Battle of Euphrates
Battle of Euphrates(Turkish: Fırat Nehri Muharebesi 1507, Azerbaijani: Fərat Çayı Döyüşü (1507), Persian: نبرد رود فرات (1507)) Battle between Mamluk State and Safavid Kizilbash.
| Battle of Euphrates (1507) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Mamluk-Safavid Crisis | |||||||
 A Mamluk soldier | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
.svg){kind=small} Safavid Empire |
Beylik of Dulkadir Mamluk Sultanate | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Unknown |
Amir Ali Dulat (Amir of Dulkadirs) | ||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
| Unknown | 6.500-8.500 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| A lot of captives | Unknown | ||||||
Battle
[change | change source]When news of the rapprochement between the Ottomans and Mamluks reached Shah Ismail, he waited to march towards the Mamluk borders near Aleppo. During this time he tried to collect more money from the people.
The Mamluk Sultan's aide ordered his troops to parade, and under his command they set out for Aleppo on 14 October 1507.[3] Sultan al-Ghawri in Cairo was disturbed when he heard about this. He consulted his emirs and they decided to send troops to stop the Safavid invasion. The Mamluk army was prepared with a contingent of 20 emirs of forty and ten emirs of ten, along with many high-ranking commanders. However, the Egyptian troops did not leave Cairo after receiving the news that the Safavid army had crossed the Mamluk territory.
In the same month, on the borders of the Euphrates River, the Safavid army encountered the army of Emir Ali Dulat of the Dulkadiroğulids, the buffer principality of the Mamluks. According to Ibn Iyasa, the Safavid army was defeated here. Amir Ali sent to Cairo the heads of several Safavid soldiers and an elite Safavid prisoner of battle.[4][5]
After
[change | change source]Rejoicing at the news, Sultan al-Ghawri ordered the Safavid heads to be hung at the Zuwayla Gate. He stopped preparations to send troops to Syria. These events took place while an Ottoman envoy was in Cairo.
The Syrian Mamluk troops returned from Aleppo to Damascus in December 1507. In the same month, Shah Ismail sent his envoy to Sultan al-Ghawri with a letter apologising for the events on the Euphrates and the initiatives taken by his troops. In his letter, the Shah emphasised that the incident was not deliberate, that the Safavid soldiers had lost their way and that he had not personally ordered such an action, nor was he even aware of the situation.