Battle of Chaldiran

BelligerentsOttoman EmpireSafavid IranCommanders and leadersSelim I
Bıyıklı Mehmed Pasha
Hasan Pasha†
Dukaginzade Ahmed PashaIsmail I (WIA)
Abd al-Baqi Yazdi†
Husayn Beg Shamlu†
Saru Pira Ustajlu †
Durmish Khan Shamlu
Nur-Ali Khalifa
Mohammad Khan Ustajlu†
Sayyed Sharif al-Din Ali Shirazi†
Seyid Sadraddin †Strength 60,000 or 100,000
100–200 cannons
100 mortars 40,000 or 55,000 or 80,000Casualties and losses Heavy losses
approx. 3,000
or up to 40,000 Heavy losses
approx. 2,000 to 5,000 or up to 80,000

The Battle of Chaldiran (Persian: جنگ چالدران; Turkish: Çaldıran Savaşı) 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 Upper Mesopotamia from Safavid Iran. It marked the first Ottoman expansion into Eastern Anatolia, and the halt of the Safavid expansion to the west. The Battle of Chaldiran was just the beginning of 41 years of destructive war between the Safavids and Ottomans, which only ended in 1555 with the Peace of Amasya. Though the Safavids eventually reconquered Mesopotamia and Eastern Anatolia during the reign of Abbas the Great (r. 1588–1629), they would be permanently ceded to the Ottomans by the 1639 Treaty of Zuhab.

At Chaldiran, the Ottomans had a larger, better-equipped army numbering 60,000 to 100,000 and many heavy artillery pieces. In contrast, the Safavid army numbered 40,000 to 80,000 and did not have artillery. Ismail I, the leader of the Safavids, was wounded and almost captured during the battle. His wives were captured by the Ottoman leader Selim I, with at least one married off to one of Selim's statesmen. Ismail retired to his palace and withdrew from government administration after this defeat and never again participated in a military campaign. After their victory, Ottoman forces marched deeper into Persia, briefly occupying the Safavid capital Tabriz, and thoroughly looting the Persian imperial treasury.

The battle is one of major historical importance because it not only negated the idea that the murshid of the Qizilbash was infallible, but also led Kurdish chiefs to assert their authority and switch their allegiance from the Safavids to the Ottomans. The battle was fought in the Kurdish heartland and the Kurdish tribes fought on both sides.