to the edge of their tents and encampments with some of their guns falling into Persian hands. At this juncture the flight of 2,000 Kurds in the Ottoman army put Topal Osman's men in a near-impossible situation but he restored the situation by providing an extra 20,000 soldiers from his reserve which succeeded in pushing the Persian back and even recapturing the guns lost earlier.
  The battle continued with both armies continually gaining and losing ground from one another till noon. Due to the wise positioning of the Ottoman army in this campaign by Topal Pasha his men had access to water from the Tigris river behind them while the Persians grew increasingly thirsty as the battle raged on well into the blistering heat of the Mesopotamian afternoon with no immediate source to provide much needed succour. The strength of Topal Pasha's positioning also showed another great advantage as at this point the wind started to blow south kicking up dust and sand into the faces of the Persians which was now coupled by a further misfortune - a betrayal by an Arab tribal contingent in Nader's army - all culminating in a critical state of affairs which could prove too much, even for the battle-hardened troops of Nader.
  Not even the commitment of a 12,000 strong reserve of Abdali cavalry could break the janissaries, merely adding to the mayhem as they were also swept up in the vortex of bloody carnage that had now become the battle of Samarra. As the army began to disintegrate under so much pressure, Nader rode around encouraging his men to further efforts and partook in the fighting personally, managing to skewer an Ottoman cavalryman with a lance but was himself thrown from his horse in the violent scuffle. Rumours spread through the Persian ranks of Nader's demise, dealing a death blow to the morale of an already exhausted army. As organized resistance began to fade after an unrelenting 9 hour engagement the Persians withdrew south and could not be rallied despite the best efforts of their leaders. Nader had for the first and last time in his monumental career of conquest been defeated. The two great leaders had battled their men with unbelievable ferocity, but Topal Pasha had managed, if only just, to carry the day by winning a costly yet still glorious and decisive victory.
caption: Ottoman Army artillerymen.
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