Selim I:
Selim I (1470- 1520) was sultan from 1512 till 1520. His Turkish nickname was
Yavuz, which can be translated as "the Grim".
By the beginning of his reign, he faced enemies inside the empire as well as
on eastern and southern borders. For about a year before his accession, a
conflict had been going on between Selim I and his brother Ahmed. Their father
was eventually forced to resign in favour of Selim I, to ward off a more
destructive conflict where both sons were allying with external rulers. As soon
as Selim I had become sultan, he chose to eliminate all potential claimants to
the sultanate but his favourite son Süleyman 1, in order to prevent a repeat of
the kind of conflict as he had endured.
The
external enemies of the new sultan were the Kizilbash, Safavids and Mamlukes. He
first subdued the Kizilbash, then directed his attentions against the Safavid
ruler Isma'il 1. But his main achievement was to defeat the Mamlukes of Egypt
and Syria, thereby gaining control over the three holiest cities of Islam:
Mecca, Madina and Jerusalem.
BIOGRAPHY
1460: Born in Amasya.
1511: A conflict over the succession to the sultanate breaks out between
Selim and his brother Ahmad. Selim seeks assistance from the khan of Crimea. The
situation soon gets heated, and sultan Bayezid 2 has to interfere.
1512: Sultan Bayezid steps down from the throne, and leaves this in
Selim's hands to stop a continued escalation of the internal strife.
1514 August 23: At the battle of Chaldiran, Selim I inflicts a
heavy defeat on the Safavid sultan Isma'il 1, and effectively secures the
eastern borders. Selim then incorporates Kurdish and Turkmen principalities in
Anatolia. These advances provoked the Mamlukes, who considered some of these
areas to be part of their "interest zone". The result is a war between
the two empires.
1516 August 24: At battles north of Aleppo, the Ottomans defeat
attacking Mamluke troops.
1517 January 22: The final blow to the Mamluke empire comes with a
battle near Cairo. Egypt, Syria and Hijaz fall into Ottoman hands.
1520 September 22: Dies in Çorlu.