Selim Crushes the Safavids at Chaldiran

August 23, 1514

On a dusty plain east of Lake Van, Ottoman artillery and Janissary arquebusiers tore apart Shah Ismail's red-capped Qizilbash cavalry. The Shi'a messiah, supposedly invulnerable, fled bleeding. Selim I entered Tabriz in triumph. The Sunni-Shi'a frontier of the Middle East had been drawn in gunpowder. The battle demonstrated Ottoman firearms' advantage over cavalry, reshaping Persian military organization for the coming century.