Ottomans · 1514
Battle of Chaldiran
Ottoman guns beat the Safavid cavalry and Selim took Tabriz. The Sunni Ottoman and Shia Safavid rivalry shaped the region for two centuries.
Key facts
- When
- 1514
- Where
- Near Khoy, Iran
- Sides
- Ottomans vs Safavids
- Commanders
- Selim I vs Shah Ismail I
- Result
- Ottoman victory
- Type
- Ottomans
- Chapter
- 5. The Ottomans
Who led it
- Selim I1470 to 1520
In eight years he defeated the Safavids at Chaldiran and destroyed the Mamluk sultanate, bringing Syria, Egypt, Makkah and Madinah under Ottoman rule.
The wider picture: Three gunpowder empires
Mehmed II took Constantinople in 1453. Selim I conquered Egypt in 1517 and the caliphate passed to the Ottomans. Suleiman won at Mohacs in 1526, and a second siege of Vienna failed in 1683. Further east, Safavid Iran and the Mughals of India ruled at the same time.
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