Ottoman–Persian Treaties HALIL KÜR¸ SAD ASLAN ˙ Istanbul Medipol University, Turkey he period 1260–1330 was one in which some principalities (beylik) such as Karaman, Saruhan, Karesi, and Osmanlı (Ottoman) were emerging under the Anatolian Seljuk Empire. In 1354 the Ottoman State crossed into Europe with the conquest of Gallipoli. Almost a century later, in 1453, the Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire ater their con- quest of Constantinople. When the Ottoman State was in its formative stage during the fourteenth century, Persia (or Iran) was ruled by the descendants of Genghis Khan. he Ilkhanate state was one of the pieces of the post-Genghis Empire. Later, the Timurid Empire successfully integrated numerous small states within the Persian realm. Tamer- lane (or Timur) ruled most of today’s Iran, the Caucasus, and parts of Turkey. Several small and short-lived dynasties and states such as Jalayirids, Qara Qoyunlu, Aq Qoyunlu, Muzafareeds, Sarbedaran, and Kartids ruled parts of Iran throughout the fourteenth and iteenth centuries. In 1501, the Safavid dynasty came to power and uniied small and scattered units under a single authority. he most important development in the early 1500s was the conversion of the Iranian people to the Shiite version of Islam under the Safavid rulers. he real struggle between the Ottoman Empire and the Safavids took place from the early sixteenth century until the mid- seventeenth century. Before the Safavids, there were two major encounters between the Ottoman State and Persians. he irst he Encyclopedia of Diplomacy. Edited by Gordon Martel. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/9781118885154.dipl0208 confrontation was between the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I and Tamerlane, who fought the Ankara War in 1402. he second con- frontation was between the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II and the Aq Qoyunlu Sultan Uzun Hassan, who fought the battle of Otlukbeli in 1473 at which Mehmed II defeated the Persian army. It seems appropriate to take into con- sideration Charles Tilly’s (1992) theory on the formation of states in western Europe when analyzing Ottoman–Persian relations. According to Tilly, preparation for war cre- ated a variety of internal structures and states eventually converged from diferent tracks based on their internal divergences. Begin- ning in the sixteenth century, in order to be able to fund modern warfare, only states with suicient capital (and cash) and a large population could aford to keep large armies. In areas where independent landlords were the predominant class (Russia, Iran, and the Ottoman Empire) centralized absolutism arose. Incessant Ottoman–Persian wars were partly an outcome of their strategies to adapt to the great transformation occurring in the Western world and in the world economy. he emergence of the modern state and the expansion of administrative and war-making capacities in western Europe caused a deteri- oration in the political institutions and social fabric in Ottoman and Persian territories, and thus Ottoman–Persian relations should be analyzed within the context of global developments in those years. All conlicts between the Ottomans and Persians and the periods of peace that fol- lowed them could be gathered into four major issue areas: 1 Ideological–religious identities 2 Economic issues