How Selim I doubled the size of the Ottoman Empire History of the Ottoman Empire under Selim I

Selim I, also called Selim the Grim or Selim the Resolute, ruled the Ottoman Empire between 1512 and 1520 and oversaw a period of rapid expansion of his domain. Selim pushed the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire into the heart of the Muslim world, conquering the Levant, Egypt, and the Hejaz region of the Western Arabian Peninsula. In a brief eight years, Selim the Grim expanded the Ottoman Empire by an additional 70%. This explosive growth left a solid foundation for his successor, Suleyman the Magnificent, to push Ottoman power into Southeastern and Central Europe. At the beginning of the 16th century, tensions between the Ottomans and their Eastern neighbors, the Persian Safavid Empire, were considerable. The Safavids were a new Persian dynasty, led by Ismail I, who sought to prove himself by taking control over large stretches of territory in the Middle East. But it was not just a territorial battle. The Ottomans practiced Sunni Islam, while the Safavids were predominantly Shia. Each power sought not only political domination, but religious as well, and each would use one to gain the other. The Safavids also attempted to undermine the Ottomans by encouraging and supporting rebellions by Shia subjects in the Selim's rise to the leadership of the Ottoman Empire was not guaranteed by birth. He was the youngest son of Sultan Bayezid II, but this did not put him at the end of the line of succession, nor did it secure the throne for his eldest brother. The Ottomans practiced inheritance by strength. If an Ottoman prince wanted to ascend the throne after his father's death, he needed to be the first to reach the capital of Constantinople and secure the loyalty of the administrators and military before his brothers. It was not uncommon to have a civil war fought between rival claimants until the strongest eliminated his relatives. While this system had the advantage of safeguarding the kingdom from an incompetent who would inherit by mere virtue of birth order, it came at the cost of the peace of the realm every few generations. We know little of Selim's childhood, but it is obvious he was well trained in soldiering and generalship. He was given control of Trabzon, a city on the Black Sea in modern Turkey. He proved his military bona fides during his governorship, repeatedly defeating invading Safavid armies, and conducting a successful campaign to conquer part of the Kingdom of Georgia in 1508. By 1512, Bayezid II had lost control of not only his advisors, but also his sons, as each attempted to lay the groundwork for their political careers. The Ottoman administration was riven with factions and intrigue, with viziers and other senior officials often favoring one royal prince over another. These court factions constantly sought ways to discredit one claimant over another. Sehzade Ahmet, Selim's eldest brother, attempted to seize the throne while Selim was campaigning in Crimea. In response, Selim and his army sailed across the Black Sea and gathered more soldiers for his cause. Bayezid II was forced to abdicate on 25 April 1512, when Selim's forces entered Constantinople. The former sultan was sent to Dimitroka, in what is now northern Greece, to retire in what amounted to a comfortable house arrest. He died less than a month after his abdication. Selim then had to secure his position from his brother and nephew. Following a crushing defeat at the Battle of Bursa, Ahmet was captured. Ahmet's son, Sehzade Murad, escaped to the Safavid Empire but never had enough support to mount a campaign against his uncle. He died in 1519. Selim ordered the execution of all his remaining brothers and nephews to cement his position as Sultan of the Ottomans. In preparation for an invasion of Persia, Selim targeted the Ottoman rebels and their Persian enablers who had plagued his father's reign. Assembling the Janissary Corps, the elite slave soldiers of the Ottomans, Selim quickly moved into eastern Anatolia and executed every male Shia in his territory. This brutal action was the preparatory phase for a war with the Safavids. Hostile letters were exchanged between Selim and Ismail I in the lead-up to the conflict. At one point, Selim described his rival as drinking too much that it affected his mind and made him ignore the affairs of state. Selim led the Janissaries into Safavid Azerbaijan, looking for a decisive confrontation. Shah Ismail had the advantages of a much larger army and steadier sources of reinforcements and supplies, but lacked muskets, which the Ottomans had. At the Battle of Chaldiran in August 1514, Selim crushed the larger Safavid army and forced Ismail, who was also wounded in the fighting, to quit the battlefield. Selim's trust in gunpowder weaponry and Ismail's dismissal of its potential power proved decisive. The Ottomans occupied the Persian capital of Tabriz shortly thereafter, with Selim making his triumphant entry on the 5th of September. With the Safavid Persians humbled, Selim next turned his army to another Middle Eastern rival, the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt. The Mamluks shared a common cultural heritage with the Ottomans. In previous centuries, they too had been slave soldiers sent from Central Asia by the Abbasid Empire to battle their enemies along the borders. The Mamluks gained control of Egypt and then quickly conquered the Levant as well as the western coast of the Arabian Peninsula. By the early 1500s, they effectively controlled Mecca and Medina as well as Jerusalem, meaning that all of the holiest sites for Muslims, as well as Jews and Christians, were in Mamluk hands. In late 1515, Selim began to build up his janissary forces on the Mamluk-Ottoman border. Following extensive preparation, the Ottomans stormed into Syria to confront the Mamluk garrisons in the countryside. The Battle of Marj Dabiq, fought on the 25th of August 1516, gave the Ottomans a clear path to Egypt. The Sultan led his army into Egypt, destroying the main Mamluk army at the Battle of Redania on the 22nd of January 1517. The Ottoman Grand Vizier was killed in the battle, but the last Mamluk Sultan's head was hung from the gates of Cairo to emphasize their defeat. Having sent such a clear message, Selim decided to have the surviving members of the Mamluk government swear loyalty to himself and the Ottoman Empire rather than build an entirely new administration. This is a very old method of holding control over conquered territory by effectively ensuring the existing local legal, tax, and administration systems continue smoothly. The victory over the Mamluks also brought with it a new status for the Ottoman Sultan, Protector of Mecca and Medina. This new status marks the beginning of the Ottoman Caliphate. Selim and his successors were the leading Sunni political and religious leaders of the Muslim world until the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918. They controlled the major pilgrimage routes to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, which millions of Muslims use for the annual Hajj. Selim's military campaigns were also accompanied by large-scale economic policies. Following the Ottoman victory over the Safavid Persians, Selim enacted a total embargo against his Shia rivals. They used their hegemony over the land trade routes that stretched across the Middle East, as well as control of the Red Sea, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Black Sea to strangle the Safavid connection to the world economy. The supply of trade goods going from the Far East to Western Europe had to pass through Ottoman territory. Another important aspect of Selim's reign was his lack of tolerance for ineffective viziers and other Ottoman officials. Having witnessed firsthand the effects of court politics, Selim eliminated those people who worked towards personal power and influence rather than ensuring the continued functioning and success of the empire. Many viziers were executed by Selim for not living up to his strict expectations, leading to a common curse, may you become one of Selim's viziers. This may have been a reign of terror against the administrators, but it did ensure that the Ottoman Empire was internally stable. It also laid the groundwork for Suleyman the Magnificent, Selim's son and successor, to have an easier transition to power. Selim was also canny in foreign politics. He reached out to the Indian Mughal Empire and successfully arranged a military and economic alliance against the Safavid Persians. The Mughals bordered the eastern side of the Safavid Empire and they sought to gain more territory at the latter's expense. It also helped that the Mughals were Sunni Muslims, just like the Ottomans. Together, they worked to ensure that the trade routes going through the Persian territories dried up. Selim should also be remembered for his cultural achievements, as well as military ones. He was fluent in both Turkish and Persian, and when not on campaign, wrote a great deal of poetry. He also supported the concept of the printing press to spread important works, while additionally ensuring a flourishing traditional transcription industry. This helped to make Constantinople a center of cultural and educational exchange. Selim I died on the 22nd of September, 1520, after a brief illness. Though his reign lasted less than a decade, his tireless efforts to bring as much territory under his control as possible meant that his son and heir, Suleyman, could have so successful a reign as to be given the title Magnificent.