Capture of Baghdad (1534)

The 1534 capture of Baghdad by the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent from the Safavid Shah Tahmasp I was part of his Campaign of the Two Iraqs during the Ottoman–Safavid War (1532–1555). The city was taken without resistance, the Safavid government having fled and leaving the city undefended.
Baghdad's capture was a significant achievement given its mastery of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and their international and regional trade. It represented, along with the fall of Basra in 1546, a significant step towards eventual Ottoman victory and the procurement of the lower Mesopotamia, the mouths of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, opening a trading outlet into the Persian Gulf.
The Ottomans wintered there until 1535, overseeing the reconstruction of Sunni religious monuments destroyed by the Safavids and initiating agricultural irrigation projects. Suleiman returned to Constantinople, leaving a strong garrison force. After the capture, Suleiman adopted the title “Shah of Baghdad in Iraq”. Hadım Suleiman Pasha was designated as Governor of Baghdad from 1535 to 1536, starting a long list of Ottoman governors of Baghdad.
Over the next few decades, the Ottomans solidified their control over the region, incorporating it into their empire until it was temporarily recaptured by the Persians in 1623. Baghdad again belonged to the Ottomans from 1638 until 1917, with its last governor Halil Kut.