The Battle of Manzikert and the Call from the East

THE POST-ROMAN WEST and THE CRUSADING MOVEMENT HIST 1301 | History The Battle of Manzikert and the Call from the East The Byzantine Empire was unable to capitalise on the weakening in the Abbasid power structure that was occurring throughout the Islamic world. Under the strong Macedonian dynasty (867–1025), whose warrior-emperors had been able to push back against Muslims to the east and Slavic peoples to the west, the Byzantines had previously enjoyed an era of cultural and military domination. The stability that followed had ushered in a heyday of creative output and invention known as the Macedonian Renaissance. Later, its artwork predicted advances in the Italian Renaissance and inspired Italian art. The Byzantine emperor's capacity to manage the political, military, and economic landscape declined towards the end of the Macedonian era. The Macedonian dynasty's succession disputes and incompetent leaders reduced the empire's military prowess. Additionally, the Byzantines lost control of their foreign lands, which had served as commerce and income centres, particularly Sicily and southern Italy. The Italian and Islamic warships started to control Mediterranean trade. The Byzantine Empire's role as an intermediate started to deteriorate as direct trade between the Islamic and Christian worlds grew. The Byzantine emperors made an effort to form matrimonial relationships with Slavic kings as well as Norman explorers who were engaged in Sicilian and southern Italian activities. While these allies were willing to be associated with the Byzantine Empire, they might have achieved the same goal by conquering the empire and establishing their own state. The Byzantine monarchs faced fierce foes and erratic allies everywhere they looked. The Byzantine Empire had to contend with more than only foreign adversaries. Similar to the Abbasid caliphs, its rulers had to deal with strongmen inside their own empire who wanted to take advantage of the rule's shortcomings in order to benefit themselves and their families. The dynatoi, or ruling class, had their power restrained by laws passed by Macedonian emperors like Basil II. These laws ensured that the dynatoi paid high taxes and that their vast estates were divided up and given to the peasants who fought in the army. Less capable or less secure emperors took over after Basil, forcing them to renounce his policies and rely on the dynatoi for support. This undermined the army's core of peasants and gave the aristocracy more confidence to plot ways to overthrow or subjugate the emperors in exchange for their favour. The rulers of that era, like the Abbasids, had to strike a balance between internal and foreign dangers and difficulties in an intricate quest for stability. In 1068, one of the dynatoi rose to become Emperor Romanos IV. A skilled general, Romanos sought to undo the defeats the empire had suffered at the hands of the Seljuks. Due to the previous emperors' disregard for the army, he was forced to rely on foreign mercenaries, who were incompatible and would pillage Byzantine land if they were not paid on schedule. Romanos had already defeated the Seljuks, whose incursions led by Alp Arslan had turned into violent and acrimonious conflicts. While Alp Arslan was engaged in combat with the Fatimids, he intended to retake key locations in eastern Anatolia. But Romanos had not intended for Alp Arslan to be so far away, and the troops gathered around the town of Manzikert. Romanos was betrayed by his own aristocratic opponents who failed to defend the troops during a retreat, and some of his hired guns deserted him before to the engagement. After Romanos was taken prisoner by the Seljuks, Alp Arslan saved the emperor's life and released him in exchange for his ceding land and paying a large ransom, rather than murdering him—the usual punishment for one deemed a dangerous opponent. Although the military defeat was not catastrophic, the loss was made worse by internal issues inside the empire. Following Romanos' overthrow and murder at the hands of his own nobility, the Byzantine emperors battled for twenty years to bring peace back to their realm. Alexios I, a successor of Romanos, appealed to the popes for help in battling the Seljuks. Instead of the mercenary force he had anticipated, Pope Urban II presented the battle between the Seljuk and Byzantine empires as a war of religions, which led to the crusading movement.