The Ottoman Selim I Also called Selim the Grim or Selim the Resolute (Turkish: Yavuz Sultan Selim), I. Selim (Turkish: سليم الأول; Turkish: I. Selim; 10 October 1470 – 22 September 1520) ruled as sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. Even though he ruled for only eight years, his reign is remembered for the vast growth of the Empire, especially the conquering of the whole Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt between 1516 and 1517, which comprised Egypt itself, Hejaz, Tihamah, and the entire Levant. By the time of his death in 1520, the Ottoman Empire had expanded by 70% during Selim's rule, and it covered an area of roughly 3.4 million km2 (1.3 million sq mi).
The Ottoman Empire became the leading Muslim power after Selim conquered the Muslim heartlands of the Middle East, especially by taking on the responsibility of protecting the roads to Mecca and Medina. His conquests significantly moved the empire's center of culture and geography from the Balkans to the Middle East. Although tales of an official transfer of the caliphal office from the Mamluk Abbasid dynasty to the Ottomans were later invented, Selim's conquest of the Mamluk Sultanate by the eighteenth century had become romanticized as the moment when the Ottomans took control of the rest of the Muslim world. As a result, Selim is widely regarded as the first legitimate Ottoman Caliph.
Early life
During the reign of his grandfather, Mehmed II, Selim was born in Amasya on October 10, 1470, the son of Şehzade Bayezid (later Bayezid II). His mother was Ayşe Gülbahar Hatun, a Pontic Greek concubine who was once mistaken for Ayşe Hatun, another Bayezid consort and the daughter of the eleventh Dulkadirid ruler, Alaüddevle Bozkurt Bey. When he was nine years old in 1479, his grandpa sent him and his brothers to Istanbul to undergo circumcision. His father became Sultan Bayezid II after his grandfather, Mehmed II, passed away in 1481. His father dispatched him to Trabzon six years later, in 1487, to serve as governor.
Campaigns and Battles
Campaign of Trebizond (1505)
In 1505, Ibrahim, the brother of Shah Ismail, led an army of 3,000 soldiers in a march on Ottoman-held Trabzon. Selim then embarked on an expedition to combat Ibrahim. He chased the Safavids to Erzincan with 450 warriors headed by Selim, successfully repelling Ibrahim's 3,000-strong army. Shah Ismail complained to Sultan Bayezid II about Selim as a result of this mission, but he received no response.
Battle of Erzincan (1507)
The Safavids, led by Shah Ismail, launched an expedition against Dulkadir's Ala al-Dawla Bozkurt in 1507. Turkmen fighters who were Ottoman subjects were also part of Shah Ismail's army during this expedition, as he had entered Ottoman territory without authorization. Ottoman sovereignty was violated by Shah Ismail's acts. These infractions went unanswered by Bayezid II, but Selim, the then-governor of Trabzon, assaulted the Safavids' Erzincan and Bayburt and routed the 10,000-man Safavid army that Shah Ismail had sent to Erzincan.
Campaign of Trebizond (1510)
Shah Ismail dispatched another army to Trabzon in 1510 following Selim's final deeds. This army marched to Trabzon under the leadership of Shah Ismail's brother. Nevertheless, the Safavids were vanquished by Selim, who was in Trabzon.
Georgian Campaign (1508)
At Erzincan, Selim defeated the Safavid army in 1507. He planned an assault on Georgia in 1508, the year after. Imereti and Guria came under Ottoman control after he attacked and conquered western Georgia. In the course of his campaign, he reportedly enslaved around 10,000 Georgian women, girls, and boys.
Battle of Tekirdag (1510)
A battle broke out between the parties near Tekirdag in 1512 as a result of the throne dispute that Selim initiated against his father, Sultan Bayezid II. The battle was lost by Selim.
Battle of Yenişehir (1513)
By 1512, Şehzade Ahmed was the front-runner to take over his father's position. Reluctant to maintain his position of power, Bayezid declared Ahmed the heir apparent to the throne. Selim was incensed by this declaration and revolted, eventually overthrowing his father even though he lost the initial conflict with his army. While his father commanded 40,000 men, Selim commanded 30,000. With barely 3,000 soldiers, Selim managed to escape. This was the first open rebellion by an Ottoman prince using his own army against his father. Selim commanded Bayezid to be banished to Dimetoka, a far-off "sanjak" in northeastern Greece. Bayezid passed away right away. The first thing Selim had to do after taking the throne was put an end to his brother Ahmed's uprising. The army led by Prince Ahmed and the army led by Selim clashed close to Yenişehir. In the conflict between the two factions, Ahmed lost. Upon his accession, Selim executed his nephews and brothers, Şehzade Korkut and Şehzade Ahmet. When his anticipated backing did not materialize, his nephew Şehzade Murad, son of the legitimate successor to the throne Şehzade Ahmed, escaped to the neighboring Safavid Empire. The animosity between Selim's father and his uncle, Cem Sultan, as well as between Selim and his brother, Ahmet, had caused periods of civil unrest that served as the impetus for this fratricidal policy.
Conquest of the Middle East
Safavid Empire
The rising hostility between the Ottoman Empire and the Safavid Empire, which was ruled by Shah Ismail, who had just installed the Safavids and changed the Persian state religion from Sunni Islam to allegiance to the Twelver branch of Shia Islam, was one of Selim's first difficulties as sultan. By 1510, Ismail had taken control of all of Iran, Azerbaijan, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Khorasan, eastern Anatolia, southern Dagestan (with the significant city of Derbent), and the Georgian kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti. He posed a serious risk to his western Sunni Muslim neighbors. Ismail had backed the Şahkulu Rebellion, a pro-Shia/Safavid rebellion in Anatolia in 1511. Ibn Kemal, his mufti, declared his territories to be the abode of war and issued a fatwa of takfir against Shah Ismail I and his supporters.
In the early years of his rule, Selim made a list of all Shiites in Tokat, Sivas, and Amasya who were between the ages of 7 and 70. Selim's troops captured and killed every Shiite they came across as they marched through these cities. They were mostly decapitated. Up to the end of the 19th century, the massacre was the biggest in Ottoman history.
To prevent Shiism from spreading into Ottoman territories, Selim I launched an attack on the Safavid Empire in 1514. Before the attack, Selim and Ismā'il had written a string of aggressive letters to each other. Selim had 50,000 Alevis slaughtered on his march to confront Ismā'il because he believed they were Ottoman foes. Ismā'il was vanquished by Selim I in 1514 at the Battle of Chaldiran. Although Ismā'il's army was more mobile and his soldiers were more prepared, the Ottomans won mostly because of their effective modern army, which included muskets, artillery, and black powder. After Ismā'il was wounded and nearly taken prisoner in combat, Selim I triumphantly reached the Iranian capital of Tabriz on September 5th, although he did not stay. Shah Ismail's unwillingness to acknowledge the use of artillery and the benefits of contemporary weaponry made the Battle of Chaldiran a historic one. Selim said that his opponent was "always drunk to the point of losing his mind and totally neglectful of the affairs of the state" following the encounter, referring to Ismail.
On September 7, after their triumph, the Ottomans took Tabriz, the capital of the Safavids, first pillaging it and then evacuating it. Selim's name was used in the Friday sermon that week in mosques all throughout the city. However, because of the janissaries' dissatisfaction, Selim was unable to pursue Tabriz. The Ottoman Empire was successful in capturing Upper Mesopotamia and Eastern Anatolia, which included Western Armenia, from the Safavids. The Ottoman control would not be established until the Peace of Amasya in 1555, which followed the Ottoman–Safavid War (1532–1555), although these territories changed hands multiple times during the ensuing decades. The Treaty of Zuhab in 1639 would be the first to create eyalets and effective governmental control over these areas.
Battle of Marj Dabiq
The Mamluks were attacked by Selim I in 1516. Near Marj Dabiq, the Ottoman and Mamluk armies clashed. A day's drive north of Aleppo, on August 20, the Mamluk army moved forward and set up camp on the plain of Marj Dabiq. On this plain, where the fate of the sultanate would soon be determined, al-Ghawri and his troops waited for the enemy to approach. The Sultan was positioned in the middle column in the Mamluks' arrangement, according to Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Iyas' History of Egypt. The governor of Aleppo, Khai'r Bey, commanded the left wing, while Sibay, the governor of Damascus, commanded the right.
Leading a seasoned corps of seasoned Mamluk fighters, Sibay entered action after marshal Sûdûn Adjami arrived first. Several thousand Turkish soldiers were killed in the initial hours of combat by their hasty entry into the conflict. The Mamluk forces under Sibay were able to seize some artillery and capture some fusiliers as a result of the opposing Ottoman wing being compelled to start withdrawing. Selim contemplated retreating or calling for a truce.
The battle shifted against the Mamluks at this time. There was a story that al-Ghawri had told the new recruits to stay put, stay out of the fray, and let the seasoned men who were already fighting do the fighting. Panic erupted in the Mamluks' advancing right flank when Sibay and Marshall Sûdûn Adjami, who were spearheading the offensive, were unexpectedly murdered. Khai'r Bey, who was in charge of the left flank, ordered a withdrawal in the meantime. His forces were the first to leave the field, which was seen as proof of the man's treachery.
Ibn Iyas offered the following account of the Mamluk defeat:
Standing beneath his standard, the sultan commanded his warriors, "Aghas! Now is the time to be optimistic! If you fight, I will reward you. However, the men left the battle since no one paid attention. "Pray to God to give us victory!" Al-Ghawri was called. Now is the time to offer prayers. But he did not find any defenders or backing. Then he sensed an insatiable fire. It was a very hot day, and between the troops there was an extraordinary fog of dust. It was the day that the Egyptian army ceased fighting because of God's wrath. As things worsened, the emir Timur Zardkash feared for the battle standard's safety and lowered and stowed it before coming to locate the sultan. He addressed him: "We have been routed by the Ottoman army, Lord Sultan. Run to Aleppo and save yourself.When the sultan discovered this, his jaw fell open and he felt a kind of paralysis that afflicted the side of his body. Water was handed to him in a golden goblet after he requested for it. He took a sip, spun his horse around to run, took two steps forward, and collapsed from his saddle. From then on, he gradually gave up his soul.
Selim I triumphantly reached Aleppo, greeted by the locals as a savior from the excesses of the Mamluks. Despite his cordial reception of the Abbasid caliph, he criticized Islamic jurists and judges for failing to rein in Mamluk abuse. He went to the Citadel with Khai'r Bey and other Egyptian officers.
He led his army on a march from Aleppo to Damascus, where fear reigned supreme. The remaining Mamluk forces had not taken any significant action against the invaders, except from a few attempts to defend the city by flooding the surrounding plain. The army was crippled by emiral strife, which also precluded any decisive action that may have changed the future. While some of al-Ghawri's lieutenants favored the son of the late monarch, others backed Emir Janberdi Al-Ghazali as the new sultan. However, resistance disintegrated as the Ottomans drew closer, with the remaining troops either joining them or escaping to Egypt. When Selim I arrived in Damascus in the middle of October, the locals quickly gave themselves up to the invaders.
Battle of Ridaniya
At eventually, Sultan Tuman Bay II gave in to his Emirs, who established themselves at Ridanieh, a short distance from the city, but he had now made up his mind to march as far as Salahia and meet the Turks, who were weary of the desert march [35].[35] After crossing the Sinai Peninsula and arriving in Arish, the Ottomans marched to Khanqah without encountering any opposition from Salahia or Bilbeis. On January 20, they arrived at Birkat al Hajj, which was just a few hours away from the Capital. The Egyptian entrenchment was challenged by the main body two days later, while they were flanked by a party that crossed Mocattam Hill. On January 22, 1517, the Battle of Ridanieh took place. With a group of loyalists, Tuman charged into the Ottoman forces, even making it to Sinan Pasha's tent to assassinate him directly because he believed him to be Selim. However, the Egyptians ultimately lost and fled two miles up the Nile. After that, the Ottomans entered Cairo without any resistance. The whole Circassian garrison was massacred when they captured the Citadel, and the streets were filled with horrible indignation. Near Bulac, Selim I himself occupied an island. When his Vizier entered the city the next day, he made an effort to curb the troops' rapine. The Caliph Al-Mutawakkil III, who had accompanied Selim in his train, led the public worship and invoked blessings in his name. The prayer of the Caliph as reported by Ibn Ayas.
O Lord, support the mighty Prince Selim Shah, the Sultan, Monarch of the two Seas and the land, Conqueror of both Hosts, King of both Iracs [sic], and Minister of both Holy Cities! Give him your divine assistance and great triumphs! O Lord of the Universe, king of the present and the future!
Capture of Cairo (1517)
Selim set a camp on the island of Vustaniye (also known as Burac), facing the city Cairo, following the battle of Ridaniya on January 23, 1517. He did not, however, enter Cairo. Selim made the decision to focus on apprehending the Mamluk leaders before entering Cairo since Tumanbay II, the sultan, and Kayıtbay, another Mamluk leader, had escaped. Therefore, on January 26, he dispatched merely a vanguard unit to Cairo. The regiment entered the capital without any resistance, but Tumanbay also entered the capital covertly that same evening. He overran the Ottoman army in the capital and took control of Cairo with the help of a few Cairo residents. Selim dispatched his Janissaries to Cairo after learning of Tumanbay's arrival. On February 3, 1517, Ottoman forces finally made their way into the city following days of combat. Selim arrived in the city and informed other monarchs of the conquest of Cairo with messages of victory. That being said, the Mamluk leaders remained at large.
In an attempt to form a new army made up of Egyptians and the remnants of the Mamluk army, Tumanbay fled Cairo. In terms of size and capability, his force was less than the Ottoman army. On the island of Vustatiye, however, he intended to raid Selim's camp. After learning of his scheme, Selim dispatched a force to Tumanbay to thwart it. Tumanbay was taken into custody on March 26, 1517, following a few minor altercations. Selim's first choice was to send prominent Mamluk figures to Istanbul. He eventually changed his mind, though. On April 13, 1517, a former Mamluk commander who had defected to the other side murdered Tumanbay and the other prominent Mamluks at the Bab Zuweila.
Battle of Cairo (1517)
In January 1517, Sultan Tuman Bay II's army attempted to free Cairo from Ottoman control during the Battle of Cairo. Despite the Mamluks' initial success in the raid, they were ultimately vanquished when Selim I personally assumed command of the Ottoman army and lost the city once more. Sultan Tuman Bay withdrew to the Giza region after realizing he could no longer resist. He was apprehended on March 30 after a two-month chase, and on April 13 he was put to death in Cairo.
Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and the Arabian Peninsula
After that, Sultan Selim overthrew the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt by first defeating the Mamluk Egyptians at the Battle of Marj Dabiq (August 24, 1516) and then again at the Battle of Ridanieh (January 22, 1517). The Ottomans eventually conquered Egypt, annexing the entire sultanate, from Syria and Palestine in Sham to Hejaz and Tihamah in the Arabian Peninsula. Previously ruled by Egypt, this allowed Selim to expand Ottoman authority to include the Muslim holy towns of Medina and Mecca. Instead of referring to himself as the Ruler of the Two Holy Cities, or Ḥākimü'l-Ḥaremeyn, he assumed the more revered title of Ḫādimü'l-Ḥaremeyn, which means The Servant of the Two Holy Cities.
At the time of the Ottoman conquest, al-Mutawakkil III, the final Abbasid caliph, was living in Cairo as a Mamluk puppet. Following that, he was exiled to Istanbul. There was a tale in the eighteenth century that he had given Selim his title to the Caliphate at the time of the conquest. Actually, the idea of an official transfer was a later creation, and Selim made no claims to exercise the sacred authority of the caliph's office.
Selim commanded the restoration of the tomb of Ibn Arabi (d. 1240), a well-known Sufi master who was greatly admired by Ottoman Sufis, following the conquest of Damascus in 1516.
Despite the continuous employment and training of Mamluk "slave" troops and the persistence of Mamluk culture and social organization at the provincial level, Egypt was ruled by an Ottoman governor who was shielded by an Ottoman militia.[42] [43] Although the Portuguese-Mamluk naval war was essentially ended with the fall of the Mamluk Sultanate, Ottoman efforts to halt Portuguese expansion in the Indian Ocean were thereafter taken up.
Additionally, the Ottomans gained access to African lands with the conquest of the Mamluk Empire. Ottoman dominance grew throughout the 16th century over the northern African shores, further west of Cairo. After establishing a stronghold in Algeria, the corsair Hayreddin Barbarossa went on to conquer Tunis in 1534.
Caliph Al-Mutawakkil III was taken to Constantinople after being captured in Cairo, where he reportedly gave up his position as caliph to the Ottomans, according to later tradition.[44] This transferred religious power from Cairo to the Ottoman throne and founded the Ottoman Caliphate, headed by the sultan.
Even after Napoleon I claimed to have exterminated the Mamluks during the French conquest of Egypt in 1798, Cairo remained under Ottoman control.
The Ottoman Sultan's greatest military endeavor to date was the conquering of the Mamluks. Constantinople and Cairo, two of the biggest cities in the world at the time, were also taken over by the Ottomans as a result of the conquest. The Black, Red, Caspian, and Mediterranean oceans had not been under the control of a single state since the height of the Roman state.
Since Egypt provided nearly all of the food consumed and generated more tax income than any other Ottoman country, the conquest proved to be very beneficial for the empire. Mecca and Medina, however, were the most significant of all the towns taken since, up until the early 20th century, they formally established Selim and his descendants as the Caliphs of the whole Muslim world.
Death
Selim's intended westward campaign was halted when he became ill and passed away in the ninth year of his reign at the age of 49. According to official reports, Selim died from an untreated carbuncle. However, other historians contend that he was poisoned by his doctor or that he died of cancer. Other historians have pointed out that the plague was prevalent in the empire at the time of Selim's death, and they have also mentioned that multiple sources suggest that Selim was afflicted with the illness.
Selim I's eight-year rule ended on September 22, 1520. When Selim passed away, he was taken to Istanbul to be interred in the Yavuz Selim Mosque, which Sultan Suleiman I, his son and heir, had built in his father's honor. The Islamic holy territories had been subjugated and united by Selim I. He prioritized the East in order to protect the European lands since he thought that was where the true threat lay.
Personality
Selim was known for having a fierce temper and having high standards for everybody under him. For a variety of causes, some of his viziers were put to death. According to a well-known story, another vizier jokingly requested that the Sultan give him advance notice of his impending death so that he would have time to organize his affairs. The Sultan chuckled and said that while he had considered having the vizier slain, he had no suitable replacement and would be happy to comply. "May you be a vizier of Selim's!" was a common Ottoman curse that alluded to the quantity of viziers he had put to death.
Being vivacious and diligent, Selim was one of the most prosperous and well-liked emperors in the empire. He achieved great success in the brief eight years that he ruled. Many historians concur that, despite the duration of his rule, Selim set the stage for Suleiman the Magnificent, his son and successor, to lead the Ottoman Empire to its pinnacle.
The Ottoman literary critic Latifî (d. 1582) observed that Selim was "very fond of speaking Persian" and that he was bilingual in Turkish and Persian. Under the pen name Mahlas Selimi, he was also a renowned poet who composed poetry in both Turkish and Persian; today, volumes of his Persian poetry survive.
In a letter to his opponent, Shah Ismail I, Selim refers to Ismail as the "Darius of our days" and compares himself to Alexander. In a piece for Charles V, Paolo Giovio claims that Selim respects Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great more than any other commander in history.
Foreign relations
Relations with Shah Ismail
Shah Ismail's scorched-earth tactics caused Selim's forces to suffer during their 1514 march into the Safavid Empire. The sultan started writing derogatory letters to the Shah, accusing him of cowardice, in an attempt to entice Ismail into an open conflict before his soldiers perished from starvation:
Those who steal scepters should not hide from danger; rather, they should be held out to face danger, like a shield; they should fend off the enemy's attack, like a helm.
In response to Selim's third message, which was mentioned above, Ismail had a letter and a box of opium delivered by an ambassador. The Shah's letter derogatorily suggested that Selim's writing was the product of an inexperienced drug writer. Selim ordered the Persian ambassador to be ripped to pieces because he was furious that the Shah had disparaged his literary ability.
In addition to their military disputes, Selim I and Shah Ismail also had economic disagreements. Selim I and his father before him "did not really accept his basic political and religious legitimacy," in opposition to Shah Ismail's allegiance to the Shia faith of Islam (in contrast to his Sunni beliefs), which marked the beginning of the Safavids' depiction as kuffar in Ottoman chronicles. Selim I's meager tolerance for Shah Ismail broke down after the Battle of Chaldiran, and he ushered in a brief period of closed borders with the Safavid Empire.
Selim I aimed to sever all connections between Shah Ismail's Safavid Empire and the outside world by using the Ottoman Empire's strategic location. He enforced a rigorous embargo on Iranian silk in an effort to bring down their economy, despite the fact that the raw materials for the significant Ottoman silk manufacturing at the time were developed outside of the Ottoman Empire, in Persia. The Mamluk area of Aleppo was used to import silk materials for a brief period of time, but by 1517, Selim I had overrun the Mamluk realm, and trade completely stopped. This embargo was so severe that "merchants who had been incautious enough not to immediately leave Ottoman territory when war was declared had their goods taken away and were imprisoned," and in order to emphasize frontier security, Sunnis and those without any connection to the Safavid-sympathizing Kızılbaş were the only ones granted sancaks along the border between the two empires. Under Selim I, Iranian traders were prohibited from crossing the Ottoman Empire's frontiers. In order to show his dedication to their bitter competition, Shah Ismail, who benefited from customs duties, stopped trading with the Safavids after the war, even at the expense of his empire's own silk industry and populace.
When Selim I died in 1520, his son Suleyman I swiftly overturned this embargo and closed borders policy.
Relations with Babur
Selim I gave Babur's Uzbek opponent Ubaydullah Khan strong matchlocks and cannons, which strained Babur's early ties with the Ottomans. At the Battle of Ghazdewan in 1512, Babur collected Qizilbash soldiers to oppose Ubaydullah Khan's armies after being commanded to recognize Selim I as his legitimate suzerain in 1507. Selim I made amends with Babur in 1513 because he was worried that he would join the Safavids. He sent Ustad Ali Quli, Mustafa Rumi, and numerous other Ottoman Turks to help Babur with his conquests; this specific support served as the foundation for subsequent Mughal-Ottoman relations. He also took their strategy of employing matchlocks and cannons in the field (as opposed to just during sieges) to gain a significant edge in India.