Battle of Tabriz (1514)

Battle of Tabriz (1514), a phase in the Ottoman–Persian Wars.

Having inflicted a heavy defeat on the Safavid army under the command of Shah Ismail in the Battle of Chaldiran (1514) on 23 August 1514, Ottoman army under the command of Yavuz Sultan Selim continued its forward operations and entered the Safavid capital Tabriz on 6 September 1514.^[1][2][3][4]

The Ottoman army under the command of Yavuz Sultan Selim advanced towards Tabriz on August 25, 1514 after the Chaldiran victory.

Dukaginoğlu Ahmet Pasha, Defterdar Piri Çelebi and (chronicler) İdris-i Bitlisî were sent to Tabriz as a vanguard with a reserve unit. This vanguard unit took over the city and preparations were started to welcome it. The people of Tabriz covered the road with shawls and precious fabrics until Surhab outside Tabriz. The soldiers and the people lined up on the route applauded Yavuz Sultan Selim and the Ottoman army who entered the city on September 6, 1514.^[5]

On Friday, September 8, 1514, the Friday greeting was performed at the Sultan Yakub Mosque (in some sources, at the Hasan Han Mosque) and a sermon was read in the name of Yavuz Sultan Selim.^[6][7] Selim also ordered the repair of mosques that had been ruined due to neglect.^[8]

On September 12, approximately 1,000 scientists and artists began to be sent from Tabriz to Istanbul.^[9] On September 15, the Ottoman army left Tabriz and advanced towards Karabakh. The Janissaries, who opposed the idea of Yavuz Sultan Selim staying in Tabriz, also rebelled against the idea of Selim wintering in Karabakh and then marching on Iran again during the following campaign season (sources record that the Janissaries shouted around the Sultan by attaching their torn shoes and clothes to the tips of their spears, and even fired bullets into the Sultan's tent).