The Ottoman–Safavid War (1578–1590) was a war between Safavid Persia under Mohammed Khodabanda

Mohammed Khodabanda

Mohammed Khodābande or Khudābanda, also known as Mohammed Shah or Sultan Mohammed , was the fourth Safavid Shah of Iran. He was the son of Shah Tahmasp I by a Turcoman mother, Sultanum Bekum Mawsillu...

 and later Abbas I

Abbas I of Persia

Shāh ‘Abbās the Great was Shah of Iran, and generally considered the greatest ruler of the Safavid dynasty. He was the third son of Shah Mohammad....

, and the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 under Murad III

Murad III

Murad III was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1574 until his death.-Biography:...

. It began in 1577-1578 and ended in 1590.

The Ottomans started the war, with the objective of conquering Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan (Iran)

Azerbaijan or Azarbaijan , also Iranian Azerbaijan, Persian Azarbaijan is a region in northwestern Iran. It is also historically known as Atropatene and Aturpatakan....

 and the Caucasus

Caucasus

The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...

. The war lasted for years, but the Ottomans took Tiflis in 1578, Kars

Kars

Kars is a city in northeast Turkey and the capital of Kars Province. The population of the city is 73,826 as of 2010.-Etymology:As Chorzene, the town appears in Roman historiography as part of ancient Armenia...

 and Tabriz

Tabriz

Tabriz is the fourth largest city and one of the historical capitals of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former...

 in 1585, and Georgia

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

 became a tributary vassal of the Ottoman Empire. As a result, the Ottomans effectively came to rule over Azerbaijan and the Caucasus as far as the Caspian sea

Caspian Sea

The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...

.

A peace of Istanbul was concluded on 21 March 1590, in which Iran confirmed these Ottoman conquests, promised to end Shiite propaganda in Ottoman territories and persecution of Sunnis in her own lands.

The advent of the Ottoman-Safavid war temporarily deflected Ottoman interest from European affairs, where the Ottoman Empire had been active with the Franco-Ottoman alliance

Franco-Ottoman alliance

The Franco-Ottoman alliance, also Franco-Turkish alliance, was an alliance established in 1536 between the king of France Francis I and the Turkish ruler of the Ottoman Empire Suleiman the Magnificent. The alliance has been called "the first non-ideological diplomatic alliance of its kind between a...

 and the support of the Dutch Revolt

Dutch Revolt

The Dutch Revolt or the Revolt of the Netherlands This article adopts 1568 as the starting date of the war, as this was the year of the first battles between armies. However, since there is a long period of Protestant vs...

, in an interesting episode of mutually-supportive relations between Islam and Protestantism.