In the previous episodes in our series on the Ottoman Wars we have covered the struggle in Albania and Moldavia
Although the Ottomans were slowly getting closer to the peak of their power
The resistance against them was mounting both in Europe and in the Middle East
The rule of mehmed ii was coming to an end and a succession would prove to be a tricky affair
The ottoman wars were just beginning
With the death of Skanderbeg Venice took over the defenses of a large portion of the Balkan coast
this was a continuation of the Ottoman-Venetian war of
1463 to
1479 and by the end of it the Republic was exhausted and was forced to sign the Treaty of Constantinople
Mehmet ii received Euboea (Negroponte), Lemnos and most of Albania
The conflict with the prince of Moldavia Stefan the third was also winding down
So the ottomans were able to concentrate their forces against the kingdom of Hungary
Which at this point was ruled by?
Matias the first and was arguably one of the strongest kingdoms in Europe with the legendary black army defending it a
number of raids were conducted into transylvania via Villar kia in this period
eventually Matias gave the voivode of
transylvania, Stefan the 5th Batory
Enough forces and the latter matched the Ottoman raiding troops at the Battle of bread field on the 13th of October
1479
The Ottomans under Ali kocha Bay and the Prince of Wallachia
Bazarov the fourth has between 10 and
20,000 troops mostly Akinji light raiders while stefan v commanded around
15,000 hungarians sheckler's Transylvanian Saxons and Serbs
Both sides divided their troops into three groups
Initially the Ottoman right and center pushed their counterparts
The situation became even more critical for the Hungarian forces when Stefan fell from his horse and was almost
Captured only saved by one of his knights at the last moment
The ottoman leaders usually stayed behind the center in order to observe the battlefield
But Ali koja Bey commanded the left flank and fought in the front lines, which prevented him from judging the tactical situation
Famous Hungarian general Powell Konishi was commanding Stefan's right flank
He managed to lure the Ottoman left away from the center and fen rapidly attacked and dispersed it
His cavalry then attacks the Ottoman Center and soon the whole Ottoman army was in retreat
According to different sources
Between five and ten thousand warriors of the Sultan were killed while the Hungarians lost less than three thousand
As the Ottomans often used their border vassals in these smaller attacks
Hungary got some respite due to the victory at bread field
Sultan Mehmet's now set his sights on strengthening his position in the
Mediterranean and on conquering Italy has according to some sources Rome was his goal ever since he took
Constantinople
The disunity in Italy was promising and the newly acquired Albanian lands were a good springboard
The peace with Venice also helped as the Ottoman Navy didn't need to contend with its formidable Navy anymore
In May of 1480 the ottomans launched an invasion of Rhodes, but the Knights Hospitaller
Managed to repel the assault by August despite the overwhelming Ottoman numbers
at the same time the invasion of Italy had begun in July of 1480 a
20,000 strong Ottoman army under get 'ok amid Pasha set sail for the kingdom of Naples
making landfall near Otranto
the garrison initially considered it to be a smaller raid and sallied out as
More Ottoman troops landed on the shores. The defenders were pushed back and forced to return to the city
The ottoman commander sent a messenger demanding that the city surrender and convert to islam
The citizens and the garrison which had around 2,000 soldiers declined and managed to send messengers asking for help
meanwhile, the ottoman cannons were disembarked from the ships on the 29th of july the ottomans surrounded the city and
their cannons started bombarding the walls as
The garrison was too small to defend the outer walls it moved to the citadel
The ottomans quickly took the city looting and burning as they did
Their cannons were moved to destroy the walls of the citadel
The siege continued for 15 days
On the 11th of August the ottoman artillery breached the northeastern wall and their troops entered the citadel
the garrison alongside
10,000 citizens were massacred and thousands were enslaved
according to the sources
800 men were left alive and the ottomans tried to forcibly convert them to Islam, but they refused and were beheaded
These 800 became martyrs and their death became a banner uniting the Christian forces
The ottomans then raided the cities of Lecce Taranto, Brindisi and viesta
Most of their troops returned to albania leaving 1500 as a garrison in Otranto
The kingdoms of Naples Sicily and Hungary besieged the city in May of 1481
As Sultan Mehmed died on the 3rd of May and with him the plan to take Italy
No help arrived for the garrison and in August it surrendered
Mehmed's didn't name a successor. So his sons bayazid and jem raced to the capital to capture the throne
The former was quicker and was declared Sultan Bayezid the second on May 21st
Jen captured the cities in Anatolia and defeated Bay as its forces on May 28th
He declared himself the Sultan and offered to Bayazid that they divided the empire?
The latter refused consolidated his forces and moved against Jem himself this time defeating his brother at Yenisehir here
Jen fled to the Mamluks in Egypt then to the hospitaliers and ended up in the court of Pope Innocent to the 8th
Who was willing to use the Ottoman Prince as a bargaining chip against Bayazid
The new Sultan continued the Ottoman military conquests
Smaller raids were used to loot the areas on the borders or to punish rebellious vassals
One of the targets of the raids was the kingdom of Croatia which was in dynastic union with Hungary
in
1491 such a raid ended up in a Croatian victory at the battle of Vrpile.
In 1493 the Ottoman ruler in Bosnia Adeem jakob pasha
Made another raid into Croatia and the locals raised their forces to meet him at Krbava
Both sides had around 10,000 troops
But while the Ottoman army was made up of cavalry, the Croatians fielded a mix of infantry and cavalry
Initially the Croatian forces occupied steep hills and the Ottoman leader knew that he couldn't win a battle attacking uphill
He sent three thousand horsemen to set an ambush to the right of these hills while 3,000 stays to the left
the rest moved against the Croatians
After the initial attack the ottoman started retreating and the Croatians pursued them descending into more open terrain
The main Ottoman forces re-engaged them while the two hidden groups attacked them from the right and rear
Soon the Croatian left retreated and was crushed the center and the right were pushed back and then surrounded
Almost the entire Croatian army was massacred while the ottomans lost only a few hundred
During this period the Ottomans renewed hostilities with Venice and started their wars against Poland
Moldavia became an ottoman vassal while the Venetians were forced to give up their holdings on the Peloponnese
after losing a number of naval engagements
Meanwhile the main threat for the ottomans was rising in the east in iran
the Seljuk Mongol and then the timurid invasions
Changed the balance of power in the region as more Turkic and Turkish ice tribes were settling here in their wake
by 1500
Iran-iraq and most of the caucuses were under the control of the Ak Koyunlu dynasty, which challenged mehmet ii in
1476 during the Battle of Otlukbeli
Since that's defeat the Ak Koyunlu had not been trying to expand to the west anymore
Internal strife was weakening their realm and in 1501 a member of the Safavid dynasty
Ismail the first supported by a number of Turkmen tribes
Occupied Tabriz and declared himself Shah
In 1503 he defeated the last act of Ak Koyunlu sultan and soon he was in control of a vast empire
Ismail and his dynasty belonged to the Shia branch of Islam and that
Put him on a collision course with the Sun I'd Ottomans
The noushad decided to test his Ottoman and mameluk neighbors by attacking Dulkadir which was under their protection in
1507
Neither state responded but the Ottoman Prince Salim retaliated by raiding Safavid territory adjacent to the area
He governed
At the same time Bayazid asks another sunite leader Mohammed Shabani to attack the Safavids
The latter obliged and moved against fair holdings in Central Asia in 1510
Ismail moved swiftly attacks, Chobani at Merve and defeated and killed him with ease despite having inferior numbers
The shah would reciprocate in kind and his Shia supporters rebelled against Ottoman rule in Anatolia in 1511
Although this rebellion was defeated quickly. It was just the start as many Turkmen tribes in eastern Anatolia were shia
At the same time the Ottoman Empire was facing another succession
The ailing Sultan declared his older son Ahmed as heir apparent in 1511
his younger son Salim rebelled and despite initial setbacks took Istanbul in the april of 1512 and
dethroned his father
Soon Emmet's army was defeated and sell in the first became the Ottoman Sultan
He still faced an increasing number of Shia Muslims in his realm
Salim would use the religion against the supporters of Ismail and his scholars soon declared the Shia to be heretics
The rulers wrote each other a number of letters full of insults
in 1512 Salim ordered the execution of more than
40,000 Shia in Anatolia and also sent a letter to the shaper needs to request another invasion of the Safavid Ralf
all that made war inevitable
Ismail was forced to send a portion of his troops east to face the Schaben 'it's
in
1514 Salim started his campaign against Ismail
the Ottomans had around seventy thousand troops and more than
100 cannons while Ismail could feel fifty thousand most of them cavalry
He has no artillery
Initially the Safavid Shah used scorched earth tactics to weaken Salim's forces
But as the armies were moving within Iran and close to the Safavid
capital of Tabriz is now needed to make a stand and in August. He decided to do that at the valley of caldiran
According to some sources his mails advisors suggest is attacking after dark to prevent the Ottomans from using their artillery
But the shah considered himself a knight and declined
The sources for the battle are extremely conflicted. So we will just present one of the depictions
Selim sent his Janissaries forward keeping the rest of his troops back sure that his elite troops would be able to use their gunpowder
weapons to disperse the enemy cavalry
Yet the Safavid cavalry led by Ishmael himself managed to repulse the Janissaries
The Ottoman Sultan then moved his sipahis forward to cover the retreat of the Janissaries, but the sipahis were also driven back
At this point in the battle both groups returned to their initial positions
Ismail ordered his cavalry to divide into two columns and attacked the extreme flanks of the Ottoman cavalry
Safavid troops both on the left and the right flank were successful and inflicted heavy damage on the Ottoman cavalry
They were then commanded to converge on the Ottoman center
Yet Selim who observed the battle from a nearby hill was expecting that
His Hannon's were now positioned at an angle targeting the impending cavalry attack
Thousands of Safavid horsemen died under artillery volleys and their army was forced to retreat
The Ottoman cavalry counter attacked and dispersed the remaining enemy forces
Once again, we don't know the exact numbers but both sides suffered heavy losses
In early September Selim entered Tabriz
but his troops were on the verge of mutiny and soon he was forced to retreat the
Ottomans took control of eastern Anatolia parts of the Caucasus and
Mesopotamia yet the wars between these states were far from over
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