Titans of History

SELIM THE GRIM

1470–1520

A carpet is large enough to accommodate two sufis, but the world is not large enough for two Kings.

Selim the Grim

Sultan Selim I defeated Persia (Iran) and the Mamluks, and conquered the entire Middle East, including Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem for his Ottoman empire, in a reign that was short, bloody and extremely successful. Having eliminated all internal challengers, he established the Ottomans as the preeminent power in the Islamic world. One of the cruelest sultans, he was also one of the greatest.

Selim was born in 1470, the son and heir apparent of Sultan Bayezid II, whose reign had been undermined by royal infighting as the sultan found himself challenged by his brother Cem. The latter had sought assistance from various European allies—notably the military order of the Knights of St. John and the papacy—but ultimately wound up dead in a Neapolitan jail. This family feud, however, was nothing compared with what was to follow.

Tall and strong, the young Selim stood out for his bravery and his keen intelligence. Many looked to him as a model ruler in waiting. One who was not so convinced, however, was his brother Ahmed, who desired the throne for himself. The rivalry between the two became increasingly bitter. In 1511, after Ahmed had pacified a rebellious Ottoman province in Asia Minor, he made as if to march on the capital, Istanbul. Selim fled.

In semi-exile as governor of Trabizon (a region of northern Anatolia, next to the Black Sea), Selim honed his military skills, leading a succession of military campaigns against Georgia and succeeding in bringing the towns of Kars, Erzurum and Artvin under Ottoman control. Selim returned from his provincial assignment in 1512, and, with the support of the Janissary militias, defeated and killed Ahmed in battle. He then forced his father to abdicate.

Bayezid died soon afterward, and there ensued an extraordinary bout of intra-familial bloodletting. Selim understood the problems that could flow from sibling rivalry, having witnessed the clash between his father and uncle, not to mention his own experiences with his brother Ahmed. He came up with a simple but ferocious solution: the elimination of all possible rivals to the throne. He not only had his two surviving brothers and his nephews murdered, but even his own sons—with the sole exception of Suleiman, the son he had designated as his one true heir.

Selim then set about adding to his dominions. Hitherto, the focus for Ottoman expansion had been westward into Europe—particularly the Balkans. Selim adopted a different policy. Signing a peace treaty with the European powers, he turned his attention east, to the Safavids of Persia, whose Shi’ite empire posed a direct ideological challenge to the Ottoman sultans, upholders of the Sunni tradition. In addition, the Safavids had been stirring up unrest among the Kizilbash (Turkmen tribes in eastern Anatolia). In 1514 Selim moved decisively against his Safavid neighbors, and defeated them at the Battle of Chaldiran on the River Euphrates.

With his immediate rivals thus neutralized, Selim then prepared to take on the empire of the Mamluks to the south, whose rule extended from Egypt through Palestine to Syria, and who had provoked Selim’s anger by their apparent interference in Ottoman affairs. Marching his army south, Selim destroyed successive Mamluk armies at Marj Dabiq (north of Aleppo) in 1516 and at al-Raydaniyyah (near Cairo) in 1517. In so doing, he brought Syria, Palestine and Egypt under Ottoman sway. Selim now proclaimed himself caliph, and was declared guardian of the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina. His triumph was to be short-lived. In September 1520 he died after a short illness, probably a form of cancer, leaving his empire to his son, Suleiman.