Battle of Chaldiran | |||||||
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Part of the Ottoman–Persian Wars | |||||||
Battle of Chaldiran |
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Belligerents | |||||||
Ottoman Empire | Safavid dynasty | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Sultan Selim I Hasan Pasha |
Shah Ismail I (WIA) Abd al-Baqi Yazdi † Husayn Beg Shamlu † Saru Pira Ustajlu † Durmish Khan Shamlu Nur-Ali Khalifa Muhammad Khan Ustajlu † Seyid Sadraddin |
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Strength | |||||||
60,000 or 100,000 100-150 cannon |
40,000 or 55,000 or 80,000 |
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Casualties and losses | |||||||
Heavy losses or less than 2,000 |
Heavy losses or approximately 5,000 |
Coordinates: 39°05′19.87″N 44°19′37.19″E / 39.0888528°N 44.3269972°E
The Battle of Chaldiran (Persian: جنگ چالدران; Turkish: Çaldıran Muharebesi) took place on 23 August 1514 and ended with a decisive victory for the Ottoman Empire over the Safavid Empire. As a result, the Ottomans annexed eastern Anatolia and northern Iraq from Safavid Iran for the first time. It marked the first Ottoman expansion into eastern Anatolia, and the halt of the Safavid expansion to the west. Despite the Iranians briefly reconquering the area over the course of the centuries, the battle marked the first event that would eventually, through many wars and treaties later, lead to its permanent conquest, until the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire centuries later. By the Chaldiran war the Ottomans also gained temporary control of northwestern Iran. The battle, however, was just the beginning of 41 years of destructive war, which only ended in 1555 with the Treaty of Amasya. Though Mesopotamia and Eastern Anatolia (Western Armenia) were eventually taken back by the Safavids under the reign of king Abbas I (r. 1588–1629), they would be permanently lost to the Ottomans by the 1639 Treaty of Zuhab.