Selim I (Ottoman Turkish: سليم الأول‎; Turkish: I. Selim; 10 October 1470 – 22 September 1520), known as Selim the Grim or Selim the Resolute (Turkish: Yavuz Sultan Selim), was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. Despite lasting only eight years, his reign is notable for the enormous expansion of the Empire, particularly his conquest between 1516 and 1517 of the entire Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt, which included all of the Levant, Hejaz, Tihamah, and Egypt itself. On the eve of his death in 1520, the Ottoman Empire spanned about 576,900 sq mi (1,494,000 km2), having grown by seventy percent during Selim's reign. Selim's conquest of the Middle Eastern heartlands of the Muslim world, and particularly his assumption of the role of guardian of the pilgrimage routes to Mecca and Medina, established the Ottoman Empire as the most prestigious of all Muslim states. His conquests dramatically shifted the empire's geographical and cultural center of gravity away from the Balkans and toward the Middle East. By the eighteenth century, Selim's conquest of the Mamluk Sultanate had come to be romanticized as the moment when the Ottomans seized leadership over the rest of the Muslim world, and consequently Selim is popularly remembered as the first legitimate Ottoman Caliph, although stories of an official transfer of the caliphal office from the Mamluk Abbasid dynasty to the Ottomans were a later invention. Şehzade Selim received a very good education when he was young. He took lessons from expert teachers in the scientific and scientific fields of the era. After his father, Sultan Bayezid, became the sultan, he was sent to Trabzon as a prince. In Trabzon, where he went to gain experience in state administration, he was busy with science as well as state affairs and took lessons from Mevlana Abdulhalim Efendi, one of the scholars of the time. His grandfather Fatih Sultan Mehmed gave him the name "Yavuz" because of his courage and bravery. While Şehzade Selim was the sancakbey of Trabzon, he had the opportunity to closely observe the harmful activities of the Shiite-Safavid State under the leadership of Shah Ismail in the eastern lands of the Ottoman Empire. Fighting the harmful activities of the Shiites against the state, as a prince, did not seem possible. The sultan of the period, his father, Sultan II. When Yavuz Sultan Selim became the sultan, his first job was; In the east, there was a struggle against the Shiite-Safavid State, which carried out harmful activities against the state. In 1514, the Ottoman Empire under the leadership of Yavuz Sultan Selim defeated the Shiite-Safavid Empire under the leadership of Shah Ismail. Thus, the danger of Shah Ismail, who was acting harmfully against the state in Eastern Anatolia, was eliminated. On the other hand, Yavuz embarked on the Egypt Campaign due to the Mamluks, who ruled in Egypt, to act against the Ottoman Empire (not ensuring the safety of the pilgrimage routes, establishing alliances with the European states against the Ottomans, uniting with the Safavid Empire against the Ottomans). Before embarking on this expedition, Yavuz Sultan Selim Han saw our Prophet (saas) in a dream and gave the keys of the holy lands (Mecca and Medina) to our Prophet (saas). Yavuz Sultan Selim, while passing through the vast desert during the Egypt Campaign, got off his horse and started walking on foot. Out of respect for the sultan, all the soldiers got off their horses and walked on foot. Yavuz gave the following answer to those who asked why he got off his horse and walked on foot. “- How can I go on my horse behind our Prophet (saas) while he is guiding us on foot in front of us?” he said. As Mevlana said, "Leave the wing of reason and logic so that you can become the owner of secrets" is perhaps Yavuz Sultan Selim, who implemented the phrase in the best way. As a result, with the 1516 Mercidabık and 1517 Ridaniye Wars, the Ottoman Empire conquered Egypt. The Hijaz lands, including Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem, came under Ottoman rule. To those who consider the title of Hakimü'l Haramayn, which means the eunuch of Mecca and Medina, appropriate for Yavuz, Yavuz said, “Haşa, Saying that we will not be the rulers of those places, but the eunuchs (servants), he deemed himself the adjective Hadimü'l Harameyn (servant of Mecca and Medina). After the conquest of Egypt, the Islamic Caliph was chosen by the decision of the scholars. After this date, the Turks assumed a position with high honor in Islam. Yavuz Sultan Selim Han found the tomb of Muhyiddin Arabi, whose tomb was in Damascus during his reign and disappeared over time, and built a tomb and mosque in the name of His Holiness Muhyiddin Arabi. Respecting and respecting scholars and people engaged in science, this character of Yavuz is a typical Ottoman character. When mud jumped from the horse of his teacher, Ibn Kemal, came to Yavuz's robe, his teacher was alarmed and embarrassed. But Yavuz Sultan Selim told his teacher, “The mud splashing on us from the feet of the scholars' horse is an honor for us. He will not wash this robe and when I die, I will keep it in my tomb," he said, and became the best example of the respect for science and scholars. As Yavuz character; He dresses simply, lives modestly, He did not like pomp and pomp. He had a structure that equates waste of time with murder. During his 8-year rule, Yavuz Sultan Selim expanded the borders of the state to thousands of square kilometers in Asia, Europe and Africa. At his death, the total area of the state in three continents; 1,702,000 km in Europe2 reached a total area of 6,577,000 km2 , of which 1,905,000 km2 in Asia and 2,950,000 km2 in Africa. Yavuz Sultan Selim passed away at the age of 50 on September 22, 1520, as a result of a boil on his back called "Şirpençe" while he was making preparations for a campaign to the West. He was buried in his tomb next to Yavuz Sultan Selim Mosque, which was built in his name by his son, Suleiman the Magnificent.

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