Selim I

Selim I سليم اوّل
Caliph of Islam Amir al-Mu'minin Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Padişah
1st Caliph of the Ottoman Caliphate
Reign	1517 – 22 September 1520
Predecessor	Al-Mutawakkil III as Abbasid Caliph
Successor	Suleiman the Magnificent
9th Ottoman Sultan (Emperor)
Reign	26 May 1512 – 22 September 1520
Predecessor	Bayezid II
Successor	Suleiman the Magnificent
Born	10 October 1465/1466/1470 Amasya
Died	22 September 1520 (aged 49-54) Tekirdağ, Çorlu
Burial	Yavuz Selim Mosque, Fatih, Istanbul
Consorts	Ayşe Hatun Ayşe Hafsa Sultan
Issue	Suleiman I Sehzade Orhan Sehzade Musa Sehzade Korkut Hatice Sultan Beyhan Sultan Şah Sultan Kathira Sultan Fatma Sultan Hafsa Sultan Şehzade Sultan Gevherhan Sultan
Dynasty	Osmanli (Ottoman)
Father	Bayezid II
Mother	Gülbahar Hatun
Religion	Sunni Islam
Tughra

Selim I (Ottoman Turkish: سليم اوّل, Modern Turkish: I.Selim or Yavuz Sultan Selim), nicknamed Yavuz (traditionally translated as "grim," but closer to "stern" or "implacable" in meaning) (October 10, 1465/1466/1470 – September 22, 1520), was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520.^[1] His reign is notable for the enormous expansion of the Empire, particularly his conquest between 1516 and 1517 of the entire Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt, which included all of Sham, Hejaz, Tihamah, and Egypt itself. He was also granted the title of "Khâdim ül Haramain ish Sharifain" (Servant of the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina) by the Sharif of Mecca in 1517. Through conquering and unification of Muslim lands, Selim became the defender of the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina which strengthened the Ottoman claim to caliphate in the Muslim world.

Selim's expansion into the Middle East represented a sudden change in the expansion policy of the empire, which, before his reign, had mostly been within the Balkans (Southeast Europe) and Anatolia (Asia Minor).^[2] On the eve of his death in 1520, the Ottoman Empire spanned almost 1 billion acres (about 4 million square kilometers), having tripled in size during Selim's reign.

Biography

Outline of the Ottoman Empire, from the Theatro d'el Orbe de la Tierra de Abraham Ortelius, Anvers, 1602, updated from the 1570 edition.

Born in Amasya around 1470, Selim was the youngest son of Bayezid II (1481–1512). Selim's mother was Ayşe Hatun, a Turkish princess from the Dulkadir State centered around Elbistan in Maraş; her father was Alaüddevle Bozkurt Bey, the eleventh ruler of the Dulkadirs.^[3][4][5] Some academics state that Selim's mother was a lady named Gülbahar Hatun,^[6] however, chronological analysis suggests that this is highly unlikely and that his biological mother was Ayşe Hatun.^[7]

By 1512, Şehzade Ahmet was the favorite candidate to succeed his father. Bayezid, who was really reluctant to continue his rule over the empire, announced Ahmet as heir apparent to the throne. Angered with this announcement, Selim rebelled. Although he lost the first battle against his father's forces, Selim successfully dethroned his father Bayezid II. Selim ordered the purge of his father to a far away "sanjak", Dimetoka. Bayezid’s death followed immediately thereafter.^[8] Selim put his brothers (Şehzade Ahmet and Şehzade Korkut) and nephews to death upon his accession in order to eliminate potential pretenders to the throne. This fratricidal policy was motivated by bouts of civil strife that had been sparked by the antagonism between Selim’s father Beyazid and his uncle Cem Sultan, and between Selim himself and his brother Ahmet.

Selim I was described as being tall, having very broad shoulders and a long mustache. He was skilled in politics and was said to be fond of fighting.^[9] In 1494, at Trabzon, he married Ayşe Hafsa Sultan, the daughter of Meñli I Giray.

Conquest of the Middle East

Safavid Empire

16th-century Ottoman miniature of the Battle of Chaldiran.

For Selim, one of the first challenges as Sultan was the growing tension between himself and Shah Ismail who had recently brought the Safavids to power and had switched the state religion from Sunni Islam to the adherence of the Twelver branch of Shia Islam. By 1510, he had conquered the whole of Iran and Azerbaijan,^[10] southern Dagestan (with its important city of Derbent), Mesopotamia, Armenia, Khorasan, Eastern Anatolia, and had made the Georgian kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti his vassals.^[11][12] He was a great threat to his Sunni Muslim neighbors to the west. In 1511, Ismail had supported an pro Shia/Safavid uprising in Anatolia, the Şahkulu Rebellion. In 1514, Selim I attacked Ismā'il's kingdom to stop the spread of Shiism into Ottoman dominions. Selim and Ismā'il had been exchanging a series of belligerent letters prior to the attack. Selim I defeated Ismā'il at the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514.^[13] Ismā'il's army was more mobile and their soldiers were better prepared but the Ottomans prevailed due in large part to their efficient modern army, and possession of artillery, black powder and muskets. Ismā'il was wounded and almost captured in battle, and Selim I entered the Iranian capital of Tabriz in triumph on September 5,^[14] but did not linger. The Battle of Chaldiran, was of historical significance, in which the reluctancy showed by Shah Ismail to accept the advantages of modern firearms and the importance of artillery was decisive.^[15] After the battle, Selim, referring to Ismail, stated that his adversary was: "Always drunk to the point of losing his mind and totally neglectful of the affairs of the state".^[16]

Syria, Palestine, Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula

Selim then conquered the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt, defeating the Mamluk Egyptians first at the Battle of Marj Dabiq, and then at the Battle of Ridanieh. This led to the Ottoman annexation of the entire sultanate, from Syria and Palestine in Sham, to Hejaz and Tihamah in the Arabian Peninsula, and ultimately Egypt itself. This permitted him to extend Ottoman power to the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, hitherto under Egyptian rule. Rather than style himself the Hakim ul Haremeyn, or The Ruler of The Two Holy Shrines, he accepted the more pious title Khadim ul Haremeyn, or The Servant of The Two Holy Shrines.^[8][17]

After the conquest of Egypt and the Holy Cities in 1517, Selim induced Al-Mutawakkil III (1509–17), the last in the line of Abbasid caliphs who resided in Cairo since 1261 as nominal rulers legitimizing the de facto rule of the Mamluk sultans over the Mamluk Sultanate,^[18] to formally surrender the title of Caliph and its emblems, the sword and the mantle of Muhammad.^[2] These are kept in the Topkapı Palace Museum at Istanbul, Turkey.

Death

Selim I on his deathbed.

Left: The türbe of Selim I in his mosque. Right: Yavuz Selim Mosque.

This campaign was cut short when he was overwhelmed by sickness and subsequently died in the ninth year of his reign. He was about fifty-five years of age. Officially it is said that Selim succumbed to sirpence, a skin infection which he developed during his long campaigns on horseback. (Sirpence was an anthrax infection sometimes seen among leatherworkers and others who worked with livestock). Some historians, however, suggest that he died of cancer or that he was poisoned by his physician.^[19] Other historians, meanwhile, have noted that Selim's death coincided with a period of plague in the empire, and have added that several sources imply that Selim himself suffered from the disease.^[20]

Titles

Selim assumed the title Malik ul-Barreyn, wa Khakan ul-Bahrayn, wa Kasir ul-Jayshayn, wa Khadim ul-Haramayn - that is, King of the Two Lands (continents Europe and Asia), Khagan of the Two Seas (Mediterranean and Indian Seas), Conqueror of the Two Armies (European and Safavid armies), and Servant of the Two Holy Shrines (Mecca and Medina). This title alludes to his dominions in Europe and Asia (namely, Balkan, Anatolia, and much of the Fertile Crescent), his control over the Mediterranean and Black seas, his defeat of both the Mamluk and Safavid armies, and his guardianship of the shrines of Mecca and Medina.

Personality

By most accounts, Selim had a fiery temper and had very high expectations of his subordinates. Several of his viziers were executed for various reasons. A famous anecdote relates how another vizier playfully asked the Sultan for some preliminary notice of his doom so that he might have time to put his affairs in order. The Sultan laughed and replied that indeed he had been thinking of having the vizier killed, but had no one fit to take his place, otherwise he would gladly oblige. Lord Kinross, in his history of the Ottomans, reports that life at Sultan Selim's court was full of opportunities, and there were always plenty of applicants to the highest offices, regardless of the risks. Despite this, a popular Ottoman curse was, "May you be a vizier of Selim's," as a reference to the number of viziers he had executed.^[21]

Selim was one of the Empire's most successful and respected rulers, being energetic and hardworking. During his short eight years of ruling, he accomplished momentous success. Despite the length of his reign, many historians agree that Selim prepared the Ottoman Empire to reach its zenith under the reign of his son and successor, Suleiman the Magnificent.^[22]

Selim was also a distinguished poet who wrote both Turkish and Persian verse under the nickname Mahlas Selimi; collections of his Persian poetry are extant today.^[22] In one of his poems, he wrote:

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

— Yavuz Sultan Selim

Foreign relations

Relations with the Shah Ismail

While marching into Persia in 1514, Selim's troops suffered from the scorched-earth tactics of Shah Ismail. The Sultan hoped to lure Ismail into an open battle before his troops starved to death, and began writing insulting letters to the Shah, accusing him of cowardice:

They, who by perjuries seize scepters ought not to skulk from danger, but their breast ought, like the shield, to be held out to encounter peril; they ought, like the helm, to affront the foeman's blow.

Ismail responded to Selim's third message, quoted above, by having an envoy deliver a letter accompanied by a box of opium. The Shah's letter insultingly implied that Selim's prose was the work of an unqualified writer on drugs. Selim was enraged by the Shah's denigration of his literary talent and ordered the Persian envoy to be torn to pieces.^[23]

Relations with Babur

Babur's early relations with the Ottomans were initially troubled because the Ottoman Sultan Selim I provided Babur's arch rival Ubaydullah Khan with powerful Matchlocks and Cannons to counter the influence of the Safavidds. In the year 1507, when ordered to accept Selim I as his Caliph and suzerain, Babur refused.

In the year 1513, Ottoman Sultan Selim I reconciled with Babur, dispatched Ustad Ali Quli the artilleryman and Mustafa Rumi the Matchlock marksman and many other Ottoman Turks, in order to assist Babur in his conquests. Thenceforth this particular assistance proved to be the basis of future Mughal-Ottoman relations.

Gallery

• 

  Selim I with a mace

• 

  Selim I miniature

• 

  Selim in Egypt

• 

  Selim in court

• 

  Selim I by an unknown European painter

Modern day

• The German battlecruiser SMS Goeben was renamed Yavuz Sultan Selim after being handed over to the Turkish Navy in 1914.
• A third bridge over the Bosphorus in Istanbul is called the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge.

Popular culture

• Selim I appears as an important character in action-adventure video game, Assassin's Creed: Revelations.

See also

• Babur
• Suleiman I

References

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Selim". Encyclopædia Britannica 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 606–607.

1. Yavuz Sultan Selim Biography Retrieved on 2007-09-16, Archived September 29, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
2. The Rise of the Turks and the Ottoman Empire Retrieved on 2007-09-16
3. Babinger, Franz (1992), Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time, Princeton University Press, p. 57, ISBN 0691010781
4. Freely, John (2001), Inside the Seraglio: private lives of the sultans in Istanbul, Penguin, p. 32, ISBN 0140270566
5. Agoston, Gabor (2011), "The Ottomans: From Frontier Principality to Empire", in Olsen, John Andreas; Gray, Colin S., The Practice of Strategy: From Alexander the Great to the Present, Oxford University Press, p. 116, ISBN 0140270566
6. Yavuz Bahadıroğlu, Resimli Osmanlı Tarihi, Nesil Yayınları (Ottoman History with Illustrations, Nesil Publications), 15th Ed., 2009, page 157, ISBN 978-975-269-299-2
7. Dijkema, F.TH (1977), The Ottoman Historical Monumental Inscriptions in Edirne, BRILL, p. 32, ISBN 9004050620
8. The Classical Age, 1453-1600 Retrieved on 2007-09-16
9. "Sultan Selim the Excellent". Ottomanonline.net. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
10. BBC, (LINK)
11. "History of Iran:Safavid Empire 1502 - 1736". Retrieved 16 December 2014.
12. "Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia". Retrieved 15 December 2014.
13. Michael Axworthy Iran: Empire of the Mind (Penguin, 2008) p.133
14. The later Crusades, 1274-1580: from Lyons to Alcazar Door Norman Housley, page 120, 1992
15. "Morgan, David. ''Shah Isma'il and the Establishment of Shi'ism''". Coursesa.matrix.msu.edu. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
16. The pursuit of pleasure: drugs and stimulants in Iranian history, 1500-1900 By Rudolph P. Matthee, pg. 77
17. Yavuz Sultan Selim Government Retrieved on 2007-09-16
18. Thompson, J., A History of Egypt, AUC Press 2008, p. 194; Vatikiotis, P.J., The History of Modern Egypt, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992, p.20
19. Byfeld, Ted, ed. (2010). A Century of Giants. A.D. 1500 to 1600: in an age of spiritual genius, western Christendom shatters. The Society to Explore and Record Christian History. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-9689873-9-1.
20. Varlık, Nükhet (2015). Plague and Empire in the Early Modern Mediterranean World: The Ottoman Experience, 1347-1600. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 164–165. ISBN 9781107013384.
21. Middle East, Istanbul
22. Necdet Sakaoğlu, Bu Mülkün Sultanları, pg.127
23. Crider, Elizabeth Fortuato (1969). The Foreign Relations of the Ottoman Empire Under Selim I, 1512-1520(Master's Thesis). Ohio State University, 1969, page 20. Retrieved on 2011-04-12

External links

• Media related to Selim I at Wikimedia Commons