In this 15th-century French miniature depicting the Battle of Manzikert, the combatants are clad in contemporary Western European armour.
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| Conflict | Battle of Manzikert | | Date | August 26, 1071 | | Location | near Manzikert, Byzantine Armenia (modern Malazgirt, Turkey) | | Result | Decisive Seljuk victory | Byzantine EmpireByzantine Empire
Frankish, Norman, Georgian, Armenian, Bulgarian, Turkic Pecheneg and Cuman mercenaries | Great Seljuk Empire
Pecheneg and Cuman mercenaries | Romanos IV ,
Nikephoros Bryennios,
Theodore Alyates,
Andronikos Doukas | Alp Arslan
Afşın Bey
Artuk Bey
Suleyman Shah | | ~ � 70,000 | | ~20,000 � 30,000 | ~ � 8,000 dead (including 2,000 Turkish mercenaries who kept loyal to the Emperor)
~ captured
(more than half deserted) | | Unknown |
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The Battle of Manzikert (Classical Armenian: Մամազկերտ - Manazkert(City of Manaz); Modern Turkish: Malazgirt (Meydan) Savaşı'), was fought between the Byzantine Empire and Seljuq Turks led by Alp Arslan on August 26, 1071 near Manzikert (modern Malazgirt in Muş Province, Turkey). The decisive defeat of the Byzantine army and the capture of the Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes played an important role in undermining Byzantine authority in Anatolia and Armenia, and allowed Turks to gradually populate Anatolia.
The brunt of the battle was borne by the professional soldiers from the eastern and western tagmata, as large numbers of the mercenaries and Anatolian levies fled early and survived the battle.
The fallout from Manzikert was nearly disastrous for the empire, with numerous subsequent civil conflicts and an economic crisis severely weakening the empire's ability to adequately defend its borders. This led to the mass movement of Turks into central Anatolia and by 1080, an area of 30,000 square miles (78,000 km2) had been lost to the empire. It took a decade of internal strife before Alexios I Komnenos (1081 to 1118) brought stability back to the empire.
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