Frustrated by his father’s vacillations and his own isolation as prince-governor of Trebizond, where he complained he was ‘weak and helpless’, Selim marched on Constantinople and overthrew his father, whom he probably poisoned. Then one by one he strangled his three brothers and seven nephews. Once on the throne, most of his own sons vanished, probably strangled too, to make way for his chosen successor, Suleiman. Always accompanied by his executioners, the Tongueless,* the padishah – emperor – killed three of his six viziers, kicking around one of their heads: ‘the man-eating king of beasts’, one of his officials called him. When one was rash enough to request a warning if he was to be executed, Selim replied he might consider it but at the moment lacked a replacement. He prided himself as a killer: ‘Drowned in a sea of blood’, he described himself in one of his poems, written under the name Selimi, ‘sunken deep in blood’. As soon as he was secure, Selim renewed treaties with Venice and Poland, signalling to Europe his desire for peace as he faced a mounting challenge from the east: the god-king of Persia.
THE ALEXANDER–JESUS OF PERSIA BIDS FOR WORLD CONQUEST
In 1501, Ismail, aged thirteen, declared that he was the Mahdi, the messiah. Poet, hunter, lover of boys and girls and heroic drinker, Ismail – ‘fair, handsome and very pleasing; not very tall, but of a light and well-framed figure with broad shoulders and reddish hair’ – declared his divinity, advertising in his poetry his aspirations to divine and military leadership. In the 1320s, his Kurdish grandfather Safi al-Din (founder of the Safavis) had undergone a Damascene revelation and converted from Sunni to Twelver Shiism.* After his grandfather, father and his eldest brother had all been killed, Ismail was raised and trained in secret. Then, hailed by an army of Turkmen believers, the Redhats (named after their twelve-folded scarlet bonnets), as the Perfect Guide and occulted imam, he launched a conquest of Persia and Iraq.
Ismail ordered the killing of all Sunnis: he slaughtered 20,000 in Tabriz and destroyed Sunni shrines. This young shah, part Jesus, part Alexander, prepared to destroy the Ottomans. He turned the head of one Sunni khan into his drinking cup, fed the body to the Redhats and sent the skin to Selim.
The Ottoman denounced Ismail’s divine delusions – ‘You have incited your abominable Shiites to unsanctified sexual intercourse and shedding of innocent blood’ – and prepared a pre-emptive strike. The two competed as poets: shah sent sultan a box of opium, joshing that his egregious poetry must be the work of a junkie.
In summer 1514, Selim massacred 40,000 Redhats before invading Iraq, fighting Ismail at Çaldıran, where his 60,000 men, armed with muskets and 200 cannon, routed 75,000 Turkman horse archers who did not possess a single gun.
The shah was wounded, his favourite wife captured, his invincible divinity shattered. He rebuilt his kingdom, swearing never again to lead his armies in battle. Sponsoring beautiful miniaturist painting and working as an apprentice in his own royal workshop, he assisted in the creation of a gorgeous illustrated
It was in order to back an eastern rival to Ismail that Selim lent his artillery to Babur and Humayoun which enabled them to seize India, but when Selim demanded support from Egypt, the Mamluks refused to help.
In 1516, Selim marched east again. Ismail feared the worst, but it was a feint. Selim swerved into Mamluk Syria where the Egyptians were defeated, their sultan killed: muskets trounced crossbows. Heading south, visiting Jerusalem on the way, Selim hanged the last Mamluk sultan from the gates of Cairo. Now ruler of Mecca and Jerusalem, and the riches of Egypt, Selim celebrated himself as the messianic Master of the Auspicious Conjunction and Alexandrine World Conqueror.*
Meanwhile in his tent outside Cairo his sea captain Piri Reis presented a map of the world inscribed in colour on gazelle hide. Its details had been given to the Ottomans by a Spanish nobleman, captured by Piri’s uncle Kemal Reis off Valencia in 1501 and enslaved.* The Ottomans did not reach the Americas only because they never conquered Morocco, which controlled access to the Atlantic. But to the east Selim built fleets in the Red Sea and supplied artillery to allies in Ethiopia, India and Indonesia.
Christendom was alarmed by Selim. Pope Leo and Emperor Maximilian called for a crusade. The emperors of east and west – Selim and Maximilian – died almost at the same time, succeeded by young sons who inherited territories so vast they seemed beyond the abilities of any individual.
ROXELANA AND SULEIMAN: THE JOYFUL AND THE MAGNIFICENT
