Battle of Otlukbeli
The army of Mehmed II routed the forces of Uzun Hasan, ruler of the Turkoman Aq Qoyunlu state in Iran and eastern Anatolia; Ottoman artillery decided the outcome of the eight-hour battle.
- Date
- 11 August 1473exact dateDate in the Julian calendar
- Place
- Otlukbeli (near Tercan)approximate locationtoday: Erzincan Province, Turkey · Balkans and Anatolia
- Participants
- Mehmed II the Conqueror, Uzun Hasan, Ottoman Empire, Aq Qoyunlu
- Threads
- Europe and the Ottoman Empire: the end of the Middle Ages, Asia and Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries
- Also known as
- Битва при Башкенте; Сражение при Отлукбели
Uzun Hasan, an ally of Venice in its war with the Ottomans, was contending with Mehmed II for the beylik of Karaman, the key to Asia Minor and an outlet to the Mediterranean. In 1472 his troops sacked Tokat, and on 4 August 1473 near Tercan they lured the Ottoman vanguard into an ambush. A week later, however, at Otlukbeli the sultan’s Janissaries and cannon routed the Aq Qoyunlu army, which had almost no firearms: the guns promised by Venice never reached Uzun Hasan.
Uzun Hasan made a truce and renounced his claims to Karaman. For almost forty years after the battle no one challenged Ottoman power in Anatolia, while the Aq Qoyunlu state fell into decline; in 1501 it was crushed by Shah Ismail I, Uzun Hasan’s grandson on his mother’s side.
Connections
Related events
- Afanasy Nikitin’s Journey Beyond the Three Seasbetween 1466 and 1468 – between 1472 and 1474 · South Asiaon his way back from India, Nikitin spent ten days at the camp (the “horde”) of Uzun Hasan and recorded his campaign against the Ottomans, in which Sivas and Tokat were taken
- Ismail I proclaimed shah in Tabriz1501 · Middle East and EgyptIsmail I was a grandson of Uzun Hasan; in 1501 he defeated the Aq Qoyunlu and took Tabriz
Same participants
- Siege of Belgrade (1456)4–22 July 1456 · Balkans and Anatoliavia Mehmed II the Conqueror
- Battle of Chaldiran23 August 1514 · Middle East and Egyptvia Ottoman Empire
Adjacent events in the thread
- Wars of the Roses22 May 1455 – between 1485 and 1487 · Western and Central Europe
- Battle of Bosworth Field22 August 1485 · Western and Central Europe
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 5 years of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Wars of the Roses22 May 1455 – between 1485 and 1487
Eastern Europe
- Marriage of Ivan III and Sophia Palaiologina12 November 1472
- Construction of the Kremlin’s Dormition Cathedral1475 – August 1479
- Muscovite–Novgorodian War (1477–1478)9 October 1477 – 15 January 1478
Africa
- Sonni Ali takes Timbuktubetween 1468 and 1469
Central and Northern Asia
- Founding of the Kazakh Khanatebetween 1465 and 1471
South Asia
- Afanasy Nikitin’s Journey Beyond the Three Seasbetween 1466 and 1468 – between 1472 and 1474
East Asia
- Ōnin War1467–1477
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Đại Việt crushes Champa: the fall of VijayaNovember 1470 – March 1471
Latin America
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Battle of Otlukbeli
- Wikipedia (Russian): Сражение при Отлукбели
- Wikipedia (Russian): Узун Хасан
- Babinger F. Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time / Ed. W. C. Hickman; transl. R. Manheim. — Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978.
- Wikidata: Q2007212