3.4.3: The Seljuk Migration and the Call from the East

 Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Explain why the Islamic world began to fragment along political and religious lines
• Contrast the Fatimids and Seljuks with other Islamic states
• Discuss the challenges the Byzantine Empire faced prior to the First Crusade

The Abbasid Caliphate was a remarkable state that increased both the wealth of Islam and Muslims communities’ contacts with peoples across Afro-Eurasia, from China to sub-Saharan Africa. Wealthy, cosmopolitan, and deeply influenced by Persian culture, the Abbasid caliphs invested heavily in reviving science and literature. However, the complications of ruling a large empire ensured that challengers from within the empire and beyond would eventually wear them down. The Abbasids, their Islamic competitors, and a powerful new Turkic empire set the stage for conflict with the Byzantine Empire and the Christian kingdoms of Europe.

The Breakdown of Abbasid Authority and the Turkic Migration

Having overthrown the Umayyad caliphs, the Abbasid rulers moved east, establishing a capital at Baghdad. There the ruling elite were able to foster a time of immense creativity and intellectual achievement that allowed cultures, languages, and ethnicities to blend in the course of building an empire.

The Abbasid Caliphate kept intact the Persian and Byzantine administrative apparatus, which ensured wealth for the elite and promoted the revival of cities and trade. While Arabic continued as the language of administration and religion, Persian language and literary forms also began to influence Arabic and helped to create a rich tradition of both secular and religious works, housed at the Great Library of Baghdad. The caliphate became cosmopolitan. Syriac Christians translated Greek works into Arabic, Persians served as administrators, and Jewish people and Christians alike were bankers and physicians. Wealth flowed in from the trading routes that connected the Mediterranean with India and China, and Baghdad became the center of the empire, a cosmopolitan city with a reputation as a place of learning, commerce, and trade. (Figure 13.11)

AD.” The map shows land in white and water in blue. Crisscrossing dark blue lines run throughout the map. The Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, and the Aral Sea are labelled in the north. The Mediterranean Sea is labelled in the west and the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean are labelled in the south. Along the north of the map the land is highlighted white with areas labelled in gray capital letters indicating “Abbasid Provinces.” These areas are, from west to east: Middle Francia, Beneventa (with the city of Messina labelled within with a black dot and the city of Baris labelled with a black dot and highlighted lime green), Croatia (with the city of Ragusa labelled with a black dot and highlighted lime green), Bulgarian Empire, Byzantine Empire, Hungarians, Khazar Khanate, Abkhazia, Oghuz Turks, and Karluks. Southeast of the Aral Sea a small oval area is highlighted white and labelled “Ghor.” In the very south of the map two areas are labelled Makuria and Blemmyes. In the west , a “P” shaped slice of land on the southern border of the Mediterranean Sea as well as half of an island to its north is highlighted lime green indicating “Autonomous Dynasties” and labelled Aghlabids. Cities labelled within this area include: Tunis, Constantine, Kairouan, Sfax, Tripoli, and Palermo on the island. Two oval areas in the northeast of the map are also highlighted lime green. A smaller one is labelled “Afrighids” with the cities of Kath and Gurganj labelled within. The larger one is labelled “Transoxiana” with the cities of Bukhara, Khujand, Samarkand, and Kesh labelled with. The rivers of Syr Darya and Amu Darya are labelled in this area. In the Mediterranean Sea two islands are highlighted with lime green stripes and labelled “Emirate of Crete” and “Cyprus” indicating “Condominium of Cyprus.” Much of the land is highlighted green indicating “Areas under the Caliph.” Starting in the west, these areas are: an unlabeled area with the cities of Misrata and Sirte, Barqa with the city of Barca, “Egypt” with the cities of Alexandria, Damisetta, Fustat, Falyum, El Ashmunein, Asyut, Akhmim, Qus, and Aswan labelled as well as the Nile River. To the southeast an area is labelled “Hejaz” with the cities of Tabuk, Medina and Mecca labelled. Going east is an area labelled “Al-Yamama” with the city of Zubala labelled within. East of that is an area labelled “Al-Bahrayn” with the city of Qatif labelled within. Going southeast an area is labelled “Oman” with the cities of Dibba, Sohar, and Muskat labelled within. South of Al-Yamama is an area labelled “Ziyadida” with the cities of Zabid and Aden labelled within. Going north of Al-Yamama is an area ls labelled Bilad Al-Sham with the cities of Aquaba, Jerusalem, Tiberias, Damascus, Beirut, Tripoli, Tadmos, Antioch, Aleppo, Manbij, Tarsus, and Malatya labelled. Heading northeast an area is labelled “Armenia” with the cities of Tbillisi, Kars, and Bitlis labelled within. East of Armenia is an area labelled “Arran” with the cities of Derbend, Barda, and Baku labelled. South of Armenia is an area labelled “Al-Jazira” with the cities of Mosul, Raqqa, al-Qarqisiya, Tikrit, and Haditha labelled within. Heading east is an area labelled “Adharbayjan” with the city of Ardabil labelled within. South of Al-Jazira is an area labelled “Iraq” with the cities of Samarra, Anbar, Kufa, and Abadan labelled. The city of Baghdad is also labelled with a hollow black circle indicating it is a capital city. To the east is an area labelled “Jibal” with the cities of Abhar, Rayy, Hamadan, Nihwand, Kashan, and Isfahan labelled within. To the east is an area labelled “Gilan-Tabaristan” with the city of Amol labelled. South of Jibal is “Khuzistan” with Ahvaz and Basra labelled. “Fars” is south with the cities of Yazd, Arrajan, Shiraz, and Fasa labelled. Northeast of Fars is “Khurasan” with the cities of Nasa, Marw, Gorgan, Nishapur, Damaghan, Marw al-Rudh, and Herat labelled. To the south “Kirman” is labelled with Bardasir, Jiruft, and Hormuz labelled within. Going east is “Makran” with Siwi, Fannazbur, and Tis labelled. Going east is “Sind” with Aror, Quzdar, Mansura, Daybal, and Karachi labelled. Heading northeast is “Banu Munabbih” with the city of Multan labelled within. Heading northwest is “Sistan” with the cities of Kabul, Bust, and Zaranj labelled. An unlabeled area is north of Sistan with the city of Balikh labelled within." data-type="media" data-quail-id="25">

Figure 13.11 The Abbasid Caliphate. This map shows the Abbasid Caliphate in 850, with areas listed either by their regional name in Arabic or by the ruling dynasty. The caliphate stretched from the territory in North Africa held by the Aghlabids in the west to the region of Transoxiana in the east. The heartland was in Iraq in the center. (credit: modification of work “Abbasid Caliphate 850AD” by “Cattette”/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0)

The early Abbasid caliphs were successful in establishing a centralized administration and easing some of the ethnic tension that had undone the Umayyad dynasty. Other problems went unresolved, however, and new ones arose that the Abbasid rulers struggled to manage. To create an army that was loyal solely to the Abbasid ruler, early ninth-century caliphs began to use enslaved men of Turkic origins. These soldiers, called mamluks, were often young boys taken from their homes, converted to Islam, and trained as soldiers. Their education was provided and their social status assured; in return, they were expected to be loyal to the caliph alone.

The mamluks were initially useful for quelling rebellions, attacking Byzantine rivals, and enabling caliphs such as al-Mutasim to gain some security against hostile aristocrats. Al-Mutasim’s predecessors had tried to strike a balance between Persian and Arab elites, but his own power rested on the militaristic force of the mamluks. The wealth and favor shown the military, however, and especially to these Turkic soldiers, only served to erode the caliph’s position with the traditional elite. To solve this problem, al-Mutasim moved his capital from Baghdad to Samarra in northern Mesopotamia in order to segregate the Turkic soldiers from the rest of the population. After his death, the mamluks supported different successors in a vicious civil war that lasted nearly ten years. Their power and influence had become a permanent fixture in the Abbasid heartland.

The Abbasid rulers also faced religious divisions and criticism, even as the cosmopolitan nature of the caliphate sparked the growth of speculative philosophy and rationalizing thought. For example, philosophers like al-Farabi and Ibn Sina delved deeply into the philosophy of the ancient Greeks, including their systems of logic and medicine. They promoted new ways of approaching philosophy and made contributions to science, law, and theology that later influenced the thought of Christian philosophers in Europe. These Islamic scholars translated ancient philosophical texts into Arabic that Christian scholars later translated into Latin. However, the fact that these two leading figures were not Arabs, and that they applied human reason to the truths of Islam, antagonized religious conservatives and fostered discontent with the worldly caliphs. The Abbasid cultural renaissance was a remarkable achievement, but the Abbasid leadership was not celebrated by all.

One of the most important and enduring religious developments in the Abbasid period was the growth of a mystical form of Islam known as Sufism. Sufism was organized into “brotherhoods,” each of which followed the teachings and practices of its founders in the pursuit of heartfelt and personal worship of God. Sufis behaved like monks in other religions, renouncing the artificial performance of religious duties, as well as luxury and worldliness, to embrace a life dedicated to mystical union with God. Some Sufis also rejected the rationalization of religion and criticized the incorporation of Greek philosophy into Islamic theology. Though Sufism was not a political movement, its search for spiritual purity and rejection of classical philosophy weakened the position of the Abbasids.

In Their Own Words

Poetry from the Abbasid Period

Omar Khayyam was a mathematician, philosopher, and poet who lived during the transition from Abbasid rule to the rise of the Seljuk Turks. He is famous for writing poetry that was often controversial in its day, so much so that he was accused of being irreligious at the Seljuk court. For example, drinking wine was forbidden by the Quran, but Khayyam often refers to drinking wine in terms that seem both literal and metaphorical. Other contemporaries viewed his poetry as reflecting the Sufi value of moving beyond external religious conformity to a more personal spirituality.

Following are excerpts from his most famous work, The Rubaiyat. Khayyam uses imagery related to drinking to express both the joy of life and its fleeting nature. He also considers life experience more precious than formal education, showing a disdain for the teachings of sages and scholars. (Note: The word sans is French for “without,” and a muezzin is the person who makes the call to prayer five times a day at a mosque.)

XXI
Lo! some we loved, the loveliest and best
That Time and Fate or all their Vintage pressed,
Have drunk their Cup a Round or two before,
And one by one crept silently to rest.
XXII
And we, that now make merry in the Room
They left, and Summer dresses in new bloom,
Ourselves must we beneath the Couch of Earth
Descend- ourselves to make a Couch- for whom?
XXIII
Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,
Before we too into Dust descend;
Dust into Dust, and under Dust to lie,
Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and- sans End!
XXIV
Alike for those who TO-DAY prepare
And those that after some TO-MORROW stare,
A Muzzein from the Tower of Darkness cries,
“Fools, your Reward is neither Here nor There”
XXV
Why, all the Saints and Sages who discuss’d
Of the Two Worlds so wisely- they are thrust
Like foolish Prophets forth, their Words to Scorn
Are scatter’d, and their Mouths are stopt with Dust.

—Omar Khayyam, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, translated by Edmund Fitzgerald

• What does Khayyam mean when he speaks of the “Couch of Earth” in XXII?
• In the lines of XXV, why does he chide “Saints and Sages?” What might be his issue with these wise or holy men?

Most of the population of Iran and present-day Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, and North Africa converted to Islam between 800 and 1000 CE, and so, just as Persian converts to Islam played a major role in overthrowing the Umayyad caliphate and bringing the Abbasids to power in the 750’s, conversion to Islam in Iran, Central Eurasia and North Africa created new Muslim rivals for the Abbasids in the 900s. In Spain and North Africa, the Amazigh Idrisid dynasty in Morocco and the Aghlabids in Algeria drifted away from Abbasid control. On the eastern fringes, Persian and Turkic dynasties openly contested the authority of the Abbasid Caliphate without formally dissolving it. This process of growing disunity is called political devolution, in which powers once assumed by a centralized state are taken over by local authorities.

The Fatimid Caliphate and the Seljuk Sultanate

The Abbasids had overthrown the Umayyads with support from non-Arabs who felt cheated of the spoils of conquest, and from Shia Muslims who were opposed to the Umayyads for religious and political reasons. The Abbasids then worked to address the grievances held by different sections of Islamic society. The size and complexity of the empire and the various political, ethnic, and religious tensions made it difficult for the caliphs to maintain control. Power often rested in the hands of local governors, who exploited regional tensions or weaknesses to establish their own dynasties and even their own rival caliphates, as in Al-Andalus. Two of the most important new dynastic states that emerged after the Abbasids lost political control were the Fatimids and the Seljuks.

The Fatimid Caliphate

The early tenth-century Shia leader Abu Muhammad Abdullah organized the Sanhaja and Zanata Imazighen peoples (often called “Berbers”) into an armed movement. The Fatimids advanced east and established their capital in Tunisia in 921. In 969, they conquered Egypt, and later conquered the Levant, and Sicily. In Egypt they established a new capital adjacent to the older city of Fustat and within sight of the Great Pyramid of Giza. The new capital’s name of Cairo (al-Qahirah) meant “the Victorious” and also referred to the planet Mars. Fatimid Cairo quickly grew into a great metropolis with commercial ties to Europe, East Africa, India, and places beyond.

The state Abu Muhammad Abdullah established is called the Fatimid Caliphate because his dynasty claimed descent through Ali’s wife and the Islamic prophet Muhammad’s daughter Fatima. The Shia believed their caliphs held not just secular authority but also spiritual power and insight as imams. The Fatimids’ first capital in Tunisia was called al-Mahdiyyah and the Fatimid Caliph Abu Muhammad Abdallah took the title of al-Mahdi, referring to an apocalyptic figure who would vanquish evil before Judgment Day. This concept was different from the Abbasid view in which the caliph was authorized to lead the faithful, but could not dictate their religious beliefs. The Fatimids' religious authority could lead to arbitrary or even eccentric leadership. However, despite the religious authority of the caliph, the Fatimids were mostly tolerant of other faiths, and Christians and Jews occupied important administrative posts (Figure 13.13).

Figure 13.12 The Fatimid Caliphate. The tenth-century Fatimid Caliphate (in pink) was based in North Africa with its capital of Cairo in Egypt, but it managed to take control of the holy city of Mecca on the Arabian Peninsula. (CC BY 4.0; Rice University & OpenStax)

The Shia believed their caliphs held not just secular authority but also spiritual power and insight as imams. This concept was different from the Abbasid view in which the caliph was meant to lead the faithful but was not a spiritual guide. Thus, in the Fatimid Caliphate, the ruler’s religious view could lead to arbitrary (or eccentric) leadership. For example, Abu Muhammad Abdallah encouraged the Fatimid concept of caliph by taking the title of al-Mahdi, denoting an apocalyptic figure who would vanquish evil and usher in the end of time. Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah intensified preaching against the Sunnis and instituted restrictive measures on Christians and Jewish people. Rumors persisted that he considered himself divine, and his sudden disappearance at age thirty-five added to his religious mystique. Despite their religious view of the caliph, the Shi‘ites were tolerant of other faiths, and Christians and Jewish people occupied important administrative posts (Figure 13.13).

Figure 13.13 A Fatimid Gold Coin. This tenth-century gold coin from the rule of Abu Muhammad Abdullah was issued under his royal name of al-Mahdi. Coins were an important way of ensuring his subjects understood his claims to spiritual authority. (credit: “Calif al Mahdi Kairouan 912 CE” by “PHGCOM”/Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0)

As a powerful state and religious rival, the Fatimid Caliphate posed an existential threat to the Abbasids. Seeing how powerless the Abbasids were to prevent the loss of North Africa, the Umayyad emir of Al-Andalus declared himself to be caliph of a third state, the Caliphate of Cordoba.

The Seljuk Empire

While the Fatimids completely rejected the authority of the Abbasid caliphs, in the Caliphate’s eastern regions there emerged independent rulers who still acknowledged the caliphs’ authority in principle, and even made this spiritual loyalty to the caliph an important part of their religious and political identity, but took complete control over taxation and other aspects of government within their territorise. The Samanid dynasty that ruled the region of Central Eurasia around Bukhara in present-day Uzbekistan, led a revival of the Persian language, now written in the Arabic alphabet and with many Arabic loan words. Over the following centuries, Persian would become one of the main languages of literature and public affairs across a vast region of Eurasia, from Anatolia (present-day Turkey) to the frontiers of China, and among Muslims in India. The Samanid state was taken over by Mahmud of Ghazna, son of a Turkic military slave turned general who became independent from the Samanids, famous for his invasion of northern India. Mahmud’s government continued to promote the use of Persian.

The Seljuk Turks were a branch of the Oghuz Turks. The Oghuz had migrated from Central Asia after surviving conflicts with other Turkic groups in the eighth century and displacing various pastoral groups. Like many steppe peoples, they practiced a polytheistic religion, with a hierarchy of gods and spirits headed by Tengri the sky god. Specialists called shamans were believed to possess powers to negotiate for favor and fortune with these deities.

The initial contact between the Oghuz and the world of Islam was not peaceful. Raids between the two became the source of enslaved men who served the Abbasids as mamluks. The Seljuk dynasty is named for Saljuq, an Oghuz aristocrat who led his followers south in the tenth century and came into contact, often violent, with other Turkic groups and Abbasid emirs. The leaders of the Seljuks converted to Islam, a development that may have been a source of conflict with the Oghuz but drew them into the orbit of the Abbasids. Under leaders like Tughril, they began to establish their own state within and beyond the Abbasid domains in the eleventh century. They drove off other Turkic peoples in Afghanistan, pushing them toward India. They fought successfully against the Byzantine Empire and some of its client states, especially the Kingdom of Georgia. Under Alp Arslan, they seized Anatolia from the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. By the middle of the eleventh century, the Seljuks had created an empire through conquest that extended from India to the Mediterranean (Figure 13.14).

Figure 13.14 The Seljuk Empire. The Seljuk Empire (in green) extended from India to Anatolia, taking territory away from the Byzantine Empire and ruling over Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria, and much of Anatolia." (CC BY 4.0; Rice University & OpenStax)

While the Fatimids claimed to hold supreme religious authority, as Shi’i Imams, the Seljuks’ religious strategy was based on a kind of partnership with Muslim religious and intellectual leaders that was becoming typical of Sunni rulers. The Seljuk rulers did not try to take the title of caliph away from the Abbasids but instead adopted the title sultan, meaning “the authority.” They acknowledged the position of the caliph, but real authority was in their own hands. The Seljuks’ role as political leaders was recognized by ulama and prominent Sufis. In exchange for this recognition of their political authority, the Seljuks supported the ulama and the Sufis, for example by establishing religious institutions like the Nizamiyyah, a madrasah (law college) where ulama were trained.

The Nizamiyyah was named for Nizam al-Mulk, the Seljuks’ grand vizier. In addition to running the government bureaucracy, Nizam al-Mulk wrote a Persian manual on governance that addressed topics like how to prevent officials from cheating the populace, and how to use spies and informants. It was commonly believed that government, which generally meant some form of monarchy, was necessary and legitimate even if the rulers were always imperfect and human, and that the techniques of government were human inventions, and not based on the Quran or teachings of prophets. On the other hand, the law that governed business contracts, personal affairs like marriage and inheritance, and sometimes crime, was the Shari’ah, Islamic law based on the Quran, Islamic tradition, and logic. It was the ulama who decided what the Shari’ah required, both in general and in specific legal cases, and Sunni rulers could appoint judges, but otherwise were not supposed to interfere too much.

Since the Abbasid period, another set of Islamic religious practices developed, called Sufism. Like Christian and Buddhist monks, Sufis lived lives focused entirely on God, isolating themselves from society and giving up material possessions in an effort to perfect their inner (mental or spiritual) condition, in order to experience ecstatic visions and mystical union with God. Some Sufis lived in remote frontier regions and ministered to Muslim holy warriors who had no access to educated ulama, while others lived in major cities. Leading Sufis claimed to have an intuitive and personal connection to God, and thus offered an alternative to the rationalistic religious authority of the Shari’ah, which Sufis tended to see as something very limited, a mere tool for ensuring acceptable behavior. Some Sufis even flouted Islamic law and social mores, for example by drinking wine and piercing their bodies, as a way to further isolate themselves from society.

Sufis would teach others their particular way of living and worship, called a tariqa, meaning “path,” and Sufis with many followers could gain great prestige either during their lifetimes or after death—much like Christian saints. Many people believed that Sufis’ personal connection to God gave them the power to perform miracles, and the tombs of prestigious Sufis became important holy sites in cities across the Islamic world. In the 1200’s and later centuries, some Sufis became politically influential. Sufis also wrote poetry that expressed their devotion to God through musical language and strange or paradoxical imagery, and Sufi poetry became one of the most important forms of literature in the Islamic world. Persian and Arabic poetry and history writing also flourished under Seljuk rule.

The Seljuk sultans themselves followed Central Asian political traditions including corporate sovereignty, the principle that authority over the lands and peoples under their rule belonged not to the sultan as an individual, but to the ruling family as a whole. Thus, sometimes two or more sultans ruled different parts of the empire at the same time (like the Roman Tetrarchy established by emperor Diocletian). And, when a sultan died, rule did not automatically pass to his eldest son (they did not follow the principle of primogeniture), nor could sultans designate a successor. Instead, all eligible sons had a right to take their father’s position. This led to civil wars, and ultimately to the breakup of the empire.

The Seljuks participated in the exchange of culture, and the promotion of Islamic cultural institutions revolved around the courts of the aristocracy, mosques, and madrasas. The Seljuks also stand out as promoters of the caravansaries, inns along the trade routes that had long offered a safe place to stay for those traveling long distances.

Link to Learning

Caravansaries were an important element of travel and trade in the medieval world, serving merchants, diplomats, and pilgrims as hubs for news and rest. In this video, more information about caravansaries is presented, including their architecture and the services they offered.

The infighting among the Seljuks, their conflict with the Fatimids, and the rival caliphate in Spain fragmented the Islamic world. Attempts by the Abbasids to take effective control of their empire led to more complications for Seljuk rule. Fatimid power was threatened by internal instability when the caliphs incorporated Turkic cavalry, alienating traditional Amazigh cavalry. The Islamic world continued to produce brilliant scholars and poets who engaged with Persian, ancient Greek, and Indian ideas. Politically, however, the Islamic kingdoms were divided and weak. This fragmentation enabled Christians from western Europe to establish their own colonies in the Islamic world by means of the Crusades.

The Battle of Manzikert and the Call from the East

While the Islamic world was undergoing the devolution of Abbasid power, the Byzantine Empire could not take advantage of its weakness. The Byzantines had experienced an earlier period of cultural and military dominance under the powerful 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 resulting stability had brought a period of cultural production and innovation sometimes called the Macedonian Renaissance. Its artwork later influenced Italian art and anticipated developments in the Italian Renaissance (Figure 13.15).

Figure 13.15 The Macedonian Renaissance. This image is from a tenth-century illuminated manuscript made in Constantinople and called the Paris Psalter (for its current location). It depicts the biblical King David (seated with harp) composing psalms or sacred songs. The realism of the setting and the individualized faces and postures were innovations of the art of the Macedonian era. (credit: “Paris Psalter” by Bibliothèque nationale de France/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)

At the end of the Macedonian period, the Byzantine emperor’s ability to navigate the economic and military situation deteriorated. Ineffective rulers and conflict over successors to the Macedonian dynasty rendered the empire less militarily capable. The Byzantines also lost control of their overseas territories, especially southern Italy and Sicily, which had been sources of trade and revenue. Islamic and Italian navies began to dominate trade in the Mediterranean. As direct trade between the Christian West and the Islamic world increased, the economic position of the Byzantine Empire as an intermediary began to decline. Byzantine rulers attempted to establish marriage alliances with Slavic rulers and even Norman adventurers who were active in Sicily and southern Italy. Although such allies were eager to associate themselves with the prestige of the Byzantine Empire, they were just as likely to gain it by attacking the empire and carving out a state for themselves. All around them, the Byzantine emperors saw inconstant allies and ferocious enemies.

The challenges the Byzantine Empire faced were not limited to external rivals. Its rulers faced the same problem as the Abbasid caliphs: powerful actors within their own empire who sought to exploit the weaknesses of the rule to enrich their families. Macedonian emperors such as Basil II had issued legislation to curb the power of these elites, called the dynatoi, by ensuring they were taxed heavily, and their massive estates were broken up and distributed to the peasants who served in the armies. Basil was succeeded by less competent or less secure emperors who were compelled to rely on the dynatoi for support and reversed his policies. This harmed the peasant backbone of the army and emboldened the elite, who rewarded the patronage of the emperors with schemes to control or replace them. Like the Abbasids, the rulers then had to balance external threats and challenges with internal ones in a complex search for stability.

One of the dynatoi became Emperor Romanos IV in 1068. Romanos was a capable general who wanted to reverse the empire’s losses to the Seljuks. The neglect of the army by previous emperors meant that he had to rely on foreign mercenaries, who did not get along with each other and who plundered Byzantine territory if they were not paid on time. Romanos had some earlier successes against the Seljuks, whose raids under Alp Arslan had become bloody and bitter affairs. He hoped to take back strategic areas in eastern Anatolia while Alp Arslan was fighting the Fatimids.

Alp Arslan was not as far away as Romanos had hoped, however, and the armies met near the town of Manzikert. Some of Romanos’s mercenaries abandoned him before the battle, and at a decisive moment, he was betrayed by his own aristocratic rivals who failed to protect the army during a retreat. Romanos was then captured by the Seljuks, and instead of executing him—the typical fate for one considered a dangerous foe—to humiliate him, Alp Arslan spared the emperor’s life and set him free, after he agreed to concede territory and pay a hefty ransom.

The military defeat might not have been disastrous, but problems within the empire exacerbated the loss. Romanos was deposed and killed by his own aristocracy, and for the next twenty years, the Byzantine rulers struggled to restore order to their empire. One of Romanos’s successors, Alexios I, called on the popes for assistance against the Seljuks. He was expecting a mercenary force, but instead Pope Urban II framed the conflict between Byzantine and Seljuk as a fight between religions, culminating in the crusading movement.