Ottomans Rout the Mamluks at Marj Dabiq

August 24, 1516

North of Aleppo, Selim I's artillery and arquebusiers obliterated the Mamluk cavalry of Sultan Qansuh al-Ghawri, who died of a stroke in the saddle. Syria fell in days. The Ottomans, already masters of the Balkans and Anatolia, now absorbed the heart of the medieval Arab world. The defeat exposed the fatal consequences of Mamluk refusal to adopt gunpowder weapons, clinging to cavalry tactics for two centuries.