Late Winter, 1516

Tabriz

Though the winter snow had only just began to melt away from the Persian plateau, Tabriz was already packed with heavy activity. Thousands of commoners marched their way through the slush-filled streets to make their way towards the Blue Mosque of Tabriz, where a spectacle led by none other than the great Shah Ismail Safavid was unfolding at that very moment.

Ismail was humbly adorned in the robes of a holy hoja. His fiery red hair and beard were unkempt, his face haggard, his words charged with emotion and launched with a spray of spit and clouds of hot breath; all of this visible to even those Tabrizians who had clambered atop a faraway rooftop to witness such a speech. But this simple yet passionate appearance was all smartly planned by Ismail, who intended on turning this war effort into one that would mobilize the whole of his nation against his enemy.

"While we have attempted to reach a state of peace with our Muslim brethren in the Ottoman Empire, the Apostate Sultan Korkut has committed the great sin of breaking our sacred peaceful settlement, bringing our realms to war!"

Ismail paused his rallying speech, letting his last words sink into hearts and minds of the great crowd that had gathered. Gasps, jeers, and shouts rang out from the crowd, but Ismail quickly silenced them with a mere raise of his palms towards his subjects. Save from the nickering of horses and the distant hammering of the busy weaponsmiths, the city was silent, ready to take in their leader's next words. Ismail's palms clenched into fists, waving up and down as he delivered his next few words:

"We will defend our lands and our families against the encroachment of the progeny of Yazid. While undoubtedly we are outmatched numerically, we know that we are facing an enemy with all brawn and no brain! The power and ferocity of our Gazi warriors and their fanaticism will win us the battles that are to come."

Ismail paused again to let loose another round of emotion from the crowd. From his loyal Qizilbash cavalry that dominated the front few rows to even the peasantry from nearby villages who had journeyed just to squeeze themselves into the very edges of the crowd, his people roared with another cheer for their great leader. And he roared back, his great red mane whipping back and forth as he delivered the final words of his speech:

"Many Roman tyrants have attempted to subjugate Persia and none have ever succeeded. The Ottoman Sultan who makes such war upon us will be no different! By the will of God, we shall preempt any move the enemy makes, drive them from our lands, and make war onto their own!"

The crowd roared into a frenzy once again. The successful spectacle concluded with the crowds witnessing the execution of dozens of suspected Ottoman spies, again further whipping up the subjects of Shah Ismail Safavid into war.

Within the coming weeks, Ismail's great army would ready their supplies, armor, horses, weapons, banners, and gear for a rapid march to counter the enemy's opening moves in this coming war. All that remained was for the heavier snows to melt and for the routes out of the city to be reopened by nature once more.

Korkut's War Tent

The Sultan's war tent was similarly abuzz with activity, but it was a very different energy from the charged and emotional one to be found in Tabriz at around the same time. It was the focused, determined hum of the Ottoman bureaucracy. It was the power that meticulously governed provinces of the vast Ottoman Empire. It was the energy of dozens of pages and servants who worked in a frantic state of near silence as they shuffled through and scribbled on papers concerning the massive planned effort to once again strike at the Safavid realm.

The Sultan Korkut rounded the room, slowly stroking his greying beard and supervising his servants' work in a state of fascination. When a series of shouts was heard from outside the flaps of his tent, the Sultan's focus on his pages was partially disturbed, but he made a quick mental note of how their own focuses were not strained by such disturbances.

The Sultan turned to the entrance of the tent to greet the disruption. An dirty, exhausted yet excited cavalryman was escorted by the team of Palace guards before his Sultan. Upon witnessing the Sultan, the cavalryman broke protocol by not even issuing so much as a small salute, but instead he immediately let loose with his news.

"My Sultan, we have gathered the direction of Ismail's march. The plan has-"

The cavalryman's words were cut short by the quick blow of a Janissary's fist, compelling the man to drop to his knees and pay his Sultan his proper respects. As the ragged man struggled to compose himself to deliver an immediate salute, the Janissary raised his fist again as if to deliver another blow, but his actions were dismissed by the Sultan. Rather than order a proper reprimand of the man, the Sultan only began to cackle. He shuffled around the tent, stroking his beard and cackling, with the cavalryman and the guards watching on, and the pages continuing to focus on their work of running the empire. As the Shah made his opening moves, the Sultan laughed, and the awesome power of the Ottoman Empire hummed along as usual.

Early Spring 1517

Baghdad

For weeks, the Shah and his elite troops had quartered themselves within the walls of Baghdad, while the rest of the army patrolled the surrounding regions, in search of Ottoman military movements and sympathizers looking to rise up against Safavid rule. According to military intelligence presented to the Shah, the Ottoman army was expected to march through Syria over to Iraq, where they would then pay off local tribes to assist them in an uprising and occupation of Ismail's southern territories. But Ismail was starting to have his suspicions that the intelligence was faulty.

As Ismail mused over the issue of the his military intelligence actually being nothing more than a ruse from the enemy, his army carried out a purge of suspected disloyal rebels in the southern Iraqi countryside. Stores of grain, water, and weapons were confiscated and requisitioned by the Safavid army. What could not be taken in by the army was destroyed, in order to prevent its usage by pro-Ottoman rebels or by the coming Ottoman army. Arrests were made against the Turcoman and the Bedouin communities suspected of harboring Ottoman spies or holding pro-Ottoman ideals.

While his army had actually managed to cart in hundreds of suspected Turcoman and Bedouin pro-Ottoman traitors for trial and execution, what was actually missing from the scene from the Ottoman army themselves. Eventually, reports from his scouts along the northern frontier of his empire had stated that the actual Ottoman Army had crossed the border in Anatolia, and that the military intelligence truly was faulty after all. The Safavid Army then began to reform itself for a march to the north to counter the enemy, though they were hampered by the widespread state of the Safavid army across the Iraqi countryside, the final trials and executions of suspected traitors, and the fact that their Bedouin "allies" refused to join up with the army on their march northward, stating that they had been hired only to attack the enemy supply trains within their desert homeland, and that marching to northern Anatolia was out of the scope of the deal.

Ismail's southern march was a failure. Not only had he allowed the enemy army to march into his northern border nearly unopposed, but he had also worn down his own army with rapid marches and policing duties in the process. Time, supplies, and Bedouin support had been wasted, and all for nothing. As the army finally reformed itself and marched northward to halt the Ottoman advance, Ismail swore revenge against his military council who had presented him with such faulty intelligence and against the traitorous Bedouin tribes who had abandoned their leader when the time came to march towards the enemy.

Anatolia

As the Safavid Army busied themselves with making war against a population that had no intention to go to war against their masters, the Ottoman army lumbered across the Anatolian frontier, crossing over with little resistance from what Safavid forces remained in the area. But in spite of such a successful ruse played upon the enemy by feeding them false military intelligence, the Ottomans could not fully exploit the gaping hole left to them in Ismail's defenses.

The massive army slowly made its way through the mountain passes and valleys of Eastern Anatolia, hampered by the slow melt of the winter snows and by unexpected bits of scattered resistance from the local population. Though Sultan Korkut had taken the proper precautions in invading such hostile enemy territory by the fortification of supply lines and sending out agents ahead of the army to garner support from Kurdish tribes and Armenian communities suspected of disloyalty to the Shah, progress remained slow.

Months earlier, Kurdish tribal leaders had been covertly courted by the Ottoman agent Idris Bitlisi in an attempt to foster a mid-war rebellion against the Shah, in which the Kurdish tribes would throw off the shackles of Safavid oppression and join up with a liberating Ottoman army as it marched through. But Bitlisi's attempts would prove to be in vain, for there was no widespread revolt against Safavid rule or major force of Kurdish warriors looking to join up with the Ottoman army. Kurdish support of the Ottomans was much more modest than expected, with the tribes presenting the Ottoman army with food and lodging as the army marched through their lands, and their leaders making promises to Korkut to be loyal vassals once he had won the war, but the very same leaders lamented their lack of military support to Korkut, explaining that they could not manage to muster armies on such short notice and with such poor harvests the previous year. Though the passage through Kurdistan could've gone worse, it could've gone much, much better.

While some of the Ottoman failure in this opening stage of the war can be attributed to poor road conditions and a lower amount of support from the Kurdish tribes than expected, some of the failure can also be attributed to Sultan Korkut personally. When a new bit of news such that a mountain pass had collapsed and killed seven porters, or that the Kurdish Emir of Palu had sent only two hundred bushels of grain to support the Ottoman war cause, or that there was trouble reported from the capital, the Sultan would become paralyzed with indecision, weigh his alternatives all too heavily, and generally not exert the boldness and strength required by the military leader of such a large army. Perhaps it was Korkut's paranoid personality, or perhaps it was his aging mind that had started to catch up with him; whatever it was, it certainly didn't help the Ottoman army as they slowly pushed through the Safavid frontier.

But, to their credit, the Ottoman army did manage to push all the way through to the Eastern shores of Lake Van, where they captured the town of Erciş after a short siege and suffered only a few casualties due to the superiority of their artillery forces.

Spring 1517

Eastern Anatolia

After a brief period of delay in the capture of Erciş and with the Sultan distracted by news trouble from the capital, the Ottoman army staffed the remaining defenses of the city with a small contingent of occupying soldiers, then started up on another march eastward, this time with much fairer road conditions, but much heavier resistance. As they neared the Safavid capital, the moderate resistance grew heavier. The local population- which had been rallied to war through the legend of (and promise of gold from) their great Shah- was now aided in their resistance by the exhausted but determined vanguard of the Shah's army who had just arrived from their northward march.

The next few weeks of the campaign would continue in this staccato fashion: with the Ottoman army making a short march forward, only to be interrupted by hit-and-run attacks, skirmishes, and ambushes from further arrivals of the Shah's army, fighting alongside the determined commoners loyal to Ismail. Try as they could, the Ottomans were unable to force the Safavids into a proper pitched battle, and so, a steady stream of interruptions bombarded the Ottoman advance. In this phase of the campaign, the Safavids finally found themselves with the momentum behind them as the Ottomans suffered heavier casualties than their own, and the slow pace of the Ottoman force enabled the exhausted Safavid armies to regain the energy between raids on Ottoman supply lines.

Still, even with this unexpected bout of Safavid success, the glaring issue remained: despite the losses in men and supplies, the Ottoman army continued to march onward to Tabriz. With only a few miles between his capital and the enemy army, Ismail ordered a small segment of his army to fall back to Tabriz to prepare defenses to hold out for a siege and to begin to evacuate citizens and surplus supplies of Tabriz as to prevent their capture by Ottomans, should the city fall to the advancing Ottoman army.

By the time that the walls of Tabriz had been spotted by advancing Ottoman scouts, their army had suffered only a thousand casualties from the skirmishes and the harsh terrain, while the Safavids suffered only half of these casualties in said skirmishes.

Late Spring 1517

Tabriz

By late May, the Ottomans had begun their siege of Tabriz. Ismail divided his army into two, with about half now manning the walls of Tabriz and the other half under his personal command continuing to carry out raids of Ottoman supply wagons, ambushes against Ottoman sieges weapons, and skirmishes against the formations on the fringes of the Ottoman siege army.

The Ottoman siege of Tabriz had a great deal of success at the start as the guns were cast and fired and the sappers reported excellent progress in mining the walls, but much of this success was foolishly tossed away when Sultan Korkut ordered a large-scale assault on May 29th, in a vain attempt to capture the enemy capital on the same day as had been done by his grandfather Sultan Mehmed II in 1453. Thousands of lives were lost on both sides, yet the has managed to hold. The siege would continue into the summer.

Once again, for this phase, the Ottomans have suffered heavier casualties, though despite these losses they continue to make progress towards their objectives. Devastation in and around Tabriz is very heavy.

Summer 1517

Armenia

With the mountain roads clear of danger, Safavid army tied down in Tabriz, and a border completely open, the belated movement of the Georgian recently-raised Georgian army was finally taking shape. As one would expect an invasion without defenders to go, the Georgian army marched into their formerly-held territories of Armenia, and occupied them without much trouble at all. Their own agents moved ahead of the army and worked with Ottoman agents who had been running around Armenia for the past few months in pacifying the population to accepting joint Georgian-Ottoman occupation. Due to the success in Georgian and Ottoman pacification methods and the lack of Safavid forces in the area, the operation was almost entirely unhindered by any Safavid resistance whatsoever and thus the entire region was spared devastation.

With all Georgian objectives easily complete, the army then made its way southward to link up with their Ottoman allies in the siege of Tabriz, but not before sending out further agents looking to stir up trouble deeper within Safavid territory in the coming months.

Shirvan

A second Georgian army crosses the border into the Safavid realm, this one marching eastward into Shirvan rather than southward into Armenia. Though smaller, this army has an equally key task in inciting the region into revolt against Safavid rule by promising aid to local warlords discontent with Safavid rule. To this end, they are less successful than the Armenian invasion- not because of any Safavid resistance, but rather- because the Muslims of the region simply don't trust them. As a result, this army is tied down in occupying the region without much collaboration from the locals.

Tabriz

The siege of Tabriz continues, the city now hanging on only due to the determination of its defenders. The last of its supplies have dwindled away, hungrily devoured by its defenders or simply stolen away by the last of the city's retreating citizens as they seek shelter further eastward. Ismail's army outside the walls have exhausted themselves in making war against an enemy besieging force that only continues to grow and grow.

Korkut has ordered several more assaults of the city walls, though the Ottoman war effort was once again hampered by the indecision of the Sultan, who wavered and ordered just as many withdrawals when he saw the casualties climb with each assault. With his mind still clouded by his plans and contingency plans and trouble brewing up in the capital, his army has been hindered by these distractions.

All sides have suffered heavy casualties, with the exception of the Georgians, who due to their lateness, only suffer light casualties. Devastation in the region piles up as armies go pilfering the surrounding lands for further supplies.

Fall 1517

Tabriz

After three months of siege, Tabriz has fallen.

Though the Safavids put up a brave final effort in delaying the Ottoman-Georgian siege force, the fall of the city was inevitable when the last of supplies ran out and Ismail's support army became incapable of launching further ambushes due to their own mounting casualties. Not wanting to commit himself to a pitched battle against such a numerically superior force, Ismail ordered a retreat further eastward of what remained of his army, choosing to save his strength for the battles to come.

The Ottoman-Georgian has marched into Tabriz, slaughtered the last of the defenders, and sacked the city of what little wealth remains within its walls. The invading army has stationed a sizable garrison within and around the ruins of Tabriz, and then split from the scene to occupy the surrounding lands. Furthermore, with the Safavid army making a retreat from the region and the Ottoman-Georgian army dispersing themselves amongst the region, supply lines have been replenished and allowed for such a massive army to hold the lands without too much trouble in regards to attrition.

Ottoman forces have used the remaining time until winter to occupy Kurdistan, with the aid of the local Kurdish tribes, who've finally come out to support their now-victorious new masters. Georgian forces did attempt to lay siege to Shamakhi, but were forced to pull away from the siege due to the coming winter. Occupation forces do remain in the area over the winter, though many seasonal levies on from both armies have crossed the borders and returned home.

The Ottomans and Georgians have won a number of objectives, though they failed at forcing a confrontation with the Safavid army in the field, allowing Ismail and his main force to remain unscathed. But despite the lack of a pitched battle, Safavid forces are in a much more dire position. Though their losses are less than their enemies', they have been forced to withdraw further into Persia. The inability to defend his capital from invaders has caused a great deal of stress for Ismail and his reputation as a legendary warrior, causing an alarming level of desertion among the ranks.

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