Byzantine-Arab Wars (780–1180)
Encyclopedia
Between 780–1180, the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

 and the Abbasid
Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate or, more simply, the Abbasids , was the third of the Islamic caliphates. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphate from all but the al-Andalus region....

 & Fatimid
Fatimid
The Fatimid Islamic Caliphate or al-Fāṭimiyyūn was a Berber Shia Muslim caliphate first centered in Tunisia and later in Egypt that ruled over varying areas of the Maghreb, Sudan, Sicily, the Levant, and Hijaz from 5 January 909 to 1171.The caliphate was ruled by the Fatimids, who established the...

 caliphate
Caliphate
The term caliphate, "dominion of a caliph " , refers to the first system of government established in Islam and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah...

s in the regions of Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

, Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....

, Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

, Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

 and Southern Italy fought a series of wars for supremacy in the Eastern Mediterranean. After a period of indecisive and slow border warfare, a string of almost unbroken Byzantine victories in the late 10th and early 11th centuries allowed three Byzantine Emperors, namely Nikephoros II Phocas
Nikephoros II
Nikephoros II Phokas was a Byzantine Emperor whose brilliant military exploits contributed to the resurgence of Byzantine Empire in the tenth century.-Early exploits:...

, John I Tzimiskes
John I Tzimiskes
John I Tzimiskes or Tzimisces, was Byzantine Emperor from December 11, 969 to January 10, 976. A brilliant and intuitive general, John's short reign saw the expansion of the empire's borders and the strengthening of Byzantium itself.- Background :...

 and finally Basil II
Basil II
Basil II , known in his time as Basil the Porphyrogenitus and Basil the Young to distinguish him from his ancestor Basil I the Macedonian, was a Byzantine emperor from the Macedonian dynasty who reigned from 10 January 976 to 15 December 1025.The first part of his long reign was dominated...

 to recapture territory lost to the Muslim conquests
Muslim conquests
Muslim conquests also referred to as the Islamic conquests or Arab conquests, began with the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He established a new unified polity in the Arabian Peninsula which under the subsequent Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates saw a century of rapid expansion of Muslim power.They...

 in the 7th century Byzantine-Arab Wars
Byzantine-Arab Wars
The Byzantine–Arab Wars were a series of wars between the Arab Caliphates and the East Roman or Byzantine Empire between the 7th and 12th centuries AD. These started during the initial Muslim conquests under the expansionist Rashidun and Umayyad caliphs and continued in the form of an enduring...

under the failing Heraclian Dynasty
Byzantium under the Heraclians
Byzantium under the Heraclians refers to the period when the East Roman or Byzantine Empire was ruled by the emperors of the Heraclian dynasty. The Heraclians presided over a period of cataclysmic events that were a watershed in the history of the Empire and the world in general.At the beginning of...

.

Consequently large parts of Syria, including its capital city of Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...

, were taken by the Byzantines, even if only for a few years, with a new theme of Syria integrated into the expanding empire. In addition to the natural gains of land, and wealth and manpower received from these victories, the Byzantines also inflicted a psychological defeat on their opponents by recapturing territory deemed holy and important to Christendom
Christendom
Christendom, or the Christian world, has several meanings. In a cultural sense it refers to the worldwide community of Christians, adherents of Christianity...

, in particular the city of Antioch
Antioch
Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the...

—allowing Byzantium to hold two of Christendoms' five Patriarchs.

Nonetheless, the Arabs remained a fierce opponent to the Byzantines and a temporary Fatimid
Fatimid
The Fatimid Islamic Caliphate or al-Fāṭimiyyūn was a Berber Shia Muslim caliphate first centered in Tunisia and later in Egypt that ruled over varying areas of the Maghreb, Sudan, Sicily, the Levant, and Hijaz from 5 January 909 to 1171.The caliphate was ruled by the Fatimids, who established the...

 recovery after c. 970 had the potential to reverse many of the earlier victories. And while Byzantium took large parts of Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....

, Jerusalem was left untouched and the ideological victory from the campaign was not as great as it could have been had Byzantium recaptured this fourth Patriarchal seat of Christendom. Byzantine attempts to stem the slow but successful Arab conquest of Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

 ended in a dismal failure. Syria would cease to exist as a Byzantine province when the Turks took the city of Antioch in c. 1084. The Crusaders took the city back for Christendom in 1097 but a Byzantine protectorate was established over the Crusader
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...

 Kingdoms in Jerusalem and Antioch under Manuel I Komnenos. The death of Manuel Komnenos in 1180 terminated military campaigns far from Constantinople and after the Fourth Crusade
Fourth Crusade
The Fourth Crusade was originally intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, in April 1204, the Crusaders of Western Europe invaded and conquered the Christian city of Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire...

 both the Byzantines and the Arabs were engaged in other conflicts until they were conquered by the Ottoman Turks
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 in the 15th and 16th centuries, respectively.

Background, 630–780

From c. 630, the Byzantine Empire came under attack from the Arabs in present day Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

. Having recently converted to Islam and unified by the Islamic Prophet's call for a Jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...

(struggle) against the Byzantine and Persian Empires, they rapidly advanced and took advantage of the chaos of the Byzantine Empire, which had not fully consolidated its "re-acquisitions" from the Persian invasions in c. 620. By 641, the Empire had lost Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Mesopotamia. Despite having lost two-thirds of its land and resources (most of all the grain supply of Egypt) the Empire nonetheless retained 80,000 troops, thanks to the efficiency of the Thema system and a reformed Byzantine economy
Byzantine economy
The Byzantine economy was among the most advanced in Europe and the Mediterranean for many centuries. Constantinople was a prime hub in a trading network that at various times extended across nearly all of Eurasia and North Africa. Some scholars argue that, up until the arrival of the Arabs in the...

 aimed at supplying the army with weapons and food. With these reforms, the Byzantines were able to inflict a number of defeats against the Arabs; twice at Constantinople in 674
Siege of Constantinople (674)
The First Arab Siege of Constantinople in 674 was a major conflict of the Byzantine-Arab Wars, and was one of the numerous times Constantinople's defences were tested. It was fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Arab Umayyad Caliphate...

 and 717 and at Akroinon in 740
Battle of Akroinon
The Battle of Akroinon was fought at Akroinon or Akroinos in Phrygia, on the western edge of the Anatolian plateau, in 740 between an Umayyad Arab army and the Byzantine forces. The Arabs had been conducting regular raids into Anatolia for the past century, and the 740 expedition was the largest...

. Constantine V, the son of Leo III (who had led Byzantium to victory in 717 and 740) continued the successes of his father by launching a successful offensive that captured Theodosioupolis and Melitene. Nonetheless, these conquests were temporary; the Iconoclasm controversy, the ineffective rule of Irene and her successors coupled with the resurrection of the Western Roman Empire
Western Roman Empire
The Western Roman Empire was the western half of the Roman Empire after its division by Diocletian in 285; the other half of the Roman Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire, commonly referred to today as the Byzantine Empire....

 under the Frankish Carolingian Empire
Carolingian Empire
Carolingian Empire is a historiographical term which has been used to refer to the realm of the Franks under the Carolingian dynasty in the Early Middle Ages. This dynasty is seen as the founders of France and Germany, and its beginning date is based on the crowning of Charlemagne, or Charles the...

 and Bulgarian invasions meant that the Byzantines were on the defensive again.

Michael II Vs Caliph Al-Ma'mun
Al-Ma'mun
Abū Jaʿfar Abdullāh al-Māʾmūn ibn Harūn was an Abbasid caliph who reigned from 813 until his death in 833...

Between 780 and 824, the Arabs and the Byzantines were settled down into border skirmishing, with Arab raids into Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

 replied in kind by Byzantine raids that "stole" Christian subjects of the Abbasid
Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate or, more simply, the Abbasids , was the third of the Islamic caliphates. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphate from all but the al-Andalus region....

 Caliphate
Caliphate
The term caliphate, "dominion of a caliph " , refers to the first system of government established in Islam and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah...

 and forcibly settled them into the Anatolian farmlands to increase the population (and hence provide more farmers and more soldiers). The situation changed however with the rise to power of Michael II
Michael II
Michael II , surnamed the Amorian or the Stammerer , reigned as Byzantine emperor from December 820 to his death on 2 October 829, and the first ruler of the Phrygian or Amorian dynasty....

 in 820. Forced to deal with the rebel Thomas the Slav
Thomas the Slav
Thomas the Slav was a 9th-century Byzantine military commander, most notable for leading a wide-scale revolt against Emperor Michael II the Amorian in 820–823....

, Michael had few troops to spare against a small Arab invasion of 40 ships and 10,000 men against Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...

, which fell in 824. A Byzantine counter in 826 failed miserably. Worse still was the invasion of Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

 in 827 by Arabs of Tunis. Even so, Byzantine resistance in Sicily was fierce and not without success whilst the Arabs became quickly plagued by the cancer of the Caliphate— internal squabbles. That year, the Arabs were expelled from Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

 but they were to return.

Theophilos Vs Caliphs Al-Ma'mun
Al-Ma'mun
Abū Jaʿfar Abdullāh al-Māʾmūn ibn Harūn was an Abbasid caliph who reigned from 813 until his death in 833...

 and Al-Mu'tasim
Al-Mu'tasim
Abu Ishaq 'Abbas al-Mu'tasim ibn Harun was an Abbasid caliph . He succeeded his half-brother al-Ma'mun...

In 829, Michael II died and was succeeded by his son Theophilos
Theophilos (emperor)
Theophilos was the Byzantine emperor from 829 until his death in 842. He was the second emperor of the Phrygian dynasty, and the last emperor supporting iconoclasm...

. Theophilos received a mixed diet of success and defeat against his Arab opponents. In 830 AD the Arabs returned to Sicily and after a year-long siege took Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...

 from their Christian opponents and for the next 200 years they were to remain there to complete their conquest, which was never short of Christian counters. The Abbasids meanwhile launched an invasion of Anatolia in 830 AD. Al-Ma'mun
Al-Ma'mun
Abū Jaʿfar Abdullāh al-Māʾmūn ibn Harūn was an Abbasid caliph who reigned from 813 until his death in 833...

 triumphed and a number of Byzantine forts were lost. Theophilos did not relent and in 831 captured Tarsus from the Muslims. Defeat followed victory, with two Byzantine defeats in Cappadocia
Cappadocia
Cappadocia is a historical region in Central Anatolia, largely in Nevşehir Province.In the time of Herodotus, the Cappadocians were reported as occupying the whole region from Mount Taurus to the vicinity of the Euxine...

 followed by the destruction of Melitene
Malatya
Malatya ) is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of its eponymous province.-Overview:The city site has been occupied for thousands of years. The Assyrians called the city Meliddu. Following Roman expansion into the east, the city was renamed in Latin as Melitene...

, Samosata
Samosata
Samosata was an ancient city on the right bank of the Euphrates whose ruins existed at the modern city of Samsat, Adıyaman Province, Turkey until the site was flooded by the newly-constructed Atatürk Dam....

 and Zapetra by vengeful Byzantine troops in 837. Al-Mu'tasim
Al-Mu'tasim
Abu Ishaq 'Abbas al-Mu'tasim ibn Harun was an Abbasid caliph . He succeeded his half-brother al-Ma'mun...

 however won the last laugh in 838 with victories at Dazimon, Ancyra and finally at Amorium
Sack of Amorium
The Sack of Amorium by the Abbasid Caliphate in mid-August 838 was one of the major events in the long history of the Byzantine–Arab Wars. The Abbasid campaign was led personally by the Caliph al-Mu'tasim , in retaliation to a virtually unopposed expedition launched by the Byzantine emperor...

—the latter sacking is presumed to have caused great grief for Theophilos and was one of the factors of his death in 842.

Campaigns of Michael III, 842–867

Michael III
Michael III
Michael III , , Byzantine Emperor from 842 to 867. Michael III was the third and traditionally last member of the Amorian-Phrygian Dynasty...

 was only two years of age when his father died. His mother, the Empress Theodora took over as regent. After the regency had finally removed Iconoclasm
Iconoclasm (Byzantine)
The Byzantine Iconoclasm encompasses two periods in the history of the Byzantine Empire when Emperors, backed by imperially-appointed leaders and councils of the Orthodox Church imposed a ban on religious images or icons. The "First Iconoclasm", as it is sometimes called, lasted between about 730...

, war with the Saracens resumed. Although an expedition to recover Crete failed in 853, the Byzantine scored three major success in 853 and 855. A Byzantine fleet sailed unopposed in Damietta
Damietta
Damietta , also known as Damiata, or Domyat, is a port and the capital of the Damietta Governorate in Egypt. It is located at the intersection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile, about north of Cairo.-History:...

 and set fire to all the ships in the harbour, returning with many prisoners. Better still for Constantinople was the desperate and futile defense by the Emir of Melitene, whose realm was lost by the Arabs forever. Insult was added to injury for the Arabs when the Arab governor of Armenia began losing control of his domain. After the 9th century, the Arabs would never be in a dominant position in the East.

In the West however, things went the Saracen way; Messina and Enna fell in 842 and 859 whilst Islamic success in Sicily
Emirate of Sicily
The Emirate of Sicily was an Islamic state on the island of Sicily , which existed from 965 to 1072.-First Arab invasions of Sicily:...

 encourage the warriors of the Jihad to take Bari in 847, establishing the Emirate of Bari
Emirate of Bari
The Emirate of Bari was a short-lived Saracen state centred on the south Italian city of Bari from 847 to 871. It was the most lasting episode in the history of Islam in peninsular southern Italy....

 which would last to 871. In invading southern Italy
History of Islam in southern Italy
The history of Islam in southern Italy begins with the Islamic conquest and subsequent rule of Sicily and Malta, a process that started in the 9th century. Islamic rule over Sicily was effective from 902, and the complete rule of the island lasted from 965 until 1061...

, the Arabs attracted the attention of the Frankish powers north.

Michael III decided to remedy the situation by first taking back Crete from the Arabs. The island would provide an excellent base for operations in southern Italy and Sicily or at the least a supply base to allow the still resisting Byzantine troops to hold out. In 865 Bardas
Bardas
Bardas was a Byzantine noble and high-ranking minister. As the brother of Empress Theodora, he rose to high office under Theophilos . Although sidelined after Theophilos' death by Theodora and Theoktistos, in 856 he engineered Theoktistos' fall and became the regent for his nephew, Michael III...

, maternal uncle to Michael III and one of the most prominent members of his regency, was set to launch an invasion when a potential plot against his wife by Basil I
Basil I
Basil I, called the Macedonian was a Byzantine emperor of probable Armenian descent who reigned from 867 to 886. Born a simple peasant in the Byzantine theme of Macedonia, he rose in the imperial court, and usurped the imperial throne from Emperor Michael III...

 and Michael III (the former being the future emperor and favorite of the latter) was discovered. Thus Islamic Crete was spared from an invasion by Byzantium's greatest general at the time.

Campaigns of Basil I and Leo VI, 867–912

Basil I

Like his murdered predecessor, the reign of Basil I
Basil I
Basil I, called the Macedonian was a Byzantine emperor of probable Armenian descent who reigned from 867 to 886. Born a simple peasant in the Byzantine theme of Macedonia, he rose in the imperial court, and usurped the imperial throne from Emperor Michael III...

 saw a mixture of defeat and victory against the Arabs. Byzantine success in the Euphrates
Euphrates
The Euphrates is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia...

 valley in the East was complemented with successes in the west where the Saracens were driven out of the Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....

n coast in 873 and Bari
Bari
Bari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...

 fell to the Byzantines in 876. However, Syracuse fell in 878 to the Sicilian Emirate
Emirate of Sicily
The Emirate of Sicily was an Islamic state on the island of Sicily , which existed from 965 to 1072.-First Arab invasions of Sicily:...

 and without further help Byzantine Sicily seemed lost. Further success would wait Basil I when Taranto
Taranto
Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base....

 and much of Calabria
Calabria
Calabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro....

 fell in 880 to Imperial troops. Calabria had been Rome's pre-Aegyptus
Aegyptus
- Aegyptus, King of Egypt and Arabia :In Greek mythology, Aegyptus is a descendant of the heifer maiden, Io, and the river-god Nilus, and was a king in Egypt. Aegyptos was the son of Belus and Achiroe, a naiad daughter of Nile. Aegyptus fathered fifty sons, who were all but one murdered by the...

 bread basket, so this was more than just a propaganda victory.

Leo VI

Basil I died in 886, convinced that this son Leo VI the Wise
Leo VI the Wise
Leo VI, surnamed the Wise or the Philosopher , was Byzantine emperor from 886 to 912. The second ruler of the Macedonian dynasty , he was very well-read, leading to his surname...

 was actually the bastard of Michael III from his mistress Eudokia Ingerina
Eudokia Ingerina
Eudokia Ingerina was the wife of the Byzantine emperor Basil I, the mistress of his predecessor Michael III, and the mother to both the Emperors Leo VI and Alexander and Patriarch Stephen I of Constantinople.-Family:...

. If so, then the Macedonian renaissance
Macedonian dynasty
The Macedonian dynasty ruled the Byzantine Empire from 867 to 1056, following the Amorian dynasty. During this period, the Byzantine state reached its greatest expanse since the Muslim conquests, and the Macedonian Renaissance in letters and arts began. The dynasty was named after its founder,...

 of the Byzantine Empire is nothing more than a continuation of the successful policies of the Amorian dynasty. Leo VI's reign saw even smaller and less impressive results against the Arabs. The savage sack of Thessalonika
History of Thessaloniki
The history of the city of Thessaloniki is a long one, dating back to the Ancient Greeks. Today with the opening of borders in Southeastern Europe, since the collapse of Communism in the early 1990s, it is currently experiencing a strong revival, serving as the prime port for the northern Greek...

 in 904 by the Saracens of Crete was avenged when a Byzantine army and fleet smashed its way towards Tarsus
Tarsus (city)
Tarsus is a historic city in south-central Turkey, 20 km inland from the Mediterranean Sea. It is part of the Adana-Mersin Metropolitan Area, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in Turkey with a population of 2.75 million...

 and left the port, equally important to the Arabs as Thessalonika was to Byzantium, in ashes. The only other notable events included the loss of Taormina
Taormina
Taormina is a comune and small town on the east coast of the island of Sicily, Italy, in the Province of Messina, about midway between Messina and Catania. Taormina has been a very popular tourist destination since the 19th century...

 in 902 and a six-month siege of Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...

. The expedition departed when news of the Emperor's death reached Himerios
Himerios (admiral)
Himerios , also Himerius, was a Byzantine administrator and admiral of the early 10th century, best known as the commander of the Byzantine navy during its struggles with the resurgent Muslim navies in the period 900–912.-Life:...

, commander of the expedition, and then it was almost completely destroyed (save Himerios who escaped) not far from Constantinople.

Romanos I and Constantine VII, 920–959

Up till now the Byzantine Empire was concerned solely with survival and with holding on to what they already had. Numerous expeditions to Crete and Sicily were sadly reminiscent of the failures of Heraclius
Heraclius
Heraclius was Byzantine Emperor from 610 to 641.He was responsible for introducing Greek as the empire's official language. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the exarch of Africa, successfully led a revolt against the unpopular usurper Phocas.Heraclius'...

, even though the Arab conquest of Sicily did not go according to plan. After Leo's death in 912 the Empire became embroiled in problems with the regency of the seven-year old Constantine VII
Constantine VII
Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos or Porphyrogenitus, "the Purple-born" was the fourth Emperor of the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, reigning from 913 to 959...

 and with invasions of Thrace
Thrace
Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...

 by Simeon I of Bulgaria
Simeon I of Bulgaria
Simeon I the Great ruled over Bulgaria from 893 to 927, during the First Bulgarian Empire. Simeon's successful campaigns against the Byzantines, Magyars and Serbs led Bulgaria to its greatest territorial expansion ever, making it the most powerful state in contemporary Eastern Europe...

.
The situation changed however when the admiral Romanos Lekapenos assumed power as a co-emperor with Constantine VII and three of his rather useless sons, thus ending the internal problems with the government. The Bulgar problem meanwhile more or less solved itself with the death of Simeon in 927, so John Kourkouas
John Kourkouas
John Kourkouas , also transliterated as Kurkuas or Curcuas, was one of the most important generals of the Byzantine Empire. His successes in battle against the Muslim states in the East definitively reversed the course of the centuries-long Byzantine–Arab Wars and began Byzantium's 10th-century...

 of the Byzantines was able to from 923 to c 950 AD campaign aggressively against the Saracens. Armenia was consolidated within the Empire whilst Melitene which had been a ruined emirate since the 9th century was annexed at last. In 941 John Kourkouas was forced to turn his army north to fight off the invasion of Igor I of Kiev but was able to return to lay siege to Edessa
Edessa
Edessa may refer to:*Edessa, Greece*Edessa, Mesopotamia, now Şanlıurfa, Turkey*County of Edessa, a crusader state*Osroene, an ancient kingdom and province of the Roman Empire...

—no Byzantine army had reached so far since the days of Heraclius. In the end the city was able to maintain its freedom when Al-Muttaqi
Al-Muttaqi
Al-Muttaqi was the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad from 940 to 944.Of such little importance the Caliphate had become by now that when the previous Caliph al-Radi died, Bajkam, Amir al-Umara , contented himself with despatching to Baghdad his secretary, who assembled the chief men to elect a successor...

 agreed to give up a precious Christian relic: the "Image of Edessa
Image of Edessa
According to Christian legend, the Image of Edessa was a holy relic consisting of a square or rectangle of cloth upon which a miraculous image of the face of Jesus was imprinted — the first icon ....

".

Constantine VII assumed full power in 945. Whilst his predecessor, Romanos I had managed to use diplomacy to keep peace in the West against the Bulgars
Bulgars
The Bulgars were a semi-nomadic who flourished in the Pontic Steppe and the Volga basin in the 7th century.The Bulgars emerge after the collapse of the Hunnic Empire in the 5th century....

, the East required force of arms to create any such peace. Constantine VII turned to his most powerful ally, the Phocas family. Bardas Phokas the Elder
Bardas Phokas the Elder
Bardas Phokas was a notable Byzantine general in the first half of the 10th century, and father of Byzantine emperor Nikephoros II Phokas and the kouropalates Leo Phokas the Younger....

 had originally supported the claims of Constantine VII against those of Romanos I and coupled with his position as strategos
Strategos
Strategos, plural strategoi, is used in Greek to mean "general". In the Hellenistic and Byzantine Empires the term was also used to describe a military governor...

of the Armeniakon Theme
Theme (Byzantine administrative unit)
The themes or themata were the main administrative divisions of the middle Byzantine Empire. They were established in the mid-seventh century in the aftermath of the Muslim conquests of Byzantine territory and replaced the earlier provincial system established by emperors Diocletian and...

 made him the ideal candidate for warring with against the Caliphate. Even so, Bardas was wounded in 953 without much success but his son Nikephoros Phokas was able to inflict a serious defeat on the Caliphate: Adata
Adata
Adata , in Arabic al-Ḥadath al-Ḥamrā , was a town and fortress in the mountains of Cilicia , which played an important role in the Byzantine–Arab Wars....

 fell in 957 whilst Nikephoros' young nephew, John Tzimiskes, captured Samosata
Samosata
Samosata was an ancient city on the right bank of the Euphrates whose ruins existed at the modern city of Samsat, Adıyaman Province, Turkey until the site was flooded by the newly-constructed Atatürk Dam....

 in the Euphrates valley in 958.

Romanos II, 959–963

Romanos II
Romanos II
Romanos  II was a Byzantine emperor. He succeeded his father Constantine VII in 959 at the age of twenty-one, and died suddenly in 963.-Life:...

 launched Byzantium's greatest ever expedition since the days of Heraclius. A mammoth force of 50,000 men, 1,000 heavy transports, over 300 supply ships and some 2,000 Greek Fire Ships
Greek fire
Greek fire was an incendiary weapon used by the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines typically used it in naval battles to great effect as it could continue burning while floating on water....

 under the brilliant Nikephoros Phokas
Nikephoros II
Nikephoros II Phokas was a Byzantine Emperor whose brilliant military exploits contributed to the resurgence of Byzantine Empire in the tenth century.-Early exploits:...

 set sail for Candia
Heraklion
Heraklion, or Heraclion is the largest city and the administrative capital of the island of Crete, Greece. It is the 4th largest city in Greece....

, the Islamic capital of Crete. After an eight-month siege and a bitter winter, Nikephoros sacked the city. News of the reconquest was met with great delight in Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

 with a night-long service of thanksgiving given by the Byzantines to God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

 in the Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey...

.

Nikephoros saw none of this gratitude, being denied a triumph due to Romanus II's fear of feeding his ambitions. Instead, Nikephoros had to march rapidly to the East where Saif al-Daula of the Hamdanid dynasty
Hamdanid dynasty
The Hamdanid dynasty was a Shi'a Muslim Arab dynasty of northern Iraq and Syria . They claimed to have been descended from the ancient Banu Taghlib Christian tribe of Mesopotamia....

, the Emir of Aleppo, had taken 30,000 men into Imperial territory, attempting to take advantage of the army's absence in Crete. The Emir was one of the most powerful independent rulers in the Islamic world—his domains included Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...

, Aleppo
Aleppo
Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and the capital of Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 2,301,570 , expanding to over 2.5 million in the metropolitan area, it is also one of the largest cities in the Levant...

, Emesa and Antioch
Antioch
Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the...

. After a triumphant campaign, Saif was bogged down with overwhelming numbers of prisoners and loot. Nikephoros' brother Leo Phokas
Leo Phokas the Younger
Leo Phokas or Phocas was a prominent Byzantine general who scored a number of successes in the eastern frontier in the mid-10th century alongside his older brother, the Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas...

 was unable to engage the Emir in an open battle with his small army. Instead, Saif found himself fleeing from battle with 300 cavalry and his army torn to pieces by a brilliantly planned ambush in the mountain passes of Asia Minor. With great satisfaction, Christian captives were substituted with recently acquired Muslims.

When Nikephoros arrived and linked up with his brother, their army did no few wonders—a few weeks into 962 and some 55 walled towns in Cilicia
Cilicia
In antiquity, Cilicia was the south coastal region of Asia Minor, south of the central Anatolian plateau. It existed as a political entity from Hittite times into the Byzantine empire...

 returned to Imperial control. Not many months had passed when the Phokas brothers were beneath the walls of Aleppo. The city was utterly ruined when the Byzantines stormed it on December 23, save for the citadel which was zealously held by a few soldiers of the Emir. The beautiful palace of Aleppo was outside the walls—it is easy to imagine how many stones were left untouched in the carnage. With Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

 at hand and the Byzantine troops having thoroughly reduced the place, Nikephoros ordered a withdrawal; the Emir of Aleppo had been too badly beaten to pose a threat anymore. The troops at the citadel still holding out were ignored with contempt. Nikephoros' army had not left Cappadocia
Cappadocia
Cappadocia is a historical region in Central Anatolia, largely in Nevşehir Province.In the time of Herodotus, the Cappadocians were reported as occupying the whole region from Mount Taurus to the vicinity of the Euxine...

 when news of Romanos II's death reached him.

Nikephoros II Phocas, 963–969

Romanos II left behind Theophano, a beautiful empress widow and four children, the eldest son being less than seven years. Like many regencies, that of Basil II
Basil II
Basil II , known in his time as Basil the Porphyrogenitus and Basil the Young to distinguish him from his ancestor Basil I the Macedonian, was a Byzantine emperor from the Macedonian dynasty who reigned from 10 January 976 to 15 December 1025.The first part of his long reign was dominated...

 proved chaotic and not without scheming of ambitious generals such as Nikephoros or internal fighting, between Macedonian levies, Anatolians
Anatolians
Anatolian peoples were a group of distinct ethnic groups which spoke related languages. They shared cultural traits and traditional religion. The Anatolian languages were one branch of the larger Indo-European language family.-Extinction:...

 and even the pious crowd of the Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey...

. When Nikephoros emerged triumphant in 963 AD, he once more began campaigning against his Saracen opponents in the East.

In 965 Tarsus
Tarsus (city)
Tarsus is a historic city in south-central Turkey, 20 km inland from the Mediterranean Sea. It is part of the Adana-Mersin Metropolitan Area, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in Turkey with a population of 2.75 million...

 fell, followed by Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

 that same year. In 967 the defeated Saif of Mosul died of a stroke, thus depriving Nikephoros of the only serious challenge there (Said had not fully recovered from the sack of Aleppo). Aleppo became an imperial vassal shortly after. In 969, the city of Antioch
Antioch
Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the...

 was retaken by the Byzantines. Antioch was the first major city in Syria to be lost by the Arabs. Byzantine success was not total, and in 964 another failed attempt was made to take Sicily. Having taken Crete and Cyprus himself, one could forgive Nikephoros for believing that he was on a roll for capturing Arab-held islands. In 969, Nikephoros was murdered in his palace by John Tzimiskes who took the throne for himself.

John I Tzimiskes, 969–976

In 971 the new Fatimid
Fatimid
The Fatimid Islamic Caliphate or al-Fāṭimiyyūn was a Berber Shia Muslim caliphate first centered in Tunisia and later in Egypt that ruled over varying areas of the Maghreb, Sudan, Sicily, the Levant, and Hijaz from 5 January 909 to 1171.The caliphate was ruled by the Fatimids, who established the...

 Caliphate entered the scene. With similar newly found zeal they took Egypt, Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....

 and much of Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

 from the powerless Abbasids, who were beginning to have their own Turkic problems. Having defeated their Islamic opponents, the Fatimids saw no reason to stop at Antioch and Aleppo, cities in the hands of the Christian Byzantines, and their conquest being more important. A failed attack on Antioch in 971 was followed up by a Byzantine defeat outside of Amida. However, John I Tzimiskes
John I Tzimiskes
John I Tzimiskes or Tzimisces, was Byzantine Emperor from December 11, 969 to January 10, 976. A brilliant and intuitive general, John's short reign saw the expansion of the empire's borders and the strengthening of Byzantium itself.- Background :...

 would prove to be a greater foe than Nikephoros. With 10,000 Armenian troops and other levies he pushed south, relieving the Imperial possessions there and threatening Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...

 with an invasion
Invasion
An invasion is a military offensive consisting of all, or large parts of the armed forces of one geopolitical entity aggressively entering territory controlled by another such entity, generally with the objective of either conquering, liberating or re-establishing control or authority over a...

. His reluctance to invade the Abbasid Capital, though poorly defended and demoralized, remains a mystery.

After dealing with more Church matters, John returned in the Spring of 975. As the Ummayad conquests were halted after roughly a hundred years, John cut the initial success of the Fatimid Caliphate even sooner: Syria, Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

 and much of Palestine fell to the imperial armies of Byzantium. It appears that John's sickness that year and the year after halted his progress and saved Jerusalem from a Christian victory.

Basil II the Bulgar Slayer, 976–1025

The early reign of Basil II
Basil II
Basil II , known in his time as Basil the Porphyrogenitus and Basil the Young to distinguish him from his ancestor Basil I the Macedonian, was a Byzantine emperor from the Macedonian dynasty who reigned from 10 January 976 to 15 December 1025.The first part of his long reign was dominated...

 was distracted with civil wars across the Empire. After having finally dealt with the invasions of Samuel of Bulgaria and pardoned/destroyed the revolts of Bardas Phokas and Bardas Skleros
Bardas Skleros
Bardas Skleros or Sclerus was a Byzantine general who led a wide-scale Asian rebellion against Emperor Basil II in 976–979.-Background:...

, Basil turned his attention in 995 to Syria, where the Emir of Aleppo was in danger. As an imperial vassal the Emir pleaded to the Byzantines for military assistance, since the city was under the siege of Abu Mansoor Nizar al-Aziz Billah
Abu Mansoor Nizar al-Aziz Billah
Al-Aziz was the fifth Caliph of the Fatimids .- History :Since Abdallah, the heir to the throne, had died before his father Ma'ad al-Muizz Li-Deenillah , his brother Abu Mansur Nizar al-Azizbillah acceded to the Caliphate with the help of Jawhar as-Siqilli...

. Basil II rushed back to Constantinople with 40,000 men; he gave his army some 80,000 mules, one for each soldier and another for their equipment. The first 17,000 men arrived with great speed before Aleppo and the hopelessly outnumbered Fatimid army withdrew. Basil II pursued it south, sacking Emesa and reaching as far as Tripoli
Tripoli, Lebanon
Tripoli is the largest city in northern Lebanon and the second-largest city in Lebanon. Situated 85 km north of the capital Beirut, Tripoli is the capital of the North Governorate and the Tripoli District. Geographically located on the east of the Mediterranean, the city's history dates back...

. Basil returned to the Bulgar front with no further campaigning against the Saracen foe.

Final battles

The Byzantine Empire would not produce an Emperor worthy of Constantinople until 1081, when Alexius I Comnenus seized power and re-initiated the Komnenian dynasty
Komnenos
Komnenós or Comnenus was the name of a ruling family of the Eastern Roman Empire , who halted the political decline of the Empire from c.1081 to c.1185.-Origins:...

. Until then however, minor Byzantine successes against the Arabs masked the decline of the Empire. The Arab world as a potent military force had been in decline since the 9th century; losses in Mesopotamia, Syria and the slow conquest of Sicily proved this. Now Byzantium would experience that same decline.

Constantine VIII
Constantine VIII
Constantine VIII was reigning Byzantine emperor from December 15, 1025 until his death. He was the son of the Emperor Romanos II and Theophano, and the younger brother of the eminent Basil II, who died childless and thus left the rule of the Byzantine Empire in his hands.-Family:As...

's short and uneventful reign was followed up by the incompetent Romanos III
Romanos III
Romanos III Argyros was Byzantine emperor from 15 November 1028 until his death.-Biography:...

. When Romanos marched his army to Aleppo he was ambushed by the Arabs. The power of Byzantium is demonstrated by the fact that despite Romanos' failure, his general George Maniaces
George Maniaces
George Maniakes was a prominent Byzantine Greek general during the 11th century, he was the catepan of Italy in 1042. He is known as Gyrgir in Scandinavian sagas....

 was able to recover the situation and defend Edessa against Arab attack in 1032. This however reveals another nature to Byzantium - the decentralized nature of the army, which could operate effectively even with an incompetent general - something that future ill-conceiving Byzantine generals would use to plunge the Empire into chaos.

Romanos III's successor (and possibly his murderer) Michael IV the Paphlagonian saw the expedition against Sicily under George Maniaces. Initial Byzantine success saw Messina falling in 1038 followed by Syracuse in 1040 but the expedition was riddled with internal strife and was diverted to a more disastrous course against the Normans in Italy
Norman conquest of southern Italy
The Norman conquest of southern Italy spanned the late eleventh and much of the twelfth centuries, involving many battles and many independent players conquering territories of their own...

, who were beginning to add southern Italy to Byzantium's long list of lost provinces.
Following the loss of Sicily and most of southern Italy, the Byzantine Empire collapsed into a state of petty inter-governmental strife. Isaac I Komnenos
Isaac I Komnenos
Isaac I Komnenos was Byzantine Emperor from 1057 to 1059, and the first reigning member of the Komnenos dynasty...

 took power in 1059 but his brief two year rule cut his reforms short. The Fatimid and Abbasid Caliphate were already busy fighting the Seljuq dynasty
Seljuq dynasty
The Seljuq ; were a Turco-Persian Sunni Muslim dynasty that ruled parts of Central Asia and the Middle East from the 11th to 14th centuries...

; the Byzantines woke up to this threat under Romanos IV
Romanos IV
Romanos  IV Diogenes was a member of the Byzantine military aristocracy who, after his marriage to the widowed empress Eudokia Makrembolitissa was crowned Byzantine emperor and reigned from 1068 to 1071...

, co-emperor of Byzantium. At the 1071 Battle of Manzikert
Battle of Manzikert
The Battle of Manzikert , was fought between the Byzantine Empire and Seljuq Turks led by Alp Arslan on August 26, 1071 near Manzikert...

, the Byzantines were defeated by Alp Arslan
Alp Arslan
Alp Arslan was the third sultan of the Seljuq dynasty and great-grandson of Seljuk, the eponymous founder of the dynasty...

 , Head of the Great Seljuq Empire
Great Seljuq Empire
The Great Seljuq Empire was a medieval Persianate, Turko-Persian Sunni Muslim empire, originating from the Qynyq branch of Oghuz Turks. The Seljuq Empire controlled a vast area stretching from the Hindu Kush to eastern Anatolia and from Central Asia to the Persian Gulf...

. This, coupled with a civil war, brought most of the Asia Minor under the rule of the Seljuq Turks
Seljuq dynasty
The Seljuq ; were a Turco-Persian Sunni Muslim dynasty that ruled parts of Central Asia and the Middle East from the 11th to 14th centuries...

 by 1091. Despite a recovery under Alexios I Comnenus, the Byzantines would not fight the Arabs again until the end of the reign of John II Comnenus.

Komnenian-Arab Wars

John II Komnenos
John II Komnenos
John II Komnenos was Byzantine Emperor from 1118 to 1143. Also known as Kaloïōannēs , he was the eldest son of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina...

 pursued a pro-Crusader policy, actively defending the Crusader states
Crusader states
The Crusader states were a number of mostly 12th- and 13th-century feudal states created by Western European crusaders in Asia Minor, Greece and the Holy Land , and during the Northern Crusades in the eastern Baltic area...

 against the forces of Zengi
Zengi
Imad ad-Din Zengi was the atabeg of Mosul, Aleppo, Hama and Edessa and founder of the Zengid dynasty, to which he gave his name.-Early life:...

. His army marched and laid siege to Shaizar, but the Principality of Antioch
Principality of Antioch
The Principality of Antioch, including parts of modern-day Turkey and Syria, was one of the crusader states created during the First Crusade.-Foundation:...

 betrayed the Byzantines with inactiveness. John II therefore had little choice but accept the Emir of Mosul's promise of vassalage and annual tribute to Byzantium. The other choice would have been risking a battle whilst leaving his siege equipment in the hands of the untrustworthy Crusaders. John could have beaten Zengi, but Zengi was not the only potential foe for Byzantium.

John II died in 1143. The foolishness of the Principality of Antioch meant that Edessa fell and now the great Patriarchate was on the front line. A failed siege on Damascus in the Second Crusade
Second Crusade
The Second Crusade was the second major crusade launched from Europe. The Second Crusade was started in response to the fall of the County of Edessa the previous year to the forces of Zengi. The county had been founded during the First Crusade by Baldwin of Boulogne in 1098...

 forced the Kingdom to turn south against Egypt. The new Byzantine Emperor, Manuel I Komnenos
Manuel I Komnenos
Manuel I Komnenos was a Byzantine Emperor of the 12th century who reigned over a crucial turning point in the history of Byzantium and the Mediterranean....

 enjoyed the idea of conquering Egypt - whose vast resources in grain and in native Christian manpower (from the Copts) would be no small reward, even if shared with the Crusaders. Alas, Manuel Komnenos worked too quickly for the Crusaders. After three months the Siege of Damietta in 1169 failed, although the Crusaders received a mixed diet of defeat (with several invasions failing) and some victories. The Crusaders were able to negotiate the Fatimids to surrender the capital to a small Crusader garrison and pay annual tribute
Tribute
A tribute is wealth, often in kind, that one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often the case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance. Various ancient states, which could be called suzerains, exacted tribute from areas they had conquered or threatened to conquer...

, but a Crusader breach of the treaty coupled with the rising power of the Muslims saw Saladin
Saladin
Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb , better known in the Western world as Saladin, was an Arabized Kurdish Muslim, who became the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and founded the Ayyubid dynasty. He led Muslim and Arab opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant...

 master of Syria and Egypt.

In 1171, Amalric I of Jerusalem
Amalric I of Jerusalem
Amalric I of Jerusalem was King of Jerusalem 1163–1174, and Count of Jaffa and Ascalon before his accession. Amalric was the second son of Melisende of Jerusalem and Fulk of Jerusalem...

 came to Constantinople in person, after Egypt had fallen to Saladin
Saladin
Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb , better known in the Western world as Saladin, was an Arabized Kurdish Muslim, who became the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and founded the Ayyubid dynasty. He led Muslim and Arab opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant...

. In 1177, a fleet of 150 ships was sent by Manuel I to invade Egypt, but returned home after appearing off Acre due to the refusal of Philip, Count of Flanders
Philip, Count of Flanders
Philip of Alsace was count of Flanders from 1168 to 1191. He succeeded his father Thierry of Alsace.-Count of Flanders:...

 and many important nobles of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
Kingdom of Jerusalem
The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Catholic kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. The kingdom lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, was destroyed by the Mamluks, but its history is divided into two distinct periods....

 to help.

In that year Manuel Komnenos suffered a defeat in the Battle of Myriokephalon
Battle of Myriokephalon
The Battle of Myriokephalon, also known as the ', or in Turkish, was a battle between the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Turks in Phrygia on September 17, 1176. The battle was a strategic reverse for the Byzantine forces, who were ambushed when moving through a mountain pass...

 against Kilij Arslan II
Kilij Arslan II
Kilij Arslan II was a Seljuk Sultan of Rûm from 1156 until his death in 1192.As Arnold of Lübeck reports in his Chronica Slavorum, he was present at the meeting of Henry the Lion with Kilij-Arslan during the former's pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1172...

 of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm. Even so, the Byzantine Emperor continued to have an interest in Syria, planning to march his army south in a pilgrimage and show of strength against Saladin's might. Nonetheless, like much of Manuel's goals, this proved unrealistic and he had to spend the last of his years until his death in 1180 working hard to restore the Eastern front against Iconium, which had deteriorated somewhat in the time wasted in fruitless Arab campaigns.

Conclusion

Like all of Byzantium's wars, all gains made were temporary reconquests. By the mid-9th century the Arabs had been for the most part driven out of the gates of Cilicia. However, they seized Cyprus and in the 9th century took both Sicily and after Crete with fewer troops then sent against Constantinople in 717. The Byzantines' counter-attack came in the late 9th century under the Macedonian Emperors, defeating the Emir of Melitene and weakening Arab rule over Armenia. In the mid 10th century, the Island of Sicily was totally overrun, but the south of Italy and Illyria survived. Under Nikephoros Phocas, Cilicia and small parts of northern Syria, including Antioch was reconquered. Cyprus and Crete also fell to Imperial forces. John Tzimiskes made one large offensive into Mosul and Palestine, withdrawing to face the Bulgar threat. When Basil II came to power, the Arabs had completed their conquest of Sicily, but lost most of Syria.

With the arrival of the Seljuk Turks
Byzantine-Seljuk wars
The Byzantine–Seljuq Wars were a series of decisive battles that shifted the balance of power in Asia Minor and Syria from the Byzantine Empire to the Seljuq Turks...

, all territories except western Anatolia, the coast of Syria, Greece and Illyria were lost.

It would take another 100 years and several wasted opportunities (for both sides) before the Crusader states were wiped out. By then, the Byzantines Empire slipped into decline (1180–1203), was sacked and splintered (1204–1261) and never recovered its position to fight on a front so far from Constantinople. Within 200 years of the Palaiologan restoration
Byzantium under the Palaiologoi
The Byzantine Empire or Byzantium, the term conventionally used since the 19th century to describe the Greek-speaking Roman Empire of the Middle Ages, was ruled by the Palaiologoi dynasty in the period c...

, the Byzantine Empire was eliminated with the fall of Trebizond in 1461 whilst Egypt fell 60 years later in 1520 under the Ottoman Sultan Selim I
Selim I
Selim I, Yavuz Sultân Selim Khan, Hâdim-ül Haramain-ish Sharifain , nicknamed Yavuz "the Stern" or "the Steadfast", but often rendered in English as "the Grim" , was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to...

.
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