Byzantine-Seljuk wars
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| Byzantine-Seljuk wars | |||||||
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 Byzantine Empire |
 Seljuk Turks |
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| Byzantine-Seljuk wars |
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| Caesarea - Manzikert - Nicaea - Antioch - Nicaea (1099) - Myriokephalon |
The Byzantine-Seljuk wars were a series of decisive battles that shifted the balance of power in Asia Minor from the Byzantine Empire to the Seljuk Turks. Whilst fighting each other, both powers had to contend with great civil unrest, particularly following a disaster.
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[edit] 1064-1071
See also: Battle of Manzikert
Ever since the early 11th century, the Seljuk Turks from central Asia had been expanding westward, defeating various Arab factions and driving the Abbasid caliphate from power in Baghdad. At the same time, the Byzantine empire was making a few gains in Edessa and Syria. In 1067 the Seljuk Turks attacked Caesarea, and in 1069 Iconiuim. A Byzantine counter attack in 1069 most likely drove the Seljuk Turks back from these lands. Further offensives by the Byzantine army drove the Turks back across the Euphrates. However, Manzikert fell in 1071 to the restless Seljuks. A large army under the Byzantine emperor Romanos IV was decisively defeated near Manzikert in 1071. Manzikert, which had briefly been restored to the Byzantine Greeks, fell to the Seljuk Turks again.
[edit] 1071-1096
After Manzikert, the Seljuk Turks concentrated on their eastern gains which were threatened by the Fatimid dynasty in Egypt. Despite this, due to civil unrest and othjer external threats, the Byzantine empire lost Nicaea in 1077 and was defeated again in Anatolia. In 1081, Alexius I rose to power, but despite emergency reforms implemented, Antioch was lost by 1084, and with it the rest of Byzantine Syria. In 1094 Alexius Comnenus asked the Papacy in Rome for mercenaries to combat the Seljuk Turks.
[edit] 1096 - 1176
See also: Battle of Myriokephalon
The first Crusaders arrived in 1096 follwing Alexius' appeal to the west. With their aid, the Byzantines were able to re-capture the southern coast of Anatolia and Nicaea (Siege of Nicaea) in 1096. Antioch was never re-taken by the Byzantines although the crusader state controlling it, along with the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia was made a vassal of Byzantium.
The death of Alexius I brought John II Comnenus to power. By now, the Seljuk Turks had fractured and were loosely allied to each other. John Comnenus undertook a series of campiagns aimed at recapturing Anatolia. Under his rule, the front line was pushed far into Anatolia, reaching dangerously close to his enemies capital at Iconium. Trebizond was also retaken.
John II died in 1143, with the Byzantine empire very powerful. Unfortunatly for the empire, the new emperor, Manuel Comnenus, was unable to extend the front line past his father's achievements. In 1176, the Byzantines were defeated by the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Myriokephalon. The battle was tactically indecisive, though further conquests by the Byzantine empire were permanently put on hold.
[edit] 1176 - 1204 & 1260s
Manuel II died in 1180, with the forntline remaining as it was after 1176. Between 1180 -1204, the Byzantine empire was ruled by a series of corrupt and incapable emperors, who failed to do much at all. In 1204, the Byzantine empire fractured into the empires of Nicaea, Trebizond and Epirus. The Seljuk empire, which was also becoming increasingly divided, fell from a unified government in the 1190s and in the 1260s, the invasion by the Mongols separated the Turks into many Beyliks.
[edit] Legacy
The war did not end but pettered out into minor skirmishes. When the Nicaeans recalimed Constantinople and when the Turks where more or less united under the Ottomans, a new war emerged as the Byzantine-Ottoman wars.
Despite being under Roman rule for almost 1000 years, the Seljuks rapidly consolidated their holdings over Anatolia demonstrated by the Seljuk's nerve to place their capital so close to the front line. This allowed them to hold on to their lands and made it all the more difficult for the Byzantines during the Komnenian restoration to re-conquer. The result was that even when the Byzantine empire was not riddled with civil disputes, it could not defeat the Seljuk Turks, whom rarely allowed the Byzantines to decisevly defeat them, hence the slow campaigning of John Komnenus.
The Byzantines were never able to defeat he Seljuks in a decisive battle. Whenever the Seljuks did show up in great strength, poor strategy on the part of the Byzantines coupled with good strategy on behalf of the Seljuk ruler resulted in two decisive defeats at Manzikert and Myriokephalon.
The war shifted the balance of power in the middle east region from the Byzantines and Fatimid caliphate to the Turks and eventually Mamelukes.
[edit] References
- R.G. Grant, Battle: A Visual Journey Through 5,000 Years of Combat, Dorling Kindersley Publishers Ltd, 2005.
