22 Facts About Selim I

Selim I, known as Selim the Grim or Selim the Resolute, was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520.

Selim I's mother was Ayse Gulbahar Hatun, a Pontic Greek concubine, formerly confused with Ayse Hatun, another consort of Bayezid and daughter of Alauddevle Bozkurt Bey, the eleventh ruler of the Dulkadirids.

In 1505 Selim I routed a 3,000-strong Safavid army led by Shah Ismail's brother, massacring many and seizing their arms and munitions.

Selim I ordered the exile of Bayezid to a distant "sanjak", Dimetoka.

Selim I put his brothers and nephews to death upon his accession.

Selim I was a great threat to his Sunni Muslim neighbors to the west.

Early in his reign, Selim I created a list of all Shiites ages 7 to 70 in a number of central Anatolian cities including Tokat, Sivas and Amasya.

In 1514 Selim I attacked Ismail's kingdom to stop the spread of Shiism into Ottoman dominions.

Selim I defeated Isma'il at the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514.

Sultan Selim I then conquered the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt, defeating the Mamluk Egyptians first at the Battle of Marj Dabiq, and then at the Battle of Ridanieh.

Selim I did not make any claim to exercise the sacred authority of the office of caliph, and the notion of an official transfer was a later invention.

Selim I died and was brought to Istanbul, so he could be buried in Yavuz Selim I Mosque, which his son and successor, Sultan Suleiman I, commissioned in loving memory of his father.

Selim I had conquered and unified the Islamic holy lands.

Selim I was one of the empire's most successful and respected rulers, being energetic and hardworking.

Selim I was bilingual in Turkish and Persian, with the Ottoman literary critic Latifi noting that he was "very fond of speaking Persian".

Selim I was a distinguished poet who wrote both Turkish and Persian verse under the nickname Mahlas Selimi; collections of his Persian poetry are extant today.

Paolo Giovio, in a work written for Charles V, says that Selim I holds Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar in the highest esteem above all the generals of old.

The Shah's letter insultingly implied that Selim I's prose was the work of an unqualified writer on drugs.

Selim I was enraged by the Shah's denigration of his literary talent and ordered the Persian envoy to be torn to pieces.

Selim I wanted to use the Ottoman Empire's central location to completely cut the ties between Shah Ismail's Safavid Empire and the rest of the world.

Babur's early relations with the Ottomans were poor because Selim I provided Babur's Uzbek rival Ubaydullah Khan with powerful matchlocks and cannons.

In 1513, Selim I reconciled with Babur, dispatched Ustad Ali Quli and Mustafa Rumi, and many other Ottoman Turks, in order to assist Babur in his conquests; this particular assistance proved to be the basis of future Mughal-Ottoman relations.