ABSTRACT
By his crushing defeat of the Persians at Chaldiran in 1514 and his subsequent annexation of Kurdistan and Diyar-Bakr, Salim had effectually checked the growing power of Shah Isma'il and was for a time safe from the aggressive policy of his ambitious rival on the eastern borders of the Ottoman dominions. He was now free to turn his arms against the Mamluks of Egypt, with whom he had a long outstanding quarrel. Egyptian troops had on more than one occasion during his father's reign invaded Asia Minor and celebrated their victories with long lines of captives led in triumph through Cairo. Rival claimants to the Ottoman throne found a welcome in Egypt, and there was little doubt that the sympathies of the Mamluk Sultan had been with Shah Isma'i:l in the conflict between Persia and Turkey, but the favourable opportunity for active assistance had been allowed to slip by, and now that Salim had come out victorious, the Mamliik prince became not unnaturally alarmed, and spent the winter of 1515 and the spring of 1516 in equipping an army for the great struggle.
