| Ottoman-Safavid War of 1532–1555 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theOttoman–Persian Wars | |||||||||
 Miniature from theSüleymanname depicting Suleiman marching with an army inNakhchivan, summer 1554, at the end of the Ottoman-Safavid War | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Safavid Iran |  Ottoman Empire | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Shah Tahmasp IShahverdi SultanShahzada Ismail MirzaQadi Jahan Qazvini # | Sultan Suleiman IGrand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha  İskender Çelebi Grand Vizier Rüstem PashaŞehzade Mustafa Şehzade SelimŞehzade BayezidAlqas Mirza (POW) #Grand Vizier Ahmed Pasha | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 60,000 men 10 pieces of artillery | 200,000 men 300 pieces of artillery | ||||||||
TheOttoman–Safavid War of 1532–1555 was one of the many military conflicts fought between the two arch rivals, theOttoman Empire led bySuleiman the Magnificent, and theSafavid Empire led byTahmasp I. Ottoman territorial gains were confirmed in thePeace of Amasya.
The war was triggered by territorial disputes between the two empires, especially when theBey ofBitlis decided to put himself under Persian protection.[9] Also, Tahmasp had the governor ofBaghdad, a sympathiser of Suleiman, assassinated. Additionally, the Safavid governor ofAzerbaijan, Ulameh Soltan, defected to the Ottomans and informed them of the ongoing struggles of the Persians with theUzbeks as well as with various other tribes.[10]
On the diplomatic front, the Safavids had been engaged in discussions with theHabsburgs for the formation of aHabsburg–Persian alliance that would attack the Ottoman Empire on two fronts.[9]
Ottoman incursions begun as early in 1532. Grand VizierIbrahim Pasha successfully attackedSafavidIraq, recapturedBitlis, and proceeded to captureTabriz on 15 July 1534.[10] There, he was joined bySuleiman himself, and then capturedBaghdad in December 1534.[9] Tahmasp, who at the beginning had been on a campaign against the Uzbeks in the east, hurried his armies west but did not force a major confrontation, adopting a strategy of harassing Ottoman supply trains andscorched earth.[10]
Under the Grand VizierRüstem Pasha, Ottomans attempting to defeat the Shah once and for all, Suleiman embarked upon a second campaign in 1548–1549. This time, he was aided byAlqas Mirza, Tahmasp's half-brother, who had defected and was given a force of 40,000 cavalry to invade Persia.[11] Again, Tahmasp adopted a scorched earth policy, laying waste toArmenia.
Meanwhile, the French kingFrancis I, enemy of the Habsburgs, andSuleiman the Magnificent were moving forward in aFranco-Ottoman alliance, formalized in 1536, that would counterbalance the Habsburg threat. In 1547, when Suleiman attacked Persia, France sent its ambassadorGabriel de Luetz, to accompany him in his campaign.[12] Gabriel de Luetz gave military advice to Suleiman, as when he advised on artillery placement during theSiege of Van.[12] At the same time, Portuguese forces helped the Persians to win a battle near the Euphrates against the Ottomans with a certain number of troops and twenty cannons.[11]
Suleiman made gains inTabriz,Persian ruled Armenia, secured a lasting presence in theprovince of Van inEastern Anatolia, and took some forts inGeorgia.
In 1553 the Ottomans, first under the Grand VizierRüstem Pasha, and later joined by Suleiman himself, began his third and final campaign against the Shah. Prior to that,Ismail Mirza Safavi, Tahmasp's second son, had successfully invaded eastern Anatolia, defeated the governor of Erzerum and captured the town as well as Akhlar and Arjish. Suleiman then advanced as far as Karabagh in the southern Caucasus, but again no set-piece battle took place and he only collected plunder.[11] Nevertheless, with both sides exhausted by the war, thePeace of Amasya was signed on 29 May 1555.[13] Suleiman returned Tabriz, but keptBaghdad, lowerMesopotamia, westernArmenia, westernGeorgia, the mouths of theEuphrates andTigris, and part of thePersian Gulf coast. Persia retained the rest of all its northwestern territories in theCaucasus.
Due to his heavy commitment in Persia, Suleiman was only able to send limited naval support to France in the Franco-Ottomaninvasion of Corsica (1553).
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