[6][9] The conflict began when Bozkurt of Dulkadir (also called Alaüddevle), ruler of Dulkadirids, attacked the Mamluk city of Malatya, with the support of Bayezid.

[6] Led by the new governor of Karaman, Karagöz Mehmed Pasha, the Ottoman forces, largely drawn from provincial troops, subdued the rebellious Turgudlu and Vasak tribes and captured many fortresses in Cilicia.

Reinforcements from Istanbul, including Janissaries, were dispatched by Bayezid under his own son-in-law Hersekzade Ahmed Pasha, but the combined Ottoman army was again defeated before Adana on 15 March.

Davud Pasha however avoided operations against the Mamluks, instead focusing his troops in suppressing revolts by the Turgudlu and Vasak tribes, securing his rear.

More importantly, the Ottomans' Turkmen allies began to turn to the Mamluks, including Alaüddevle, thus restoring a line of Mamluk-oriented buffer states along the border.

A treaty was signed which fixed their mutual border at the Gülek Pass in the Taurus Mountains, leaving the Cilician plain to the Mamluks.

[6] The Ottomans were a stronger military power, but were weakened by internal dissensions and the lack of a strong centralized leadership by the Sultan Bayezid, who remained in Constantinople.

[17] The Nasrid Dynasty of Granada sought Ottoman assistance against the Spanish, but Sultan Bayezid could only send limited support due to his involvement in the Ottoman-Mamluk conflict.

With famine and plague spreading, a peace treaty was eventually sealed in May 1491, with the Mamluks remaining a powerful entity against the Ottomans, although they were financially exhausted.