The Battle of Manzikert

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

The decisive encounter between the Seljuks and Byzantines on the fields of Manzikert in 1071 set in motion events that opened one of the most brutal chapters in the annals of history –  The crusades. How did a battle in Eastern Anatolia begin a domino effect of events that led to a European invasion of Jerusalem?

In 1063, Sultan Tughril passed away, leaving his nephew Alparslan to rule the burgeoning Seljuk Empire. Sultan Alparslan immediately went to war with the Byzantines by taking the geographically strategic city of Ani. This conquest opened the path for further conquest into Anatolia but Sultan Alparslan, seeing the Fatimid Shi’as as a greater threat, took his army to the levant and laid siege to Aleppo. Meanwhile, in Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, there was a changing of the guard. Romanus ascended to the throne after marrying the empress and promising to deal with the grave threat on their Eastern borders – The Seljuks. He began raising a fresh army to march East and in early 1071, he left Constantinople with 40,000 soldiers with one mission – eliminate the Seljuk threat once and for all. They marched across Anatolia and began taking back the fortresses the Seljuks had conquered. Hearing of this, Sultan Alparslan abandoned his siege and took his already tired army to Anatolia.

The two forces met at Manzikert in August 1071. A fierce battle ensued. Romanus pushed the Seljuks all the way back to their camp and victory seemed near for the Byzantines. However, Romanus, fearing his army had overextended, decided to retreat. Amidst the ensuing confusion amongst the Byzantine lines, Sultan Alparslan ordered his army to counterattack. The Byzantine lines shattered and their army was all but destroyed. Romanus was captured marking the first time a Byzantine Emperor fell into the custody of the Muslims.

The victorious Sultan Alparslan returned to his capital city of Isfahan along with his army and an imprisoned Romanus. Alparslan asked Romanus what he would’ve done if he had captured the Sultan instead to which Romanus replied that he would have humiliated him. Instead of acting, in the same manner, his enemy may have, Sultan Alparslan opted to treat Romanus with mercy and kindness. A peace treaty was agreed in which the Byzantines were to pay a heavy annual tribute to the Seljuks. After his short stay at Isfahan, Romanus was escorted back to his own lands whilst Sultan Alparslan turned his attention to his Eastern borders. However, there was another changing of the guard at Constantinople. Michael VII took over the throne and the Byzantines, eager to distance themselves from their defeated commander, attacked Romanus. He was captured and blinded and would go on to die from an infection which spread in his body.

With Byzantine defences shattered on their Eastern borders, the nomadic Turkmen tribes began to settle in Anatolia. Sulayman, son of Kutalmish, who was another member of the Seljuk dynasty fled to Anatolia and began to expand Seljuk territory there. The Byzantines were caught up in their own civil wars and trouble on their Western borders. Over the next decade, Sulayman expanded Seljuk territory all the way to the depths of Eastern Anatolia and was eventually recognised as independent of the Seljuk empire by the new Sultan, Malikshah I. Eventually, as the Byzantines established a degree of stability, they looked towards the grave threat in Anatolia. However, the Byzantine Emperor, aware of the strength of the Seljuks, opted for a new strategy. He appealed to the courts of the Western Kings for help by spreading a new wave of propaganda about Turkish oppression and brutality. Eventually, Pope Urban II also supported him and began to call on Christians to join the Byzantine Emperor. He promised that those who made the journey to fight the Turks and reconquer Jerusalem would have their sins forgiven and so the First Crusade was launched.

It is clear that the Battle of Manzikert was a significant factor in causing the first crusade. The capitulation of the Byzantine army left their eastern borders open to Turkish migration and invasion into Anatolia. In their desperation, the Byzantines turned to the Christians in the west for aid who answered in the form of the first crusade. What followed was a century-long bloody war in which many great atrocities were committed but which also gave rise to many great heroes.  

We ask Allah (SWT) to accept the efforts of Sultan Alparslan at the battle of Manzikert.