6 – Battle of Manzikert (1071)
According to some historians, the Battle of Manzikert was the beginning of the end for the Byzantine Empire. The battle occurred on 26 August 1071 between the Byzantines and the Seljuk Turks. The Seljuk Sultan, Alp Arslan, was happy to allow his Turkish allies to plunder land in Armenia and Asia Minor in the 1060s. They destroyed the Armenian capital Ani in 1064 and four years later, Byzantine Emperor Romanus IV led a campaign against the Seljuks but their infantry was too slow to complete.
While his commander Manuel Comnenus had initial success against the Turks, he was defeated. However, Arslan was happy to accept a peace treaty in 1069 as a means of ensuring his army could concentrate on the Fatimids who he saw as his main problem. There are now a couple of differing versions of history.
In one version, Romanus began another campaign, this time to Manzikert in 1070 where he made an offer to Arslan. The Byzantines would give up the recently captured city of Hierapolis if the Turks gave up their siege of Edessa. He threatened war if the sultan didn’t agree. Romanus knew that Arslan would refuse and prepared his troops; Arslan refused and war ensued. Another version suggests that Romanus sent envoys to renew the treaty in 1071. Arslan agreed and abandoned the siege of Edessa in order to fight the Fatimids. Then the Romans quickly moved to regain their territories.
Ultimately, we know that Romanus and his army did march into Armenia to recover lost fortresses. It was a long and difficult march and the Emperor angered his army by bringing a luxurious baggage train with him while the troops suffered. Romanus marched forward in the belief that he would retake Manzikert quickly but was unaware of the fact that Arslan and his forces were nearby while the enemy knew the Byzantine army’s whereabouts.
The Emperor rejected a peace offer and the battle commenced with the Byzantines marching towards the enemy. They withstood the initial Turk arrow attacks but their left and right wings sustained serious damage. The hit and run tactics of the Turks whittled down the Byzantine army and they were forced to retreat. Unfortunately for the Emperor, once of his generals was also a political rival and he disobeyed the order and marched back to the camp.
Confusion spread and this gave the Seljuks the opportunity to attack and they quickly routed the Byzantine right wing. The left wing put up more resistance but fell and this left the Emperor exposed in the middle. He was captured but ultimately set free by Arslan after agreeing to a number of concessions. If Romanus thought he had escaped, he was sorely mistaken as he was murdered soon after returning home.
It was the first time that a Byzantine Emperor had been captured by a Muslim commander and it severely undermined the empire’s authority in Armenia and Anatolia. While it was by no means the worst defeat in terms of casualties (which were estimated at fewer than 8,000), it was a strategic disaster for the Byzantines and ensured that Anatolia was lost to Christendom. The empire lasted almost 400 more years but it never fully recovered from the loss at Manzikert.