Ottoman–Safavid War (1616–1618)

The Ottoman–Safavid War of 1616–1618 was a brief war between the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Iran.

After the Ottoman–Safavid war (1603–1612), the Ottomans and Safavids had signed the Treaty of Nasuh Pasha, in which their borders were changed back to the previous one under Selim I and Shah Ismail I. In exchange, the Safavid ruler Shah Abbas I promised to send the Ottomans 200 pack-loads of silk each year. In 1616, the Ottomans used the Safavids' failure to deliver the silk as a pretext to start another war.^[6] At the end of August 1616, a sizable Ottoman army led by the grand vizier Öküz Mehmed Pasha besieged Erivan. Abbas harassed the Ottoman supply lines, and by the time winter was nearing, Mehmed Pasha ended the siege and retreated, leading to death of many of soldiers due to the cold weather.^[7] Due to his setback, he was replaced by Damat Halil Pasha as the new grand vizier. In 1618, with the assistance of Tatar and Georgian warriors, Halil Pasha launched another Ottoman invasion into Iran.^[8]

He dispatched an emissary to Abbas in Qazvin with the prospect of withdrawing if the Safavids gave back the lands they had conquered. Abbas rejected the offer and marched to the Azerbaijan province to confront the invading Ottoman army. He marched to the Safavid shrine city of Ardabil with a portion of the army, and there he rejected another Ottoman emissary. Even after the emissary dropped the territorial demands and urged Abbas only to pay the silk tribute and surrender his son to Istanbul as a hostage, he refused to consider a peace proposal.^[8]

Abbas' new commander-in-chief, Qarachaqay Khan, an Armenian gholam, was given orders to raze the countryside and target enemy gathering groups while avoiding a major battle until the winter was upon them and the Ottomans were starving and cold.^[8]

In 1618, the Ottomans and Safavids made peace by signing the Treaty of Serav which reaffirmed the terms of the previous peace treaty.^[6]