CASUALTY RECORD // August 24, 1516
Battle of Marj Dabiq
Estimated casualties — killed, wounded, captured, and missing — by side, with confidence labels per surviving record.
Casualties by side
2 sides catalogued · combined 17,000–90,000 estimated
Ottoman Empire
10,000–25,000
Medium-confidence figure
Mamluk Sultanate
7,000–65,000
Medium-confidence figure
Battle context
The Battle of Marj Dabiq, fought on 24 August 1516 near Dabiq, 44 km north of Aleppo, was one of the decisive engagements of the Ottoman–Mamluk War of 1516–17. Two roughly matched forces — the Ottomans fielding approximately 60,000 troops and the Mamluks between 60,000 and 80,000 — clashed in a battle whose outcome gave Selim I's armies control of the entire region of Syria and opened the path to the conquest of Egypt. The battle thus served as the principal turning point of a war that ended in the destruction of the Mamluk Sultanate and the Ottoman absorption of much of the Middle East. What had been the Mamluk realm — stretching from Syria through Egypt — passed into Ottoman hands as a direct consequence of the engagement, marking a fundamental realignment of power across the region.
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