Ottomans and Safavids

The Ottoman capture of Constantinople in 1453 marked the beginning of a Turkish golden age. The Ottoman Turks controlled the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East, and their armies moved west to threaten Europe. They also fought many wars against the Safavids, their Muslim rivals in Persia.

After taking Constantinople, the Ottoman Turks renamed the city Istanbul. It became the centre of a Muslim empire that, at its peak, encircled the eastern Mediterranean. Most of the Ottoman conquests were made during the rule of Suleiman I (1520-1566). The Turks invaded Persia (modern-day Iran), captured Baghdad, took control of the island of Rhodes and crossed the river Danube into Hungary, where they won the Battle of Mohacs in 1526.

By 1529, the Turkish army was outside the city walls of Vinnea and looked likely to invade western Europe. The siege of Vienna was lifted, however, and Europe relaxed. But Ottoman warships continued to control the Mediterranean. Turkish pirates, such as the ferocious Barbarossa (Khayr ad-Din Pasha), raided ports, captured merchant ships and carried off Christians to be slaves.

Ottoman sea power was checked in 1571, when a European fleet defeated the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto in the Gulf of Corinth, Greece.

Suleiman tried three times to conquer Persia, which from 1501 was under the rule of the Safavid dynasty, founded by Shah Ismail I. Here the people were Shiites, not Sunni Muslims as in the Ottoman empire. Safavid rivalry with the Ottomans continued under Shah Abbas I (1557-1628). From his capital of Isfahan, Shah Abbas I ruled not only Persia but also most of Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq). Wars between the two empires continued throughout the 16^th century and helped to keep the Ottoman Turks from advancing into Europe.