Battle of Chaldiran

The **Battle of Chaldiran** (23 August 1514) was fought between the Ottoman Empire of Selim I and the Safavids in the area of Chaldiran, in the eastern Anatolian plateau. The Ottomans won and so they took eastern Anatolia and northern Iraq from the Safavids. The loss of Anatolia was a turning point for Safavid history.

One feature of the battle was that the Ottomans used guns and cannons to defeat the cavalry corps. However, the Ottomans led more than twice as many troops as the Safavids, and it said that the difference in troop strength made the difference between victory and defeat.

## Background 
In the early 16th century, the Muslim world was dominated by three major empires. The Ottoman Empire had conquered Constantinople and controlled the Balkans and Anatolia. The Safavid Empire had conquered a large territory under Ismail I and expanded its power in Iran by using Turkic cavalrymen known as the Qizilbash. The Mamluk Sultanate ruled Egypt, the Levant and Hejaz.

A severe threat to the Ottomans was the Safavids. After the Battle of Chaldiran, the Ottomans would turn their attention to conquering the holy Islamic cities of Mecca and Medina from the Mamluk Sultanate. The Safavids would recover from the defeat and become one of the three major empires of the Islamic world with the Ottoman Empire and the Mughal Empire, the last of which controlled South Asia.

### Safavid dynasty 
The Safavid dynasty was founded in March 1501 by Ismail I, a 15-year-old descendant of the Safavid family from Azerbaijan, Iran.

Ismail aimed to create a Shia society, and forced conversions took place. There was a massacre of Sunnis who rebelled against the policy in the Tabriz. In addition, Ismail expanded his control by annexing Azerbaijan and large parts of Iran, Baghdad, Khorasan, and Diyarbakr.

### Ottoman Empire 
When Sultan Selim I ascended to the Ottoman throne in 1512, relations between the Ottoman Empire and the Safavid dynasty changed radically. Furthermore, Selim ruled Trabzon for nearly 25 years from 1487 and was based in Trabzon to fight the Safavid invasion.

## Battle 
The Ottoman army was dominated by elite janissaries and included an additional 200 cannons, 100 field guns and 8 000 camels. In contrast, the Safavid cavalry was less than half of the Ottoman army. In the battle, the Safavid cavalry of Qizilbash attacked in a mass assault, and the Ottoman Army then responded with artillery fire.

## Aftermath 
### Ottoman Empire 
Selim was unable to capitalise on the victory. Despite chasing the Iranians to Tabriz, he allowed Ismail to escape.

However, the Ottomans' victories can be said to have extended their power. After annexing eastern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia, they controlled the Central Asian trade route between Tabriz and Bursa. The following year, the Ottomans annexed the Mamluk dynasty of Syria and Egypt and brought the Holy Land of the Hejaz under their control.

During the siege of Tabriz, the Ottomans brought many merchants and ceramic artisans. The artisans belonged to a pottery factory in Istanbul and had become responsible for decorating the tiles on most of the buildings thaï were constructed by the Ottoman Empire by the 1550s. That is said to have contributed significantly to the development of Iznik pottery.

### Safavids dynasty 
The Safavids lost eastern Anatolia to the Ottomans, which had been an important source of troops from the Ottoman army. Thousands of Qizilbash tribesmen were also killed. Although Ismail himself was wounded and managed to escape after terrible hardships, he lost his prestige in Iran since he had been believed to be invincible.

## References