Selim I

Selim I (Ottoman Turkish: سليم اوّل, Modern Turkish: I.Selim), nicknamed Yavuz, "the Stern" or "the Steadfast", but often rendered in English as "the Grim" (October 10, 1465/1466/1470 – September 22, 1520), was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. His reign is notable for the enormous expansion of the Empire, particularly his conquest between 1516-1517 of the entire Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt, which included all of Sham, Hejaz, Tihamah, and Egypt itself. With the heart of the Arab World now under their control, the Ottomans became the dominant power in the region, and in the Islamic world. Upon conquering Egypt, Selim took the title of Caliph of Islam, being the first Ottoman sultan to do so. 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.

Selim's reign represented a sudden change in the expansion policy of the empire, which was working mostly against the West and the Beyliks before his reign. On the eve of his death in 1520, the Ottoman Empire spanned almost 1 billion acres (about 4 million square kilometers or 4 square megameters), having tripled in size during Selim's reign.

Life
Born in Amasya, Selim dethroned his father Bayezid II (1481–1512) in 1512. Bayezid’s death followed immediately thereafter. 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. His biological mother was the Pontic Greek lady Gül-Bahār Khātûn, who had never acquired the title of Valide Khātûn since she had died before Selim’s accession to the Ottoman throne. According to another theory, Selim was the biological son of A’ishā (Ayşe) Khātûn I who died at Trebizond on 1505 and was the daughter of Alaüddevle Bozkurt Bey, the eleventh ruler of the Dulkadirids centered around Elbistan in Kahramanmaraş.

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. In 1494, at Trabzon, he married Ayşe Hafsa Sultan.

Safavid Empire


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 Shia Islam. By 1510, Ismail had conquered west part of Iran and was of 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. 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, but did not linger. A mutiny among his troops fearing a counterattack and entrapment by the fresh Safavid forces called in from the interior, forced the triumphant Ottomans to withdraw prematurely. This allowed Ismā'il to recover quickly. 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. 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.

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 extended 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.

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, to formally surrender the title of Caliph and its emblems, the sword and the mantle of Muhammad. These are kept in the Topkapı Palace Museum at Istanbul, Turkey.



Death
After his return from his Egyptian campaign, Selim began to prepare for an expedition which is believed to be against Hungary. 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. 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 claim that he was poisoned by the doctor tending to his infection and some historians claim that the disease he suffered from was skin cancer. He died at Çorlu, Tekirdağ.

Persecution of Alevis
In 1514, to reduce the chances of attack during his march to Iran, Selim I sent his officials to the province of Rum, in north-central Anatolia, with orders to register by name anyone identified as Qizilbash, including members of the Alevi population. Thousands of the 40,000 registered on the list were massacred, with thousands more arrested. The Sultan, regarding the Qizilibash as heretics, reportedly proclaimed that "the killing of one Shiite had as much otherworldly reward as killing 70 Christians."

Due to this, the Alevi community has protested Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan naming the third Bosphorus Bridge the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge.

Titles
After claiming the Caliphate, 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. However, a popular Ottoman curse was, "May you be a vizier of Selim's," as a reference to the number of viziers he had executed.

Selim was one of the Empire's most successful and respected rulers, he was energetic and very hard working. Accordingly, his court was dynamic, with the rewards as great as the risks. During his eight years of ruling he didn't have time to rest. Although he was a leader, he was also very humble and modest. His reign was short, but may have prepared the Ottoman empire for its zenith under the achievements of his son. A popular legend has it that Selim had filled the royal treasury to the brink and locked it with his own seal. He decreed that "he who will fill the treasury more than this, may use his seal to lock it." The treasury remained locked with Selim's seal until the collapse of the Empire 400 years later.

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. In one of his poems, he wrote;

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:

Ismail responded to Selim's third message, quoted above, by sending an envoy to deliver a letter accompanied by a box of opium. The Shah's letter insultingly implied that Selim's prose must have been the work of an unqualified writer on drugs and grew enraged by the Shah's denigration of his literary talent. He ordered the Persian envoy to be torn to pieces.

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 Safavids. In the year 1507, when ordered to accept Selim I as his rightful suzerain Babur refused, and gathered Qizilbash servicemen in order to counter the forces of Ubaydullah Khan during the Battle of Ghazdewan. In the year 1513, Ottoman Sultan Selim I reconciled with Babur (probably fearing that he would join the Safavids), 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.

Modern Day

 * A third bridge over the Bosphorus in Istanbul is called the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge.