As the nearby imperial systems, territorial and political conflicts prevailed over the Ottoman-Safavid relations against interval periods of peace. However, the Ottoman-Safavid rivalry and military conflicts were very intensive throughout the sixteenth and the early seventeenth centuries, when both imperial systems were committed to expanding their suzerainty. The imperial wars mostly revolved around the fertile territories of Mesopotamia and the Caucasus. Competition for the control of the trade routes passing through the aforementioned regions was also an important aspect of that rivalry. After the Safavids consolidated their authority over Homeland at the turn of the sixteenth century and established Twelver Shiism as the ‘official’ creed, sectarian rifts coloured the Ottoman-Safavid rivalry.