In our previous episode on Ottoman history, we covered their first war against the Safavids
and the battle of Chaldiran. Although the Ottomans were mainly concerned with European
expansion in the first two centuries of their history, Chaldiran opened a new avenue for
their conquests. The Ottomans were now on a collision course with the Mamluk Sultanate
of Egypt and the war between two would change the situation in the Middle East for the next
few centuries.
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Sultan Selim I won against the Safavid Shah Ismail I at the battle of Chaldiran in 1514
and even occupied the capital of the Safavids – Tabriz. But soon he was forced to leave
the city due to the food situation and to avoid mutiny among his soldiers. Still the
Ottomans were able to annex most of Eastern Anatolia and parts of northern Iran and the
Caucasus due to this war. The eastern borders of the Ottoman empire
were relatively secure for decades, but new challenges in the region forced Selim to strengthen
the frontier. The Ramazanids and Dulkadir were two Turkic beyliks which were left somewhat
independent as a buffer between the Ottomans and the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt. In the
Summer of 1515 Selim ended this independence, thus completing the conquest of Anatolia.
War with the Mamluks was now inevitable. But who were the Mamluks? In the 9th century,
the Abbasid caliphate started the practice of enslaving young boys, mostly from the Turkic
tribes, but also from among the Circassians [ser’kashians] and the Orthodox Christians.
These slaves received military training, but also learned tactics, religion, languages,
and sciences. They were then freed and served as the guards for the Muslim sultans. The
Mamluks often gained influence and came to power, founding ruling dynasties in Central
Asia, Mesopotamia, and India. By 1260 the Turkic Mamluks of the Egyptian
Ayyubid sultanate managed to wrestle the power away from them and established their Bahri
dynasty. Between 1260 and 1323 the Mamluks stopped attack from the European Crusaders
and Mongol Ilkhanate, most famously during the battle of Ain Jalut, and consolidated
their rule over Egypt and Syria. Even though Armenian Cilicia [silishia] fell to them by
1375, the Turkic Sultans were losing their influence over their Mamluk brethren, and
in 1382 they were toppled by the Circassian Burji [burzhi] dynasty. Over the following
decades, this new dynasty strengthened its positions in Anatolia by bringing the Ramazanids
and Dulkadir into their sphere of influence. Despite rivalry over the spice trade and religious
problems stemming from the fact that the Mamluks kept the Abbasid caliphs as hostages, the
Ottomans and the Mamluks were neutral through the 14th and 15th centuries, only fighting
in a border conflict between 1485 and 1491. This short war ended in a stalemate, and the
sides signed a peace treaty. However, this peace didn’t last long, as the rise of the
Safavids and Shi’ism would change the balance of power in the region. The Mamluks hoped
that the Safavids and Ottomans would weaken each other, so when the Shah Ismail I send
envoys to the European states to ask for an anti-Ottoman alliance in the early 1500s,
the Mamluks allowed them to pass. The Ottomans knew about it and pressured the Mamluks not
to allow the envoys to return to Ismail. As the Safavids had decisively lost the battle
of Chaldiran in 1514 and the Ramazanids and Dulkadir were occupied, it was becoming clear
to the Mamluk sultan, al-Ghawri, that his realm would be attacked by the Ottomans next,
so he accepted an offer of alliance from Ismail I in 1516. Al-Ghawri marched to Syria, leaving
his vizier Tuman bay in Cairo. The Ottoman-Mamluk War had started.
Unfortunately for the Mamluk sultan, the Ottomans were at peace with all their European neighbors
and Ismail didn’t have enough of a force to threaten them, so Selim was able to assemble
all of his troops against them. In April, the Ottoman leader sent his vizier Sinan Pasha
with the vanguard to capture the crucial passes through the Taurus mountains, but the cavalry-heavy
army of al-Ghawri was faster and took control of the passages. Sinan Pasha was forced to
wait for Selim, who arrived in Konya in July. The Ottoman sultan wasn’t eager to fight
in a narrow passage. At this point, the Ottoman sources diverge from the Arab and Persian
sources, as they claim that Ismail managed to send an army to help the Mamluks, but this
army was defeated by the Ottomans somewhere in eastern Anatolia. In any case, Selim I
decided to bypass the Taurus mountains and moved to Malatya.
At the same time al-Ghawri, understanding that he might be outflanked, retreated from
his position to Aleppo. Selim was now marching to the south, and although the Mamluks attempted
to make peace, the Ottomans ignored it and even killed the Mamluk envoys as reported
by the Arab sources. The sources are also conflicted about the
number of troops. The Mamluks had anywhere from 20 to 50 thousand soldiers, while Selim
had between 30 and 60 thousand. The Mamluks had a limited amount of gunpowder weapons
and no artillery, but their heavy horsemen were of the highest quality and were undefeated
in the field. The sides met at a place called Marj Dabiq on the 24th of August.
There are multiple descriptions of the battle, but we will present just one of them. The
Mamluk sultan placed his cavalry in a reversed crescent with infantry in the second line.
He was in the center, with the governor of Damascus to his right and the governor of
Aleppo to his left. Meanwhile, the Ottomans placed their cavalry on the flanks, with the
light cannons on the right side of the second line, the sultan and his guard in the center
and the janissaries armed with gunpowder weapons on the left. Their cannons were placed on
wagons in the rear. Al-Ghawri’s army was in a more mobile formation,
and they used that early in the battle, starting their attack in a crescent and shifting their
left flank forward. This worked, as the Ottoman cavalry on the right side was forced to flee
after the charge of the heavy Mamluk cavalry, while the left slowly retreated under the
combined pressure of the Mamluk right and center.
The Mamluk left continued its assault but was greeted by a volley from the light Ottoman
cannons on the right and moved back. The Mamluks shifted their line again and pushed the Ottoman
center. The details are unclear, but it seems that Selim took direct command and achieved
an orderly retreat behind the wagons. The Ottoman heavy cannons opened fire upon
the enemy, and the Mamluk center was shocked and had to retreat. While this was happening,
the Mamluk right finally forced the Ottoman cavalry back but was met by the Janissary
guns. Al-Ghawri then ordered his left to swing back and charge the Ottomans from the right
and rear, but this order was ignored. The sources are inconsistent, but it seems that
the governor of Aleppo either betrayed his sultan or was sure that the battle was lost.
He left the battlefield, taking the infantry with him. The Ottoman cavalry used the disarray
of the Mamluk army. Most of it was surrounded and killed, along with Al-Ghawri. The number
of losses is unclear, but the Ottomans casualties were at least 10 thousand, while the Mamluk
heavy cavalry elite was gone. Selim’s conquest of Syria was easy, as the
majority of the Mamluk garrisons were defeated at Marj Dabiq. Still, he needed time to secure
his position, procure supplies and allow his navy to join the army in Syria. So, he sent
his vizier Sinan Pasha in command of the vanguard to occupy the crucial coastal castles. Meanwhile
in Cairo, Tuman bay became the sultan and started recruiting a new army. He rejected
the offer to become an Ottoman vassal, and the envoys were killed. Tuman bay knew that
the fortresses were of utmost importance if he wanted to keep the Ottomans
at bay, so he sent his vanguard to the region. Once again, the numbers are debated, but the
two vanguards encountered each other at a place called Khan Yunis in late October. The
battle started with volleys from the Ottoman artillery. Mamluk general al-Ghazali knew
that his cavalry would not be able to withstand the Ottoman gunpowder weapons for long, so
he ordered a charge. However, this was just a feint, and after the initial clash, the
Mamluks started retreating towards the valley to the south. The Ottoman horsemen followed
them, and the two cavalry units fought each other in the valley for some time, as the
elite Mamluk knights died in Marj Dabiq, and the new recruits were still inexperienced.
The battle was in balance when the Ottoman gunpowder units finally arrived. They shot
at the flanks of the Mamluk army, and the fight was soon over. The Mamluks lost up to
5 thousand, while the Ottoman casualties were light.
After this defeat, the remaining Mamluk forces were concentrated near Cairo. At the same
time, the Ottoman navy finally arrived, and Selim started his march towards Egypt. The
journey through the Sinai desert was difficult, but the navy supplied the Ottoman army, and
in January of 1517 it entered Egypt. On the 22nd of January, Tuman bay clashed with Selim
at a place called Ridanieh, on the outskirts of Cairo. The Mamluks recently bought 300
cannons from the Venetians, and they were placed in the moats.
Meanwhile the Ottomans had placed their artillery on the hills behind their positions. The artillery
duel was short and ended with an Ottoman victory, as the Mamluks didn’t have enough experience
to operate their new weapons. The Ottomans then sent volleys against the Mamluk cavalry,
which charged to take the hill and the artillery. However, this charge was stopped by volleys
from the Janissaries. At this point Selim implemented a flanking maneuver, which surprised
the Mamluks. Their army was dispersed and left the field.
The Ottoman vanguard took Cairo without any resistance. But it was a trap, and on the
26th Tuman bay’s forces enterd the city and destroyed the vanguard in a quick battle.
The Ottoman sultan learned about this on the 27th and sent his janissaries to retake the
city. The local population joined Tuman Bay; the fighting in the city continued until the
3rd of February, when the Ottomans finally regained control. It is said that 10s of thousands
of Cairo’s citizens were killed, among them most of the Mamluk nobility.
Tuman Bay continued his resistance for a few more months but was captured and executed
in March. The conquest of Syria and Egypt was finalized. In the span of 3 years Selim
I doubled the territory of the Ottoman empire. The East was pacified, and the Ottomans were
looking towards Europe once again…
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