The Byzantines were not only frozen out of Asia Minor: their reputation as the regional bulwark for Christianity in the eastern Mediterranean had also been dealt a severe blow. In 1009 they had proven powerless when a Fatimid caliph in Egypt, al-Hakim, had ordered the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which protected Christ’s tomb. Now they were in an even weaker position. In their place, the ascendant powers in the east were the Seljuks, and to a lesser extent the Fatimids of Egypt.
