(This will be a double update; had too many pictures to cover the whole war in one post.)
2nd Turko-Egyptian War 1561-1566 (part 1)
Seated upon his throne in the palace at Smyrna, Sultan Ishak II looked out over his assembled generals. His newly-forged sword (gifted to him by a Bulgarian weaponsmith after their liberation from Hungary) rested upon his legs; his hand gently stroked the woven grip. The generals waited quietly, knowing that they had just won a great victory in the west and anticipating their next orders. They all knew what was coming; indeed, the whole nation had been waiting for this day of reckoning to arrive.
"We all know the insults visited upon us by the Egyptians nearly a century ago. They dared to impose their will upon our lands; to contest our sovereignty over Anatolia, which God has seen fit to guide into our hands. Since that day they have hidden behind buffer states and the power of the Persians, and even the Saruhanoglu family name, placing a cousin of mine upon their throne. Now, though, our strength has been fully assembled, and our star is firmly rising."
The sultan gripped his sword, and standing up he raised it above his head.
"The day has come for us to take our revenge for these acts. To tell the world that this land will live under the White Hand for eternity, and that we will not be subject to the whims of other nations."
He pointed his sword down at the generals, still kneeling before him.
"I will lead our grand army against the Egyptians, and you will stand beside me, and we will all know glory!"
Spies had infiltrated the administration of the Mamluks' army, seeking information on their troop dispositions. As it turned out, the bulk of the Egyptian army was in the north, fighting against steppe nomads and attempting to expand their holdings further. The timing of the launch of the war could not be better.
The buffer provinces flying a false Ottoman flag were immediately overrun; many more battles would be fought here, and it would take some time for the land to recover from the devastation.
To take further advantage of the Egyptian and Persian forces being in the north and east, a detachment of troops sailed south from Greece to land in Libya. These troops would raid through the Egyptian homeland, diverting defenses from the main axis of attack out of Anatolia.
The first true battle of the war took place in Mus, where a Persian army attempted to dislodge Saruhanli forces from a defensive position. The Persians failed to do so, the two heads of state watching each other from across the battlefield.
After landing troops in Libya, the small Saruhanli navy sailed back north to secure the Bosphorus Strait to allow Bulgarian and Croatian forces to cross and aid in the war. This important task completed, they maintained station there, though they would eventually be driven into port by the much-larger Egyptian fleet.
Meanwhile back in Anatolia, Saruhan armies laid lightning sieges upon a number of Mamelukan provinces before the first Egyptian army made its way back from the north. This army, if it managed to catch a depleted Saruhan army after a siege, could be a threat to the offensive. To avoid such a problem, the two main armies of the Hand maneuvered south before merging and coming after the enemy together.
This resulted in the retreat of the Mamluk-Persian army, allowing the Saruhan forces to position themselves perfectly for the first major engagement of the war in Esrerum.
In Esrerum, 40,000 men on each side met in battle. This fight would give one side the upper hand in the war, as it would take control of the central theater.
Saruhan would win this battle. The Persian and Mamelukan armies retreated into Van, where they were both utterly broken and scattered. The White Hand had secured a major advantage in the war.
(Part 2 incoming)