Ottoman-Safavid War (1578–1590)

Timeline

1. 1578Çıldır · CaucasusMurad III ordered Lala Mustafa Pasha to attack Safavid possessions in Georgia. The Ottoman army defeated the Safavid-Georgian coalition at Çıldır and promptly captured Tbilisi, opening the way into the South Caucasus.
2. 1578–1585Tabriz · AzerbaijanOttoman forces pushed deep into Shirvan, Karabakh, and Azerbaijan; Özdemiroğlu Osman Pasha and others consolidated the occupation and established provinces. Under Khodabanda the Safavids were wracked by factional infighting and could not organize sustained counterattacks; Tabriz fell to the Ottomans around 1585.
3. 1587–1589Qazvin · IranAbbas I inherited a ruinous situation: the west occupied, the east pressed by the Uzbeks, and the Qizilbash dominating at home. He decided to accept a humiliating peace first to gain time for reforming the military and government, and dispatched envoys to negotiate with the Ottomans.
4. 1590Constantinople · IstanbulThe two sides concluded the Treaty of Istanbul, also known as the Treaty of Ferhad Pasha. The Ottomans retained most of Georgia, Yerevan, Karabakh, Shirvan, Dagestan, and Azerbaijan (including Tabriz); the Safavids also pledged to curb sectarian propaganda such as cursing the first three caliphs. The treaty brought Ottoman eastern expansion to its peak, but after reforming, Abbas reopened war in 1603 to recover the lost lands.