The Ottoman-Iranian wars is the general name for the wars fought between the Ottoman state and the dynasties of Iran from the beginning of the 16th century to the middle of the 19th. The longest and hardest struggle was waged against the Safavids. The wars began with the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514. The foundation of today’s Turkish-Iranian border, however, was laid by the Treaty of Qasr-e Shirin in 1639.
Quick Summary
- The Ottoman-Iranian wars began with Chaldiran in 1514 and continued intermittently until the 1820s.
- Behind the wars lay rivalry over sect, borders and trade routes.
- The treaties of Amasya (1555), Ferhad Pasha (1590) and Nasuh Pasha (1612) brought temporary peace.
- Murad IV took Baghdad in 1638, and the Treaty of Qasr-e Shirin was signed in 1639.
- The border was reconfirmed by the treaties of Kerden in 1746 and Erzurum in 1847.
Contents
- The causes of the wars
- The Battle of Chaldiran
- The reign of Suleiman and Amasya
- The reign of Murad III and the Treaty of Ferhad Pasha
- The age of Shah Abbas
- Baghdad and Qasr-e Shirin
- After Qasr-e Shirin
- The results of the wars
- Table of treaties
- Frequently asked questions
The Causes of the Ottoman-Iranian Wars
In 1501 Shah Ismail founded the Safavid state in Tabriz and made Shi’ism the official creed of the state. Safavid propaganda also had an effect among the Turkmens of Anatolia. The Şahkulu Rebellion of 1511 was the clearest example of this influence. The Ottoman government saw this development as a direct threat.
The Ottoman-Iranian wars cannot be explained by sectarian difference alone. Eastern Anatolia, Azerbaijan, the Caucasus and Iraq were regions that both states wanted to control. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, one of the main causes of the wars was also the control of international trade routes. According to the encyclopedia, from the late 16th century onwards the two states imposed embargoes on each other, banning the passage of goods of every kind.
The Battle of Chaldiran (1514)
According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the decision for war was taken at a council held in Edirne, and Selim I set out on his Iranian campaign. The long and difficult march caused discontent among the soldiers. According to the encyclopedia, some janissaries on the Eleşkirt plain went so far as to fire bullets at the sultan’s tent. Selim’s short, sharp speech brought the army back into line.
The battle was fought on 23 August 1514 on the plain of Chaldiran near Khoy. At the centre of the Ottoman army were the janissary, artillery and armourer units. According to the encyclopedia, the Safavids were defeated, and most of the Qizilbash chiefs died on the battlefield. Selim entered Tabriz and sent most of the city’s craftsmen to Istanbul.
After the battle, the fortress of Kemah was taken on 19 May 1515. Many cities of Eastern Anatolia, Diyarbekir first among them, were also added to Ottoman territory. According to the encyclopedia, the unity of Anatolia, broken after the Seljuks, was thus permanently restored. This victory also opened the way for the Egyptian campaign two years later. You can find an overall assessment of this period in our article on the Ottoman state under Selim I.
The Reign of Suleiman and the Peace of Amasya
Suleiman the Magnificent led three major campaigns against Iran. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha captured Tabriz in 1534. During the same campaign Baghdad, too, was added to Ottoman territory. This campaign, covering Iran and Iraq, is known as the “Campaign of the Two Iraqs”.
The Safavid ruler Shah Tahmasp avoided pitched battle. According to the encyclopedia, he had the places the Ottoman army would pass through burned and laid waste, poisoned the water and made the population leave. At the end of the 1553–1555 campaign, Shah Tahmasp asked for peace. We described the execution of Prince Mustafa at Ereğli at the start of this campaign in our article on Prince Mustafa.
According to the encyclopedia, the letter Suleiman handed to the envoy on 1 June 1555 formed the basis of the Peace of Amasya. Under the treaty, the ritual cursing of the first three caliphs, known as tabarra’i, was to be banned. As long as the parties did not attack, the Ottoman border beys would not move against Iran. Iranian pilgrims were also allowed to pass through Ottoman territory.
The Reign of Murad III and the Treaty of Ferhad Pasha
War broke out again in 1578, under Murad III. According to the encyclopedia, armies under the command of Ferhad Pasha and Özdemiroğlu Osman Pasha entered Azerbaijan. The Ottomans entered Tabriz in 1585 and Ganja in 1588. According to the encyclopedia, the Safavid heir Hamza Mirza was unable to retake Tabriz.
According to the encyclopedia, with the Treaty of Ferhad Pasha, signed in Istanbul in 1590, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Dagestan, Shirvan, Karabakh and Tabriz came under Ottoman rule. With this treaty the Ottoman state reached its widest borders in the east. We discussed the overall picture of the period in our article on the Ottoman state under Murad III.
The Age of Shah Abbas
The Ottoman war with Austria gave Shah Abbas I his opportunity. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, Abbas broke the peace in 1603 and began to recover the lost territories. Azerbaijan, Nakhchivan and Yerevan passed back to the Safavids. The Ottoman commander-in-chief Cığalazade Sinan Pasha was also defeated at Tabriz.
According to the encyclopedia, the Treaty of Istanbul (Nasuh Pasha), signed in 1612, made this de facto situation official. The treaty also lifted the silk ban that had lasted throughout the war. Shah Abbas undertook to send the sultan 200 loads of silk every year. The peace did not last long, however, and the treaty made at Serav in 1618 could not stop the war either.
According to the encyclopedia, in 1624 Shah Abbas seized Kirkuk, Karbala, Najaf and Baghdad. The Safavid state thus reached its widest borders. The loss of Baghdad was seen as a great wound at the Ottoman court. The sieges undertaken in 1625 and 1630 to retake the city failed.
Baghdad and the Treaty of Qasr-e Shirin
Once the Austrian front had calmed down, Murad IV turned east. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, Yerevan passed to the Ottomans in 1635, but it was soon retaken by Shah Safi. Murad IV reconquered Baghdad in 1638. The siege, in which the sultan took part in person, lasted about forty days.
According to the encyclopedia, the treaty signed at Zuhab (Qasr-e Shirin) in 1639 returned Iraq to Ottoman rule. The treaty largely fixed the Ottoman-Iranian border and marked the beginning of a long period of peace. The foundation of today’s Turkish-Iranian border also rests on this treaty.
What Happened After Qasr-e Shirin?
The Ottoman-Iranian wars did not come to a complete end in 1639. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the Afghans took Isfahan in 1722, effectively destroying the Safavid state. The Ottomans took advantage of this turmoil to enter Azerbaijan. According to the encyclopedia, in 1727 the Afghan leader Ashraf Khan left Iranian Kurdistan, Azerbaijan, Karabakh and Georgia to the Ottomans.
Nader Shah came to the throne in 1736 and went to war with the Ottomans again. According to the encyclopedia, the Treaty of Kerden, signed on 4 September 1746, made both sides recognize the Qasr-e Shirin border once more. In the time of Karim Khan of the Zand dynasty, Iranian forces captured Basra in 1776. The city was evacuated again in 1779.
The last major war took place in the early 1820s. According to the encyclopedia, under the peace made at Erzurum in 1823, Iranian forces were to withdraw from the places they had occupied. The Second Treaty of Erzurum (1847) left the plain section of the Qasr-e Shirin region to Iran and the mountainous section to the Ottomans.
The Results of the Wars
The Ottoman-Iranian wars wore down the strength of both states. The campaigns in the east at times coincided with wars in Europe. In such cases the Ottoman state had to fight on two fronts at once. According to the encyclopedia, Shah Abbas’s breaking of the peace in 1603 also happened during the Ottoman-Habsburg wars.
The wars also affected trade. Silk bans and embargoes left the looms of Bursa, which obtained their raw material from Iran, in difficulty. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, Shah Abbas’s attempt in 1599–1628 to change the silk route harmed Bursa’s trade for a time. We described the general course of the silk trade in our article on the Silk and Spice Roads.
Table of Ottoman-Iranian Treaties
The main treaties signed during the Ottoman-Iranian wars are summarized below.
| Treaty | Year | Main result |
|---|---|---|
| Amasya | 1555 | First official peace, passage allowed for pilgrims |
| Ferhad Pasha | 1590 | Azerbaijan and the Caucasus passed to the Ottomans |
| Nasuh Pasha | 1612 | Losses made official, silk ban lifted |
| Serav | 1618 | Terms of 1612 repeated |
| Qasr-e Shirin | 1639 | Baghdad remained Ottoman, border drawn |
| Kerden | 1746 | Qasr-e Shirin border recognized again |
| Erzurum | 1823 | Iran withdrew from the places it had occupied |
| Erzurum | 1847 | Details of the border settled |
Frequently Asked Questions
When did the Ottoman-Iranian wars begin?
The first major war was the Battle of Chaldiran on 23 August 1514. In this battle Selim I defeated Shah Ismail.
With which treaty did the Ottoman-Iranian wars end?
The Treaty of Qasr-e Shirin in 1639 brought a long-lasting peace with the Safavids. The wars, however, recurred intermittently in later centuries, and the final settlement came with the Treaty of Erzurum in 1847.
When did Baghdad pass definitively to the Ottomans?
Baghdad was first taken in 1534 and lost in 1624. Murad IV reconquered the city in 1638. From then on the city remained Ottoman until the First World War.
What is the significance of the Peace of Amasya?
It was the first official peace between the Ottomans and the Safavids. The treaty allowed Iranian pilgrims to pass through Ottoman territory.
Conclusion
The Ottoman-Iranian wars arose from the rivalry of two great states over sect, territory and trade routes. The struggle that began at Chaldiran brought Eastern Anatolia into the Ottoman state. The Treaty of Qasr-e Shirin laid the foundation of today’s border. Later treaties reconfirmed this border with minor changes.
Sources
- TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, entry “Safevîler” (Safavids)
- TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, entry “Çaldıran Savaşı” (Battle of Chaldiran)
- TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, entry “Amasya Antlaşması” (Peace of Amasya)
- TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, entry “İran” (Iran)
- Bekir Kütükoğlu, Osmanlı-İran Siyâsî Münâsebetleri (1578-1612) [Ottoman-Iranian Political Relations, 1578–1612].
