TRENDEFRARAtlas of the Sultans · Cities and countries
3 cities
The lands of today's Iraq passed under Ottoman rule with the campaign of the Two Iraqs in 1534 and, apart from a short interval, remained Ottoman until the First World War.
Mosul was taken in 1517 and Baghdad in 1534, on Süleyman's campaign of the Two Iraqs. Baghdad was held by the Safavids from 1623 to 1638; Murad IV recovered the city in 1638. Baghdad fell to the British army in 1917 and Mosul in 1918.
In April 1517 Bıyıklı Mehmed Pasha, governor of Diyarbekir, took the city from its Safavid governor.
On his campaign of the Two Iraqs Süleyman the Magnificent entered the city on 28 November 1534.
Often changing hands before, the city came fully under Ottoman rule after Süleyman's campaign of the Two Iraqs and became a district capital of the province of Baghdad.
The Peace of Amasya recognised Baghdad as legally Ottoman.
Derviş Mehmed, defending the citadel, handed it to Shah Abbas on 28 November 1623.
The Safavids, having taken Baghdad, also seized Kirkuk.
Hafız Ahmed Pasha's siege (November 1625 – July 1626) failed, as did that of 1629–1630.
Hüsrev Pasha took the city back.
On Murad IV's campaign the city was retaken after a forty-day siege that began on 15 October 1638.
Nader Shah besieged the city; governor Hüseyin Celil Pasha defended it.
Nader Shah bombarded the fortress and took it.
Under the Ottoman-Persian treaty of 1746 the fortress was returned to the Ottomans.
In the First World War the British took the city.
At Mudros the city was in Turkish hands; the British entered it on 8 (or 10) November 1918 in breach of the armistice.
After British attacks began on 28 October 1918 the Ottoman troops evacuated the city and withdrew to Altınköprü.
Under the Treaty of Ankara of 5 June 1926 Mosul remained within Iraq.
Although claimed in the National Pact, it was left to Iraq by the Treaty of Ankara of 5 June 1926.
Source: TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, article “IRAK” (in Turkish) and the atlas's city pages. Present-day borders are used.