Battle of Turnadağ

Battle of Turnadağ
Date June 13, 1515 Location Göksun and Nurhak Mountain Kahramanmaraş Province, Turkey Result Decisive Ottoman victory (Collapse of the Beylik of Dulkadir)
Belligerents
Ottoman Empire	Beylik of Dulkadir
Commanders and leaders
Hadim Sinan Pasha	Alahüddevle Bozkurt †
Strength
40,000	Unknown

The Battle of Turnadağ was an engagement between the forces of the Ottoman Empire and the Beylik of Dulkadir of Turkey in 1515.

Background

Beylik of Dulkadir was a semi-independent Anatolian Turkish beylik under the sovereignty of the Mamluk Egypt. Its territory bordered in the north to the Ottoman Empire. In 1514, Ottoman sultan Selim I, nicknamed Yavuz, literally "Grim" or "Inflexible", waged a war against Ismail I of the Safavids in Iran. His campaign route was close to Dulkadir border, and Selim I asked Bozkurt of Dulkadir to participate in the campaign. But Bozkurt refused to participate using the pretext of his old age. Also some tribes under his command disturbed supply units of the Ottoman army.^[1]

After the campaign

After the Iran campaign, Selim I decided to end the Beylik. Instead of returning to İstanbul, he waited in Central Anatolia with the main army and sent a force of 40,000 men under the commandship of Hadim Sinan Pasha, one of his viziers to conquer Dulkadir territory. Ali Bey, a relative of Bozkurt, who had previously escaped to the Ottomans, was with Sinan as a guide.

The battle

Early fighting took place on 13 June 1515 close to Göksun, what is today a town in Kahramanmaraş Province in Turkey. Although the Ottomans were victorious, Bozkurt was able to escape to southeast. The final clash was in Turnadağ, a mountain range now called Nurhak in Kahramanmaraş Province. At the end of the battle, Dulkadir army was totally defeated. Both Bozkurt and his sons were killed in the battle.^[2]

Aftermath

After the battle, Beylik of Dulkadir ceased to exist. It was converted to an Ottoman sanjak, (Ottoman administrative unit). The first governor of the sanjak became Ali Bey of the Dulkadir. Hadim Sinan Pasha was promoted to be the grand vizier. The next year, Selim I waged a war against Egypt, and Egypt as well as Syria and Palestine came under the Ottoman rule.

References

1. Prof. Yaşar Yüce-Prof. Ali Sevim: Türkiye tarihi Cilt II, AKDTYKTTK Yayınları, İstanbul, 1991, p 241-242
2. Bizim Elbistan newspaper (Turkish)