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The Ottoman-Safavid War 1578-1590;

The Safavids were experiencing domestic issues including rival factions within the court, following Shah Tahmasp I's death, the central government was not stable. The Uzbeks appealed to the Ottomans to make a combined attack from two fronts and, when the Uzbeks attacked Khorasan, the Ottomans decided to exploit the chaos.

The objective of the campaign was to conquer the South Caucasus, mostly subject to the Safavid Empire. In August 1578, after fortifying Kars, an Ottoman army crossed into the Samtskhe principality of the Safavid Empire. Taking Ardahan and defeating a coalition of Safavid-Georgian forces in the Battle of Çıldır, they pushed on to take Akhalts'ikhe in August 1576. Some Samtskhian nobles accepted Ottoman vassalage, aiding them in their conquest. Tiflis, capital of the Kingdom of Kartli, fell in August 1578. The Georgians were incapable of stopping the Ottoman advance.
The King of Kakheti, Alexander, made peace with the Ottomans in September, escaping the war unharmed. Commander, Lala Mustafa Pasha then headed to Shirvan and Dagestan. Shirvan fell before the end of the summer of 1578.

An army from the Crimean Khanate was defeated in 1579 by Safavid Generals, Mirza Salman Jaberi and Hamza Mirza, allowing Safavid dominance to be re-asserted. A relief army reached Daghestan in 1582 and in the 3 day Battle of Torches, near Derbent, in May 1583 the Safavids were decisively defeated. Ottoman armies followed up by conquering Tabriz in 1585.
In 1587, Ottoman forces under the Governor of Baghdad, took Luristan and Hamadan. The reverses that the Safavids suffered intensified internal power struggles, in which Mirza Salman Jaberi and Hamza Mirza were assassinated in December 1587.

The Safavids were unable to conduct effective campaigns on both the eastern and western fronts and met repeated setbacks that forced them into Iran's heartlands. The Uzbeks were forced to retreat due to problems with the Kirghiz-Kazakh tribes of Central Asia but, by 1585, they had dealt with their problems and had started to attack the Safavid eastern provinces again.
A coup in Qazvin forced Mohammad Khodabanda to abdicate, in favour of his son, Abbas I. On his accession all Iranian provinces in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and even in western Iran were occupied by the Ottomans, while the Uzbeks had seized swaths of its eastern territories.
In order to settle matters in the west, to allow him to concentrate on defeating the Uzbeks, Abbas signed a degrading peace treaty in March 1590, ending the war.

Abbas was forced to confirm the Ottoman conquests, promising to end Shiite propaganda in Ottoman territories and persecution of Sunnis in its own lands.

Description

The Ottoman-Safavid War 1578-1590;

The Safavids were experiencing domestic issues including rival factions within the court, following Shah Tahmasp I's death, the central government was not stable. The Uzbeks appealed to the Ottomans to make a combined attack from two fronts and, when the Uzbeks attacked Khorasan, the Ottomans decided to exploit the chaos.

The objective of the campaign was to conquer the South Caucasus, mostly subject to the Safavid Empire. In August 1578, after fortifying Kars, an Ottoman army crossed into the Samtskhe principality of the Safavid Empire. Taking Ardahan and defeating a coalition of Safavid-Georgian forces in the Battle of Çıldır, they pushed on to take Akhalts'ikhe in August 1576. Some Samtskhian nobles accepted Ottoman vassalage, aiding them in their conquest. Tiflis, capital of the Kingdom of Kartli, fell in August 1578. The Georgians were incapable of stopping the Ottoman advance.
The King of Kakheti, Alexander, made peace with the Ottomans in September, escaping the war unharmed. Commander, Lala Mustafa Pasha then headed to Shirvan and Dagestan. Shirvan fell before the end of the summer of 1578.

An army from the Crimean Khanate was defeated in 1579 by Safavid Generals, Mirza Salman Jaberi and Hamza Mirza, allowing Safavid dominance to be re-asserted. A relief army reached Daghestan in 1582 and in the 3 day Battle of Torches, near Derbent, in May 1583 the Safavids were decisively defeated. Ottoman armies followed up by conquering Tabriz in 1585.
In 1587, Ottoman forces under the Governor of Baghdad, took Luristan and Hamadan. The reverses that the Safavids suffered intensified internal power struggles, in which Mirza Salman Jaberi and Hamza Mirza were assassinated in December 1587.

The Safavids were unable to conduct effective campaigns on both the eastern and western fronts and met repeated setbacks that forced them into Iran's heartlands. The Uzbeks were forced to retreat due to problems with the Kirghiz-Kazakh tribes of Central Asia but, by 1585, they had dealt with their problems and had started to attack the Safavid eastern provinces again.
A coup in Qazvin forced Mohammad Khodabanda to abdicate, in favour of his son, Abbas I. On his accession all Iranian provinces in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and even in western Iran were occupied by the Ottomans, while the Uzbeks had seized swaths of its eastern territories.
In order to settle matters in the west, to allow him to concentrate on defeating the Uzbeks, Abbas signed a degrading peace treaty in March 1590, ending the war.

Abbas was forced to confirm the Ottoman conquests, promising to end Shiite propaganda in Ottoman territories and persecution of Sunnis in its own lands.