Capture of Baghdad by Suleiman I
In the war with the Safavids, the army of Suleiman I and his grand vizier Ibrahim Pasha entered Baghdad without a fight after the Persian authorities abandoned it; Iraq came under lasting Ottoman rule.
- Date
- between November and December 1534exact date unknown: an interval is given
- Place
- Baghdadtoday: Baghdad, Iraq · Middle East and Egypt
- Participants
- Suleiman I the Magnificent, Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha, Tahmasp I, Ottoman Empire, Safavid Iran
- Threads
- Europe and the Ottoman Empire: the end of the Middle Ages, Asia and Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries
- Also known as
- Поход в два Ирака
The grand vizier Ibrahim Pasha occupied the Safavid capital, Tabriz, where the sultan himself arrived in September 1534. Shah Tahmasp I avoided a decisive battle, and in the autumn the combined army marched south toward Baghdad. The Safavid authorities fled without attempting to defend the city; the Ottomans entered it at the end of 1534 — in November or December, according to different sources. Suleiman wintered in Baghdad, restored Sunni shrines that had suffered under the Safavids, including the tomb of Imam Abu Hanifa, and took the title of “Shah of Baghdad”.
Control of Baghdad opened the way for the Ottomans down the Tigris and Euphrates to the Persian Gulf. The Safavids did not regain the city until 1623, and in 1638 the Ottomans won it back and held it until 1917.
Connections
Related events
- Battle of Chaldiran23 August 1514 · Middle East and Egyptcontinuation of the Ottoman–Safavid struggle
Same participants
- Siege of Vienna (1529)27 September – 15 October 1529 · Western and Central Europevia Suleiman I the Magnificent
- Siege of Izmail11 (22) December 1790 · Eastern Europevia Ottoman Empire
Same place
- Trajan’s Parthian campaign114–117 · Middle East and Egypt
- Siege of Baghdad29 January – 10 February 1258 · Middle East and Egypt
Adjacent events in the thread
- Publication of Copernicus’s De revolutionibus1543 · Western and Central Europe
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 25 years of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Siege of Vienna (1529)27 September – 15 October 1529
- Sack of Rome (1527)6 May 1527
- Battle of Mohács29 August 1526
- Publication of Copernicus’s De revolutionibus1543
- First circumnavigation of the globe10 August 1519 – 8 September 1522
+ 2 events
Eastern Europe
- Coronation of Ivan IV as tsar16 January 1547
- Capture of Kazan23 August – 2 October 1552
- Battle of Orsha8 September 1514
- Capture of Smolensk (1514)between 30 July and 1 August 1514
- Annexation of the Astrakhan Khanate26 August 1556
+ 1 event
Balkans and Anatolia
- Accession of Suleiman the Magnificent30 September 1520
Africa
- Ethiopian–Adal WarMarch 1529 – 21 February 1543
- Letters of Afonso I of Kongo on the slave trade1526
South Asia
- First Battle of Panipat21 April 1526
- Portuguese conquest of Goa25 November 1510
East Asia
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Toungoo–Hanthawaddy War: the beginning of Burma’s unification1534 – May 1541
- Battle of Mactan27 April 1521
- Capture of Malacca25 July – between 10 August and 24 August 1511
North America
- Jacques Cartier’s second voyage — up the Saint Lawrence River19 May 1535 – 16 July 1536
- Hernando de Soto’s expedition into the interior of North America30 May 1539 – September 1543
Latin America
- Battle of Cajamarca16 November 1532
- Fall of Tenochtitlan13 August 1521
- Founding of Salvador and the Governorate General of Brazil29 March 1549
- Spanish conquest of the Aztec EmpireFebruary 1519 – 13 August 1521
- Balboa reaches the Pacific Ocean25–29 September 1513