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People: Joan II, Queen of Navarre
Topic: Ottoman–Safavid War, or Turko-Persian War of 1623-39

Ottoman–Safavid War, or Turko-Persian War of 1623-39

Years: 1623 - 1639

The Ottoman–Safavid War of 1623–1639 is the last of a series of conflicts fought between the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Persia, at this time the two major powers of the Near East, over control of Mesopotamia.

After initial Persian success in capturing Baghdad and most of modern Iraq, the war becomes a stalemate, as the Persians are unable to press further into the Ottoman Empire, and the Ottomans themselves are distracted by wars in Europe and weakened by internal turmoil.

Eventually, the Ottomans are able to recover Baghdad, and the signing of the Treaty of Zuhab ends the war in an Ottoman victory, with Mesopotamia remaining henceforth in Ottoman hands, until lost in the aftermath of the First World War.

“What experience and history teach is that nations and governments have never learned anything from history."

―Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Lectures (1803)