Shah Abbas – Fortune Favours the Bold
Shah Abbas – Fortune Favours the Bold (1594 – 1597)
Abbas held council with the chiefs of the tribes as well as advisors and courtiers. The verdict of the council was simple. The Ottomans were a menace who would, if not soon, one day threaten the Safavid Empire and there were serious doubts about just how Shiite they were. Some even suggested they were maintaining the Shiite charade just to please the Shah! Abbas wouldn’t stand for this and began moving his forces west ready for the eventual war with the Ottomans.
As it happened the Ottomans moved the war forward by a few years at least when in January of 1594 a messenger arrived…
Just the excuse Abbas needed
Abbas declared the Ottomans unpleasant heretics on the grounds they constantly abused the Shiite alliance for offensive purposes (not that the Safavid would ever do anything like that). An advisor did point out that the Poles were heathens but Abbas didn’t really care he just wanted to deal out some punishment to the Ottomans and so taking lead of the army himself he ordered the Shiite Alliance (now down to one member) onwards!
The giants clash
While Safavid forces and small Ottoman garrisons clashed all over sub continent Abbas himself led a 30,000 strong force straight for Anatolia to block off Turkish reinforcements coming from Istanbul. On route he met a similar sized Ottoman army and met them in the field.
The battle was a terrible affair. The Ottoman army, modernised and built on a backbone of Janissary infantrymen carrying hand-guns with huge cannon drawn up behind them was a fearsome sight. For years the Shahs of Persia had feared the war machine of the Turks but now Abbas led an army to face them head on. Some thought him brave others foolish, in truth he was a bit of both. His own army was roughly 2/3 infantry and 1/3 cavalry with a few cannon mainly used for sieges. What the Safavids lacked in order and technology they would make up for with the fine horsemanship of the tribes!
The two sides clashed and at first the Ottomans seemed to be gaining the upper hand. Their cannons and advanced muskets roared out and spat flame and iron at the Safavid lines. Abbas’ gunners simply couldn’t stand up to the barrage and great clouds of smoke bellowed up out of the weapons of both sides. Just as all looked lost Ferhad Khan who had been given charge of the cavalry came galloping out of the smoke with 10,000 cavalrymen of the tribes smashing into the flanks of the Ottoman lines. The Turks fled.
Abbas leading the Safavids to victory
Abbas now marched on to Anatolia where he started besieging the fortress there. Meanwhile Ottoman strongholds from Isfahan to Trabzon began falling.
No way over the Boshphorus
Due to lacking a navy Abbas had no way to cross over to reach Istanbul and so the Persian forces went about the task of taking all cities and fortresses in Asia Minor. After just over a year only Larande in Tarus held out and the days of the defenders were numbered…
The last Turkish stronghold in Asia Minor
With victory looking almost certain due to the Poles advancing on Istanbul from the West all that was left to do for Abbas was begin to plan what lands he wished to take from the Turks. He’d been surprised how fearful his predecessors had been of the Ottoman Sultans. The war had been bloody but in just 3 years he was in complete control!