TRENDEAtlas of the Sultans · Wars, battles and treaties
Siege · 1638
The Ottoman–Safavid War of 1623–1639 was a conflict fought between the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Iran, then the two major powers of Western Asia, over control of Mesopotamia. After initial Safavid success in recapturing Baghdad and most of Ottoman Iraq, having lost it for 90 years, the war became a stalemate as the Safavids were unable to press further into the Ottoman Empire, and the Ottomans themselves were distracted by wars in Europe and weakened by internal turmoil. Eventually, the Ottomans were able to recover Baghdad, taking heavy losses in the final siege, and the signing of the Treaty of Zuhab ended the war in an Ottoman victory.
| Date | 1623–1639 |
|---|---|
| Location | Ottoman Iraq, South Caucasus |
| Result | Ottoman victory · Treaty of Zuhab (1639) |
| Territorial changes | Permanent partition of the Caucasus and Safavid recognition of Ottoman control over Iraq |
| Belligerents | Safavid Iran Kingdom of Kartli Kingdom of Kakheti Emirate of Masha'sha Kingdom of Khaza'il | Ottoman Empire Muntafiq Emirate Crimean Khanate Kurdish tribes Yazidi tribes Kingdom of Portugal (1624–25) Principality of Basra |
|---|---|---|
| Commanders | Shah Abbas I # (Until 1629) Shah Safi (From 1629) Giorgi Saakadze (POW) Emir Gune-oğlu Mohanna Khan | Sultan Murad IV Hafız Ahmed Pasha † Gazi Hüsrev Pasha Tabanıyassı Mehmed Pasha Kemankeş Kara Mustafa Pasha Tayyar Mehmed Pasha † Rui Freire de Andrada (1624) Emir, Ali Pasha Afrasiab (1624) Ezidi Mirza |
| Strength | 73,000 | 43,000 janissaries (1632–33) |
The Treaty of Zuhab, concluded on 17 May 1639, finally settled the Ottoman–Persian frontier, with Iraq permanently ceded to the Ottomans. Mesopotamia, which had formed an important part of various Persian empires from the time of the Achaemenids, was thereby irrevocably lost. The rest of the borders were restored roughly according to the way they were in 1555, with Eastern Armenia, Dagestan, eastern Georgia, and the contemporary Azerbaijan Republic remaining Persian, while Ottoman gains in Western Georgia and Western Armenia were made decisive. In broad terms, the Treaty of Zuhab reconfirmed the provisions of the 1555 Peace of Amasya.
Took place during the reign of Murad IV (1623–1640). Murad IV
The atlas records this territorial change for the year:
Text: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), adapted for the atlas.