The wars between the two Turkic powers

Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz
On October 28, 1516 AD, the Battle of Khan Yunis occurred in Gaza, resulting in the defeat of the Turkic Mamluk (Slave) Dynasty of Egypt-Syria by Sinan Pasha, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Sultan Selim I.
The wars between the two Turkic powers had started in 1485 in southern Anatolia, when Bayazid II instead of concentrating on European campaigns turned eastwards to annex the lands of fellow Muslims, much to the relief of Spanish Christians besieging the Emirate of Granada, the last stronghold of Muslims in Iberia or Andalus, which fell in 1492 and whose ruler had appealed to the Mamluks for help.
Thus in August 1516, Selim, two years after his narrow victory at Chaldiran in Azerbaijan over the Shah of Persia, Ismail I, invaded Syria, since he greatly feared that the Iranians might reorganize and counterattack in view of the widespread influence of the Safavids in Syria and Anatolia (modern day Turkey), and their recent sending of an embassy to the Republic of Venice, through Mamluk ports in the Levant.
The invading Ottoman forces soon swept into Egypt where in January 1517 at the decisive Battle of Ridhania near Cairo, they defeated and killed the Mamluk Sultan, Tuman Bay. As a consequence, the Ottoman state, from a realm at the margin of Islamic lands mainly located in Asia Minor and south-western Europe, was transformed into a huge empire encompassing the historical cities of Cairo, Damascus, Bayt al-Moqaddas and Aleppo, as well as the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, since the Sharif of the Hejaz, pledged allegiance to Sultan Selim.
Although this marked the end of the 267-year Mamluk sovereignty over Egypt, the Ottomans contented themselves with the appointment of a viceroy, leaving the internal Mamluk apparatus intact.