Caldiran War

After Selim I took over the throne he executed his brothers Ahmet and Korkut and the grand vizier (vezir-i azam) Koca Mustafa Pasha in 1513.

Selim I prefered campaigning to Asia. He considered Shah Ismail as the treaty of the Ottomans from the times of his father but he did not convinced Bayezid II . While he was in throne, he attacked Shah Ismail of the Safevid Dynasty of Iran.

The Battle of Caldiran ( Chalderan) took place in the eastern Anatolia, near lake Van in 1514, ended by the Ottoman’s victory. The ottomans entered Tabriz. On the other hand, he was in conscious that the Iranian Empire was under the protection of Mamluke sultan of Egypt, Kansu Gavri. In order to solve this problem, he had to attack Syria and Egypt.

Mercidabik War (1516)

The two forces met at Mercidabik and the Egyptian army was destroyed with its ruler.

Ridaniye War (1517)

After his two victories, Selim I, spent the winter in Syria and started his attacks on Egypt with the coming of the spring. The two armies met in Cairo in a bloody struggle. The Ottomans took Cairo and Egypt was conquered. The key of the Muslim’s sacred places were given to the Ottomans, with Hejaz and Yemen area.

He captured the last puppet Abbasid caliph and in 1518 took him back to Istanbul. After that he recognised as the guardian of Mecca and Medina the Muslim’s holy cities and the Ottoman sultans adopted the title “caliph” from then until the foundation of “Turkiye”.

Barbarossa, the famous seaman in the Mediterranean accepted the Ottoman’s suzerainty during the time of Selim II.

Selim II died from an illness in 1520 and was buried in Istanbul. He enlarged enormously the lands of the Empire in his short 8-year reign