War in the East
The Sultan Abd-ul-Mejid, In Istanbul with the Imperial Guard of 4 infantry divisions, instructed his Grand Vizier Mustafa Resid Pasha via messenger to proceed with the war on the 26th of August 1843. The message arrived in Baghdad on Sept 1st and the Armies began marching on the 3rd. Two Armies of two divisions each would attack through the north and their plan was to drive to the Caspian Sea, while one army of three divisions would began the push through the center and one division would seek to subdue the provinces along the coast of the Persian Sea. Mustafa nor Abd-ul-Mejid expected to come up against any Persian forces stronger than irregulars. It came as a shock to them as the first battle of the war on September 21st in the province of Ilam pitted the Central Army’s three divisions against two fully functional infantry divisions of the Persians. The battle was won, but it would have been prudent to change tactics or bring in reinforcements. Mustafa did neither. He continued to press on and barring the occasional skirmish, The Empire’s forces continued to push their way into Persia.
On October 14th, the northern forces took Khvoy, and two weeks later had subdued Urmia. Meeting little resistance in the north, Tabriz was taken on December 4th.
The initial fighting in the center had finally come to a conclusion and Ilam was captured on December 16th. Mustafa ordered the armies to continue their drive, advancing deeper into Persia. The Empire’s forces did move quickly, capturing Maraghehe, Sanandaj, Ahar, Qahremanshahr, Kiab, and Zanjan by May of 1844.
During the conflict, Sultan Abd-ul-Mejid was in constant contact with the British ambassador attempting to weave a deal that would convince the British to not intervene in the Sultan’s future attempt to reclaim Greece for the Empire. The idea came to a sudden halt when a pro-british government took control within Greece itself. Frustrated, he declared a plan of total victory over the Persians to show that the Ottoman Empire was still a dominant power and a force to be reckoned with.
June and July of 1844 saw intense battles throughout Persia as the Empire’s forces were slowed in their advance with only Ahwaz along the Persian Sea. The conflict began to take its toll on the Empire’s forces as reserves were late in coming or not even coming at all. The Army of Palestine was reduced to half of its fighting force of 20,000 when it met up with a Persian army in the mountains during the month of July.
The Army of Palestine was successful but were checked in their advance as they didn’t have the manpower to continue after taking control of Khorramabad. It was at this point after having also pushing into Hamadan, that the partisans began to rise up. Tabriz was a major thorn in the side of Grand Vizier Mustafa’s side as he was forced to pull troops away from the northern route of attack to deal with the partisans.
After nearly a year of conflict the Empire had made large gains into Persian territory, but had not even come close to the total victory that the Sultan wished for. The large military force that the Persians were fielding was bogging down the advance as well. Yet the war would continue.