The Ottomans Conquer Mamluk Egypt

In January 1517, the armies of the Ottoman Empire confronted the Mamluk Sultanate outside Cairo at the Battle of Ridaniya. This clash decided the outcome of the Ottoman-Mamluk War, a brief but transformative conflict that had begun the previous year. Led in person by Sultan Selim I, the Ottomans overcame the entrenched defensive positions of the Mamluk forces, securing the city of Cairo within days. The defeat shattered Mamluk sovereignty over Egypt and the Levant, ending more than two and a half centuries of rule by the Cairo-based sultanate.

Tensions between the two powers had been building since the fifteenth century, intensified by commercial rivalry over the spice trade and ideological competition for prestige across the Islamic world. A previous war fought between 1485 and 1491 had ended in an indecisive stalemate. Following his triumph over the Safavids at Chaldiran in 1514, Selim turned his full military focus southward. The Ottomans mobilized legal and religious justifications against the Mamluks, accusing them of cooperating with the Safavids, and prepared a massive military push into Mamluk-held Syria.