The Byzantine World War

by Nick Holmes

The crusaders’ greatest advantage by far was that the Seljuk Empire had splintered into a host of largely independent emirates. This had occurred after Malik-Shah’s death,170 when his son Berkyaruq (1092–1105), although nominally the Sultan of Baghdad with authority over both Iran and Iraq (while his brother, Sanjar, ruled the eastern half of the empire extending to modern India), failed to impose his authority over the Syrian emirs in Damascus, Aleppo and Mosul who ruled independently. Therefore, there was no concerted effort by the Seljuk Empire to field a major force against the crusaders, such as Alp Arslan had done at Manzikert against the Byzantines. Indeed, the Seljuk emirs of Syria and Iraq were often in conflict with each other, giving the crusaders the opportunity to pick them off one by one. There is no doubt that this was the single most important reason for the First Crusade’s success.