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TheTreaty of Zuhab (Persian:عهدنامه زهاب,Ahadnāmah Zuhab), also calledTreaty of Qasr-e Shirin (Turkish:Kasr-ı Şirin Antlaşması), signed on May 17, 1639 atQasr-e Shirin in western Iran,[citation needed] ended the Ottoman-Safavid War of 1623–1639. It confirmed territorial divisions in West Asia, shaping the borders between the Safavid and Ottoman Empires and serving as a foundation for future agreements.
The Treaty was an accord signed between theSafavid Empire and theOttoman Empire on May 17, 1639.[1] The accord ended theOttoman-Safavid War of 1623–1639 and was the last conflict in almost 150 years of intermittent wars between the two states over territorial disputes. It can roughly be seen as a confirmation of the previousPeace of Amasya from 1555.[2][3]
The treaty confirmed the dividing of territories inWest Asia priorly held by the Safavids, such as the permanent parting of theCaucasus between the two powers, in whichEast Armenia, easternGeorgia,Dagestan, andShirvan stayed under the control of the Safavid Empire, while western Georgia and most ofWestern Armenia came fully under Ottoman rule. It also included all ofMesopotamia (includingBaghdad) being irreversibly ceded to the Ottomans,[4] as well as Safavid-controlled easternSamtskhe (Meskheti), making Samtskhe in its entirety an Ottoman possession.[5][6] With the Treaty of Zuhab,Eastern Armenia remained for more than eight decades underSafavid Rule, who separated it into two administrative regions:Erivan Province andKarabakh Province.[7]
Nevertheless, border disputes between Persia and the Ottoman Empire did not end. Between 1555 and 1918, Persia and the Ottomans signed no less than 18 treaties that would re-address their disputed borders. The exact demarcation according to this treaty would permanently begin during the 19th century, essentially laying out the rough outline for the frontier between modern dayIran and the states ofTurkey andIraq, which was the Ottoman-Persian border until 1918, when the Ottoman Empire lost its territories in the Middle East following their defeat inWorld War I. Nevertheless, according to Professor Ernest Tucker, the treaty can be seen as the "culmination" of a process of normalisation between the two that had commenced with the Peace of Amasya.[8] As opposed to any other Ottoman-Safavid treaty, Zuhab proved to be more "resilient" and became a "point of departure" for almost all further agreements on a diplomatic level between the two neighbors.[9]
