The Battle of Manzikert
On August 26th, 1071, Byzantine army was defeated by the Seljuk Turks, and Anatolia was forever lost to Christendom.
Manzikert was fought on August 26th, 1071 – a Friday. The action began in the afternoon; and it was dark in the Anatolian highlands when the Byzantine Emperor, Romanus IV Diogenes, was led captive before Alp Arslan, Sultan of the Seljuks. In half a day, Anatolia, heartland of Byzantium, recruiting ground of more than half of its themes, source of its grain and land route between Constantinople, Cathay and the Indes, upon which the commerce of the Imperial City depended, was lost forever to Christendom.
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