50
Manzikert
1071
◼
MODERN-DAY TURKEY
◼
BYZANTINE EMPIRE VS. SELJUQ EMPIRE
BYZANTINE–SELJUQ WARS
By the 1060s, the Byzantine
Empire had been ruled by a series of
weak emperors and was plagued by
incursions of Seljuq Turks moving
west into Armenia and Anatolia.
Byzantine emperor Romanos
Diogenes, who ruled from 1068,
sought to reclaim the initiative. He won initial victories against
Seljuq Sultan Alp Arslan (see box, right), but was forced to make
peace in 1069. In February 1071, Romanos sent an envoy to
renew the treaty, but it was a ruse; intending to attack,
he traveled east with a force of 20,000 men, half of them
professional Byzantine soldiers, the remainder mercenaries or
levies. After a grueling march across Anatolia, Romanos sent
part of his army to capture the fortress of Khilat, and pushed on
to Manzikert with the rest. Alp Arslan’s scouts had been tracking
the Byzantines, and the Seljuq army lay in ambush there.
Romanos rejected Alp Arslan’s peace proposals and attacked.
However, the crescent-shaped Turkish line pulled back, and
every time Romanos’s men closed in, the agile Turkish cavalry
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51
Manzikert
1071
◼
MODERN-DAY TURKEY
◼
BYZANTINE EMPIRE VS. SELJUQ EMPIRE
BYZANTINE–SELJUQ WARS
wheeled out of range. The Seljuq archers also inicted heavy
losses on the Byzantines. Finally, in the afternoon Romanos
called for a retreat. His rearguard, led by a member of a rival
family, deliberately pulled back too soon, and Romanos
was surrounded and captured. After a week as the sultan’s
captive he was released, but his authority was broken. A civil
war broke out in Constantinople, and Romanos was killed. As
Byzantine authority fragmented, over the next decade the
Seljuqs were able to conquer most of Anatolia—much of
which the Byzantines were never able to recover.
Alp Arslan inherited the Seljuq
sultanate in 1064 after a civil
war against his brother, Suleiman.
He attacked Armenia, aided by
nomadic Ogüz Turks, and captured
the capital, Ani. This brought him
into conict with the Byzantines,
who feared further Seljuk
conquests in Anatolia. After
Manzikert, he secured a tribute
payment from Romanos and
the return of Manzikert, Edessa,
and Hierapolis. He then turned
to the eastern Seljuq frontier,
but was killed there in 1073.
His son, Malik Shah I, continued
making advances into Anatolia.
SULTAN ALP ARSLAN (C.1030–73)
4 Alp Arslan’s erce reputation is
reected in his name, which means
“Heroic Lion.” Here he is shown
humiliating the defeated Romanos.
2
AGE-OLD CONFLICT
This illustration from an
11th-century manuscript
depicts a mid-9th-
century battle between
Byzantines and an
invading Arab army. The
Byzantines had had to
defend Anatolia from
Muslim incursions since
the loss of Syria in the
7th century, but it was
the defeat at Manzikert
that signaled the loss
of what had once been
a Byzantine heartland.
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