In 1733 the war between the Ottoman and Persian Empires was at its peak. The Persians under the talented general, first, and then Shah Nadir, had achieved great victories against the Turks, but he had also suffered a serious defeat in his attempt to invade Turkish-occupied Iraq.
But Nadir was not disappointed. He regrouped his army and invaded Iran again meeting the enemies in Kirkuk. In fact, opposite him was his staunch enemy, the Ottoman general Topal Osman. His defeat at Samarra, Iraq in 1732 by Topal had made Nadir stubborn. His army had fought hard at Samarra, but lost 30,000 men against the Ottomans' 20,000.
Nadir's first concern after the defeat was to encourage his men and regroup them. At the same time, however, another problem appeared. In southern Persia Muhammad Khan Baluch rebelled against Nadir. Nadir nevertheless decided to deal first with the Turks and then with the rebels.
So he moved towards Kirkuk. Topal informed of his opponent's movements sent his vanguard, 12,000 men under Memis Pasha to watch the Persians. Altogether Topal had 100,000 men. Nadir's strength was slightly less.
Nadir's scouts informed him of the Turkish movements. Taking advantage of the information he decided to attempt to trap his opponent. So he sent Haji Beg Khan as "bait" to Memis Pasha.
The latter fell into the trap and began to pursue the Persian division, even sending a message to Topal that he had put the Persian army to flight and was asking for reinforcements to destroy it completely.
While Topal was receiving the message Memis' force was being crushed by 30,000 Persians who had surrounded him. Having crushed the Turkish vanguard, Nadir moved with his entire force against the Turks.
The two opposing armies were only 5 km apart. Topal sensing that something was wrong ordered the army to halt and deploy in battle formation. Nadir for his part deployed the army in battle formation during the approach.
When the two armies approached Nadir ordered his infantry to attack the janissaries in the Turkish center. The Persians approached and for two hours fired continuous volleys against the janissaries. Then drawing their swords they put them on.
The janissaries responded in kind, and an incredibly fierce battle broke out. At the same time, however, Nadir decided to risk a double overshoot of the Turks, sending two cavalry corps, each with 15,000 horsemen, against the right and left Turkish flanks.
Soon the Turkish army had turned into a shapeless mass of panic-stricken men. Topal tried to regroup his men but was hit by two fireballs and fell from his horse. As he fell a Persian soldier beheaded him and took his head as a gift to Nadir.
The Turkish army was disbanded. Over 20,000 men fell in the battle while all of his guns were lost. The losses of the Persians were negligible. Nadir was the big winner. After sending Topal's body to Baghdad to be properly buried.
After the victory he had two options before him. One was to move towards Taurida and the second to besiege Bagdad. Unfortunately for him, he did not manage to implement either of the two plans because he had to suppress the revolution of Muhammad Khan.
So he couldn't capitalize on his big win. It took another two years of war for Nadir to win another amazing victory at Yegvard, Armenia, where with only 15,000 men he routed a Turkish army of 50,000 cavalry and 30,000 infantry, causing the loss of 50,000 men, to end the war in his favor.
