Safavids: Military History and Notable Events

1501 - Battle of Sharur (All Facts)

• Battle in which Ismail and his forces defeated the Aq Qoyunlu confederation, of about 30K men

• Battle after which Ismail and his forces marched into Tabriz

• Battle after which Ismail consolidated his power

1503 - Battle of Hamadan (All Facts)

• Battle in which Ismail and his forces defeated the Aq Qoyunlu confederation, and the remainder of its men

1505 - 1823 - Ottoman-Persian Wars (All Facts)

1505 - 1517 - First Ottoman-Persian War (All Facts)

1510 - Battle of Merv (All Facts)

• Battle in which Ismail and his forces defeated Muhammad Shaybani and the Bukhara Khanate

• Battle after which Ismail and his forces seized Herat, Bactria, and Khiva

1514 - Battle of Chaldiran (All Facts)

• Battle in which Selim and his Ottoman forces defeated Ismail and his Safavid forces during the First Ottoman-Persian War

• Battle which was located in the upper basin of the Aras River

1532 - 1555 - Second Ottoman-Persian War (All Facts)

• War in which Sultan Suleiman and his Ottoman forces defeated Shah Tahmasp and his Safavid forces

• War during which Sultan Suleiman and his Ottoman forces captured Tabriz in northwestern Persia

• War which ended with the Peace of Amasya

1534 - Capture of Baghdad (All Facts)

• Battle in which Suleiman and his Ottoman forces defeated Shah Tahmasp and his Safavid forces during the Second Ottoman-Persian War

1555 - Peace of Amasya (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between Suleiman of the Ottoman Empire and Shah Tahmasp of the Safavid Empire, which ended the Second Ottoman-Persian War

• Peace Treaty which confirmed

  • Ottoman rule over Mesopotamia

  • Safavid (Persian) rule over the Azerbaijan region of Iran

1578 - 1590 - Third Ottoman-Persian War (All Facts)

• War in which Murad III and his Ottoman forces defeated Mohammad Khodabanda and his Safavid forces

• War which broke out as the Ottomans sought to dominate Georgia and other Caucasian (Caucasus Mountain) principalities

• War which ended with the Treaty of Constantinople

1590 - Treaty of Constantinople (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between Murad III and the Ottoman Empire and Abbas and the Safavid Empire, ending the Third Ottoman-Persian War

• Peace Treaty in which the Ottoman Empire acquired Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Shirwan, thus extending their frontiers to the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian Sea

1591 / 1593 - 1606 - Long Turkish War / Thirteen Years’ War / Fifteen Years’ War / Sixth Habsburg-Ottoman War (All Facts)

• War in which Murad III, Mehmed III, and Ahmed and their Ottoman forces fought against Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II and the Habsburgs (Holy Roman Empire and Spain) and their allies; which ended in a stalemate

• War during which Ottoman forces captured the fortress of Raab in Hungary

1603 - 1612 - Fourth Ottoman-Persian War (All Facts)

• War in which Shah Abbas and his Safavid forces defeated Sultan Ahmed and his Ottoman forces

1603 - Capture of Tabriz (All Facts)

• Battle in which Shah Abbas and his Safavid forces defeated Ottoman forces and retook the namesake city from the Ottoman Empire during the Fourth Ottoman-Persian War

1605 - Battle of Sufiyan (All Facts)

• Battle in which Shah Abbas and his Safavid forces defeated the Ottoman forces during the Fourth Ottoman-Persian War

• Battle which was considered Shah Abbas’s greatest triumph over the Ottomans

1616 - 1618 - Fifth Ottoman-Persian War (All Facts)

• War in which Shah Abbas and his Safavid forces defeated Sultans Ahmed, Mustafa, and Osman II and their Ottoman forces

• War in which the Ottoman Empire recognized the reconquest of Persia by Shah Abbas

1622 - 1623 - Third Mughal-Safavid War (All Facts)

• War in which Shah Abbas and his Safavid forces defeated Emperor Jahangir and his Mughal forces, taking from them the fortress city of Kandahar

1623 - 1639 - Sixth Ottoman-Persian War (All Facts)

• War in which Sultan Murad IV and his Ottoman forces defeated Shah Abbas and Shah Safi and their Safavid forces

• War which began due to an internal struggle for power between the Ottoman rulers (governors) of Baghdad in which

  • the Ottoman Pasha and the army both claimed power

  • two years prior to the namesake war, a Janissary officer took over to displace the Ottoman Pasha and claimed power via the army

  • the Janissary officer attempted to gain support from the Safavids to bolster up his position against the Ottoman Pasha, to which the Safavids complied and duly moved in

    • However, the Ottomans (under the Ottoman Pasha) eventually accepted him and the Janissary officer thus rejected Safavid assistance, no longer needing it

    • He was then assassinated by the Safavids and Baghdad became left in their hands

• War in which Shah Abbas and his Safavid forces took Baghdad, Mosul, and the whole of Mesopotamia

• War comprised of five campaigns by the Ottoman forces to recapture Baghdad from the Safavids and restore it to the Ottoman Empire, during which there was

  • widespread incompetence

  • bad weather

  • various commitments

• War after which Erivan / Yerevan remained a Safavid territory

• War which ended with the Treaty of Zuhab / Treaty of Qasr-e Shirin

1635 - Siege of Erivan / Yerevan (All Facts)

• Battle in which Sultan Murad IV and his Ottoman forces defeated the Safavid forces and took the namesake Armenian capital city during the Sixth-Ottoman Persian War

1638 - Siege of Baghdad (All Facts)

• Battle in which Sultan Murad IV and his Ottoman forces defeated the Safavid forces and recaptured the namesake city during the Sixth Ottoman-Persian War

• Siege which lasted seven months in which the defending Persians had vowed to fight until the last man

1639 - Treaty of Zuhab / Treaty of Qasr-e Shirin (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between the Ottoman and Safavid Empires, which ended the Sixth Ottoman-Persian War and established a permanent frontier between them

• Peace Treaty in which

  • the Ottoman Empire kept Baghdad, Shahrizur, Van, and Kars

  • the Ottoman Empire renounced all claims to Azerbaijan

1649 - 1653 - Fifth Mughal-Safavid War (All Facts)

• War in which Shah Abbas II and his Safavid forces defeated Shah Jahan and his Mughal forces after they failed to take Kandahar in three successive sieges

• War which cost Shah Jahan and the Mughal Empire 120M rupees, more than half of its annual income

1709 - 1726 - Afghan Rebellions / Persian-Afghan War (All Facts)

• Series of conflicts during which Mirwais Hotak and his Afghani forces revolted against and eventually declared independence as the Hotak Dynasty from Safavid Persia (Iran) in Kandahar

• Series of conflicts in which Isfahan was besieged for seven months and led to 80K people dying of famine

• Series of conflicts which ultimately brought down the Safavid Empire, defeated with remarkable easy by a modest tribal army but crucially undermined by its own weaknesses including thr lack of a strong ruler since 1666

1722 - 1723 - Second Russo-Persian War (All Facts)

• War in which Peter and his Russian forces defeated Tahmasp II and his Safavid forces

• War which began when Peter, made anxious by an Ottoman Turkish push towards the Caspian Sea, launched an preemptive offensive

• War which ended with the Treaty of St. Petersburg

1723 - Treaty of St. Petersburg (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between the Russian Empire and the Safavid Empire, which ended the Second Russo-Persian War

• Peace Treaty in which

  • the Russian Empire gained control of the coastal areas between Derbent and Resht on the Caspian Sea

  • the Safavid Empire received a loan of Russian forces for domestic peace-keeping