Download PDF | Manzikert 1071 The Breaking Of Byzantium, By David Nicolle (Author), Christa Hook (Illustrator), Osprey Publishing 2013.
98 Pages
ORIGINS OF THE CAMPAIGN
The battle of Manzikert in 1071 is widely regarded as one of the most significant turning points in medieval history. More recently, some historians have downgraded its importance, noting that it was not the defeat of a Byzantine army by a Saljuq Islamic army which opened the Byzantine Empire to Turkish conquest, but the Byzantine civil war that followed that defeat. Meanwhile western historians still tend to present the battle of Manzikert as the culmination of a Turco-Islamic assault upon the Byzantine bulwark of a Christian world struggling for survival against an Islamic threat. The reality was far more complex.
Byzantine civilization had its roots in both the Graeco-Roman and Early Christian pasts. Its people believed themselves to be under divine protection while their leaders were doing God’s work in this world. As a result, their Orthodox Christianity was central to their identity. Referring to themselves as Romaioi or Romans and their state as the New or Second Rome, the Byzantines’ clear sense of superiority annoyed several of their neighbours.
Many foreign peoples who had been forcibly settled within the Empire by earlier Byzantine emperors had, by the 11th century, been Byzantinized. Only on the peripheries did non-Greek-speaking, non-Orthodox Christian peoples predominate numerically. In the east these included Armenians, Syriacs, Kurds, Arabs, Georgians and perhaps Laz.
Meanwhile the Byzantine Empire’s relations with its western neighbours had a profound impact on the events leading up to the battle of Manzikert, and even more so on the events that followed. Although the Great Schism
between the eastern Orthodox and the western Catholic Churches dates from
the year 1054, it was as yet merely a theological dispute between senior
churchmen. Indeed westerners were widely admired in Byzantium for their
simple piety and military prowess, being widely welcomed as military recruits.
The events surrounding the battle of Manzikert focused upon the eastern
part of the Byzantine Empire, in what is now Turkey.
Here the Byzantine
authorities continued the long-standing Romano-Byzantine policy of forcible
population movement as a means of strengthening
the Empire’s defence. Hence, between the 7th and
11th centuries, large numbers of people had been
brought in from Europe, the Middle East and the
Eurasian Steppes. In other cases unreliable elements
had been moved out of Anatolia, for example, to
Thrace where there was already a substantial
Armenian community.
In many cases these transfers had a religious
motivation, the Imperial government being
particularly concerned about perceived heresy in
vulnerable frontier regions bordering the Islamic
world. On the other hand minor theological
differences were usually tolerated, if only because
their followers numbered millions.
For example, in
the 10th and 11th centuries Monophysites who
maintained that Jesus Christ had ‘one nature which
was both human and divine’, included the Armenian
and the largely Arabic-speaking Syriac Churches.
In contrast the Nestorian Church, which maintained
that Jesus Christ had ‘two natures, one human and
one divine’ remained unacceptable. Instead
Nestorians found sanctuary under Islamic rule
where their doctrines were closer to those of
Muslims, who regarded Jesus as a ‘divinely inspired
man’ – in other words a prophet.
The persecution of more extreme heresies continued. They included the
Paulician sect, which was brutally suppressed by the Byzantine authorities
before briefly reappearing in the Eastern Euphrates Valley where the
Manzikert campaign would later be fought. At the start of the 11th century
a related sect called the T’ondrakeci was still recorded, many of its surviving
remnants fleeing to Islamic territory where some of its followers, the
supposedly ‘sun worshipping’ Areworik’ fought for Damascus during the
12th century.
Armenians were, of course, central to the story of the battle of Manzikert.
Early medieval Armenian society was not urbanized and the existing towns
were Greek foundations, which, after being used as Roman garrison centres,
had flourished under early Islamic rule.
These and newly established towns
had attracted Muslim settlers as well as garrisons, almost all under the
control of Arab amirs rather than an Armenian naxarar aristocracy who were
themselves vassals of the ‘Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad. Amongst these new
centres were Manzikert, Ahlat, Archech [Erçiú] and Perkri [Muradiye], which
would feature in the events around 1071.
During this prolonged period of Islamic domination, Armenians had
sometimes fought in support of their Muslim overlords, or in support of the
Byzantine Empire, or in attempts to regain Armenian independence.
Their
homeland straddled the mountainous frontier between the Byzantine and
early medieval Islamic worlds, a frontier which remained largely unchanged
from the 8th to 10th centuries. Here the frontier zone has been described as
a virtually depopulated no man’s land rather than a line on a map. It generally
followed the crests of hills but was also defined by the possession of fortresses
while the main population centres generally lay at some distance on
either side.
On the Islamic side a system of frontier provinces known as thughur had
developed, characterized by a strongly militarized, jihad-orientated Muslim
population. When Caliphal authority fragmented, small but strong and
sometimes quite prosperous local Muslim amirates had emerged, some of
Arab origin, some of mixed Arab-Armenian heritage, others Kurdish. In most
places, however, Muslims were outnumbered by local Christian communities
though the latter, mostly being adherents of non-Orthodox, non-Greek
churches, tended to support their Muslim overlords or at least to remain
neutral in Muslim struggles against the Byzantine Empire.
Meanwhile the Muslim world was wracked by a schism between the
Sunni and Shi’a strands of Islam, largely resulting from differing views of
authority within the Islamic community. It was reflected in local power
struggles between neighbouring amirs as well as a wider confrontation
between the Sunni ‘Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad and the Shi’a Fatimid
Caliphate in Cairo. During the first half of the 11th century it also looked as
if the Shi’a would triumph – but then the Saljuq Turks appeared on the scene
and changed everything.
THE REVIVAL OF BYZANTINE POWER
By the 11th century Byzantine views of Islam had changed. Muslims ceased to
be just another form of heretic, instead becoming God’s instrument to punish
Christians who were not behaving or believing correctly. Meanwhile,
similarities between local Christian and Muslim military elites were remarkable
in the eastern frontier regions. Two Armenian kingdoms had also been
established under ‘Abbasid suzerainty, Bagratids to the north and Artsruni to
the south, while the main Arab–Armenian amirates lay north of Lake Van.
Almost all became targets of Byzantine expansion in the 10th century.
Eventually only the Marwanid amirate clung to a few outposts north of Lake
Van while the Shaddadids survived as a precarious outpost of Islamic rule
south of the Caucasus. Unable to profit from the fall of their Muslim rivals,
most of the small Christian Armenian states had similarly fallen victim to
Byzantine annexation. Only the tiny kingdoms of Tasir-Joraget, Siwnik’ and
some even smaller principalities, remained more or less independent.
Such expansionism was seen by the Byzantines as necessary self-defence
or the regaining of lands lost to Islam centuries earlier. Furthermore, the
region around Lake Van was of key strategic importance. During the 11th
century the most important fortified towns on the northern side of the lake
were Ahlat, Altzike, Archech and Perkri with Manzikert dominating their
hinterland. Rising on the eastern shore of the lake was the citadel of
Van while the rugged southern shore was backed by almost inaccessible
mountains inhabited by Kurdish tribes who resisted outside interference.
To the south-east stood the citadel of Bitlis beyond which was the fertile
Tigris Valley, heartland of the still powerful Marwanid amirate.
Annexation of this region therefore seemed to offer Byzantium a significant
strategic gain. However, Armenian loyalty to the Byzantine Empire remained
at best fragile. To the west the descendants of Armenians forcibly relocated
generations earlier had been substantially ‘Byzantinized’ though remaining
members of a different church. Elsewhere the majority of Armenians remained
unassimilated, unsupportive and occasionally hostile to the Empire. Indeed,
Byzantine chronicles frequently complained that Armenians were unreliable,
proud, secretive and separate while Armenian chronicles complained about
‘perverse, duplicitous and effeminate Greeks’.
The situation was further
complicated by the inability of the Armenians and Georgians to form firm
alliances against their common rivals – be they Byzantine or Muslim.
Then there were the Kurds. Always present but only occasionally
appearing in a leading role, the fragmented Kurdish tribes of the 11th century
were not, however, the tribes of the pre-Islamic era. There had been great
changes with a restructuring of Kurdish society, conversion to Islam and
considerable intermarriage with the conquering Arabs.
Nevertheless, several
Kurdish tribal leaders had taken over from declining Arab amirates by the
early 11th century, the existing Arab civil and military elites transferring their
allegiance to these new rulers at a time when Islam was on the defensive
against a resurgent Byzantium.
The Byzantine government was aware of the security problems caused by
tension between differing Christian churches. Hence they tried – with notable
lack of success – to win over the Monophysite Armenians and Syriacs.
This in turn often made Armenians and Syriacs complain of ‘Greek’ bullying.
Meanwhile, the military importance of the area meant that many elite
mercenary units were stationed there, including many Normans from
southern Italy.
By and large the Muslims of these conquered regions could remain only
if they converted to Christianity. More often substantial communities were
expelled as refugees, eager for revenge. The inhabitants of several lost frontier
towns claimed descent from ghazis, the religiously motivated frontier
warriors of the early years of Islamic rule. Sometimes migrating only a short
distance to a nearby Muslim frontier town, they remained a militarized and
jihad-orientated presence in this volatile region.
For Byzantium, over-extended ambition soon resulted in significant
defeats, notably in Syria and Egypt. The Empire now ruled over a large nonOrthodox Christian population and 11th-century emperors faced mounting
problems, especially in the Balkans. Yet in the east the Byzantines still faced
no significant rivals. In fact historians have traditionally regarded the period
from the great Byzantine victories of the 10th century until the disaster of
Manzikert as one of military negligence and unjustified overconfidence.
There does indeed seem to have been complacency in the Empire’s emphasis
on administrative reforms rather than strong defence. Constantine IX is
particularly blamed for actions such as his dissolution of theme or regional
armies facing friendly Georgia and the fragmented Muslim amirates of
south-eastern Anatolia.
Similarly the Byzantine annexation of most of Armenia has been criticized
as removing a defensive belt, which had worked quite well, and replacing it
with something that failed. On the other hand, for several years these
measures seemed effective.
Around Lake Van, the frontier between Byzantine
and Muslim territory remained stable; the Persian chronicler Nasir-i Khusraw,
who visited this region in 1046, regarded Marwanid-ruled Ahlat as the
frontier between Muslims and Armenians, noting that Arabic, Persian and
Armenian were all spoken there. Beyond that frontier the Byzantine garrisons
remained scattered and somewhat isolated, though their vulnerability had yet
to be demonstrated.
THE RISE OF THE SALJUQS
Amongst many misconceptions about the Turkish cultures of Central and
Inner Asia is the idea that the Turks roamed a ‘sea of grass’ where they fought
their endless internecine wars, constructed ephemeral states and occasionally
attacked or overran their more civilized neighbours. In reality the steppe
grasslands that maintained the Turks’ nomadic lifestyle were often surrounded
by agricultural river valleys, metal-rich mountains, dense forest to the north
and deserts to the south. Furthermore, nomad invasions of their settled
neighbours were usually a result of actions by settled states, which had
disrupted the affairs of steppe societies.
Nor were tribal loyalties within steppe societies as straightforward as is
often assumed. Tribal families tended to support those who were seen as
favouring their economic interests, and when common interests failed,
fragmentation resulted, as would be seen throughout Saljuq history. Nor
were all the Turkish-speakers of these regions nomads, for they also included
town or village dwellers, and settled agriculturalists. This was particularly
true of Semirechye, on the southern side of Lake Balkhash, which featured
prominently in the first decades of Saljuq history.
The indigenous religious beliefs
of the Turks are said to have centred
upon a single god, represented as
the Blue Sky, plus a strong belief in
magic and a veneration of ancestors
associated with totemic animals,
above all, the grey wolf. The first
external belief system to have had a
widespread impact is believed to
have been Buddhism while
Manicheism entered the arena
between the mid-8th and early
10th centuries. During the early
medieval period there was almost a
‘conversion race’ between Nestorian
Christians and Manicheians seeking to convert the peoples of Inner Asia.
However, it was the spread of Islam that underpinned the rise of the Saljuqs;
much of the Islamic missionary work amongst nomadic Turkish tribes being
undertaken by sufi dervishes who were often unorthodox in their beliefs
and practices.
A part of the Oghuz people, known as the Toquz-Oghuz, was ruled by a
Manichean elite, which nevertheless included many Christians, Buddhists
and Muslims. Around ad 940 ‘heathen Turks’, who were probably early
Qarakhanids, seized Balasaghun, the main town of Semirechye. The ruling
elite of the Qarakhanids then became Muslim in the mid-10th century,
resulting in the first Turkish Islamic state in history, and it was from the
fringes of this Qarakhanid state that the Saljuqs emerged.
The origins of the Saljuqs are nevertheless shrouded in legend.
They claimed descent from Saljuq Ibn Duqaq who came to Jend (now QyzylOrda), one of the main Oghuz towns, and converted to Islam before the local
Yabghu or Oghuz ruler did so. By taking control of Jend, Saljuq enabled the
Muslim population to stop paying tribute to the still pagan Yabghu. This, it
was said, began the hostility between most Oghuz and Saljuqs.
Other accounts maintain that the Saljuq family and its followers
were allowed to live on the frontier of the huge Samanid amirate,
in the mid-regions of the Syr Darya River, during the later 10th
century. This was on condition they defend it against their pagan
Oghuz cousins. What is clear is that, under the loose leadership
of the Saljuq family, substantial numbers of Turkish tribal groups
crossed the Syr Darya early in the 11th century, then spread into
Transoxania, eastern Iran and Afghanistan.
Most were those
Oghuz (Arabic ‘Ghuzz’) who converted to Islam while retaining
their original tribal framework and nomadic pastoral lifestyle and
were known as Türkmen. Their loyalty to the Saljuqs depended
entirely upon the latter’s military success. The Saljuqs thus headed a
substantial tribal migration, which for a while dominated the eastern
Islamic world and Middle East. The number of people involved remains
unknown but it has been suggested that 16,000 Türkmen warriors fought for
the Saljuqs at the early battle of Dandanaqan in 1040.
While the early Saljuqs pressed south and west, other Oghuz migrated
westwards, north of the Black Sea until they reached the Byzantine frontier
in the Balkans.
The Saljuqs’ original rivals, the now Muslim Oghuz
principality of Jend, lasted about
half a century. Then, three years after their
victory at Dandanaqan, the Saljuqs returned to expel the Yabghu Shah Malik
from Khwarazm and Jend. As the Islamic historian Clifford Bosworth wrote:
‘The division of authority and the strong rivalry of the two families within
the Oghuz thus ended with the triumph of Saljuq Ibn Duqaq’s two grandsons
Toghril [Tughril] Beg and Chaghri [Ça÷ri] Beg and the inauguration of the
Great Saljuq empire.
The Saljuqs’ first conquests were achieved by traditional nomadic
methods of threatening to destroy trade and agriculture. They also decisively
defeated their Ghaznawid rivals on the battlefield. The Saljuq family’s
newfound authority was then legitimized by the Sunni ‘Abbasid Caliph who
already saw them as a potent ally against his Shi’a rivals. In western Iran and
Iraq the Saljuq’s main adversaries were indeed the Shi’a but fractured
Buwayhid dynasty. But as the Saljuqs’ opponents changed, and as their own
realm expanded, the victor modified their traditional military and political
systems.
Their success in doing so influenced the history of the Middle East
and beyond for centuries.
In fact the Saljuq Sultans adopted Iranian or Islamic forms of both
government and military organization. Herein, perhaps, lay the roots of the
Byzantine failure to realize that, in facing a full-scale Saljuq army, they were
not fighting a tribal horde of Turkish nomads but one which combined the
strengths of both early Islamic and Central Asian Turkish military traditions.
Meanwhile, the interests of predatory Türkmen and Saljuq Sultans were
diverging.
In order to avoid conflict, large numbers of Türkmen moved to
Azarbayjan, which already had a Turkish minority. It also possessed a
relatively cool climate and ample pasture to maintain the Türkmen’s flocks.
In addition it was far enough from the centres of Saljuq authority to allow a
large measure of autonomy and it lay on the frontier of Islam, facing lands
that offered great opportunities to raid – in the name of Islam.
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