Part of the letter from Persian King Tahmasp to Ottoman Sultan Suleiman in 1554, after the Ottomans’ swift retreat from Iranian territory: “The Roman entered here, shit himself, and left the next day. You failed to remain here even for a single day.” [632×501]

The letter was written by the second King of Safavid Empire, Tahmasp I, after multiple unsuccessful Ottoman campaigns into the Iranian territory, including Tabriz. The tenth Ottoman Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, set out with a large army toward Iran, but due to logistical issues, bad weather, and Safavid scorched-earth tactics (avoiding pitched battles, and destroying supplies), the Ottomans suffered major shortages and hardship. Suleiman was forced to swiftly withdraw without achieving anything, and Tahmasp mocked this in his letter to him. Two versions of the same letter exists, one kept in the Ottoman Archives in Istanbul, and the other in the National Library and Archives of Iran, meaning that when the Safavids wrote the letter and sent it to the Ottomans, they kept a copy for themselves.

Here’s the full text: “You set out for Iran with three hundred thousand men, equipped with cannons, guns, wagons, and four years’ worth of provisions, and in the end, you fell into hardship and misfortune, and returned to your dark soil. The Rumi (Roman) entered here, shit himself, and left the next day. You failed to remain here even for a single day. Shitting and shitting, the Rumi turned back from the gate of Tabriz and left.”

The campaign culminated in the Treaty of Amasya in 1555, which established a temporary peace between the two empires and formalized a border. The treaty included an agreement for the Ottomans to permanently withdraw from Iranian territories. The Ottomans also agreed to allow Iranian pilgrims to visit their holy sites in Ottoman territory, while the Safavids agreed to stop certain practices that the Ottomans considered offensive. The treaty essentially halted the conflict, though it did not end the underlying rivalry between the two empires.