User:Reimid/sandbox

CALDIRAN, the plain in north-western Persian Adharbaydjan, the western boundary forming part of the present-day frontier with Turkey (cf. Farhang-i Diughrdfiyd^l-yi Iran, iv (Tehran, 1330 shamsi), 154), which on the 2 Radjab 920/23 August 1514 was the scene of a decisive Ottoman victory over the Safawids. The campaign was launched by Selim I, despite the reluctance of his troops and military advisers, on the 23 Muharram 920/20 March 1514 as the first enterprise of his reign after he had secured his throne by the elimination of his brothers, and is properly to be regarded as the final response to those separatist tendencies which for over half a century had been manifesting themselves among the Turkish tribal elements of Anatolia in darwish revolts or in active support for pretenders of the Ottoman line, and which now threatened to draw the entire province into the Safawid orbit. The profound disquiet of the region may be judged from the mass executions and arrests of suspected dissidents which preceded the actual military operations, and the gravity with which this situation was regarded is to be inferred from the risks which Selim felt compelled to take in order to achieve a final settlement. Whether the Safawids had inspired this dissatisfaction by their subversive missionary activities or merely benefited from the prevailing anti-Ottoman sentiments by appearing as an alternative hegemony is difficult to determine; but it is clear that the counterheretical allure which the Ottomans gave to their attack upon the Shicl Muslims of the east was but the facade to a starkly political purpose. The campaign, which seems to have been modelled on that of Mehmed II against Uzun Hasan in 1473, is described in detail in the journal preserved in Ferldun Beg, although the fundamental logistical problems of moving an army of the size attributed to the Ottomans across home territories where they could not live off the land are scarcely touched upon. But that these could be solved and that the fractious troops could be held under discipline throughout all the unfamiliar hardships of campaigning in these regions was certainly the most impressive display of Ottoman might that Anatolia had ever witnessed and far more overawing to Shah Ismacll and his supporters than the firearms and artillery which usually figure so prominently in the narratives as the reason for the Ottoman victory (cf. Lutfi Pasha's highly romantic account of Ismail's astonishment as contingent after contingent of Ottoman troops took the field). The campaign may be regarded as having succeeded in its primary object in that it neutralized for over a generation the attraction exerted on Anatolia from the east. The "scorched earth" tactics of the retreating Safawids prevented any long occupation of their invaded territories, and although Tabriz was entered by the Sultan on the i7th Rad[ab/7th Sept., within a week preparations were made for returning to winter quarters at Amasya. From here the following year operations were begun in south-eastern Anatolia which were to bring an end to the semi-independent principality of the Dhu '1-Kadr-oghll around Elbistan and add definitively to Ottoman territory Diyarbekr and northern Kurdistan.