Selim I, byname Yavuz (“The Grim”) (born 1470, Amasya,Ottoman Empire [now in Turkey]—died Sept. 22, 1520, Çorlu) Ottoman sultan (1512–20) who extended the empire toSyria, the Hejaz, and Egypt and raised the Ottomans to leadership of the Muslim world.

Selim came to the throne in the wake of civil strife in which he, his brother, and their father, Bayezid II, had been involved. Selim eliminated all potential claimants to the sultanate, leaving only his ablest son, Süleyman, as his heir. He then turned eastward, where Ismāʿīl I, founder of the Ṣafavid dynasty in Iran, posed a political