Person1470 – 1520

Selim I

Also called: Selim the Grim, Yavuz Sultan Selim

Ottoman sultan (r. 1512–1520) who defeated the Safavids at Chaldiran and destroyed the Mamluk sultanate, taking Egypt, Syria and the Hejaz

A son of Bayezid II, he forced his father to abdicate in 1512 and eliminated his brothers to become sultan. He crushed pro-Safavid forces in Anatolia and defeated Ismail I at Chaldiran in 1514. In 1516–1517 he destroyed the Mamluk sultanate, gaining Egypt, Syria, Mecca and Medina and greatly enlarging the empire. Stern and ruthless, he was called Yavuz, “the Grim”.

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1 related event

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1516 – 1517Ottoman Conquest of Egyptcommander
Selim I’s Ottoman army defeated the Mamluks in Syria and Egypt and destroyed the Mamluk sultanate. The Ottoman Empire became the leading power of the Islamic world and protector of Mecca and Medina.

Themes this person appears in

Turkic-Islamic Empires and Other Civilizations1000 – 1533
From the Ghaznavid raids on India to the Mughal Empire and Suleiman I — five centuries in which Turkic-led Islamic empires took western Asia and India, while Africa, Southeast Asia and the Americas raised civilisations of their own