A series of imperial campaigns against the Seljuq Turks of the Sultanate of Rûm between 1158 and 1161 had resulted in a treaty favorable to the Empire, with the sultan recognizing a form of subordination to the emperor.

Immediately after peace was negotiated the Seljuq sultan Kilij Arslan II had visited Constantinople where he had been treated by Emperor Manuel I Komnenos as both an honored guest and an imperial vassal.

Following this event, there has been no overt hostility between the two powers for many years.

It is a fragile peace, however, as the Seljuqs want to push from the arid central plateau of Asia Minor into the more fertile coastal lands, while Constantinole wants to recover the Anatolian territory the Empire has lost since the Battle of Manzikert one hundred years earlier.

During the long peace with the Seljuqs, Manuel has been able to concentrate his military power in other theaters.

In the west, he has defeated Hungary and imposed imperial control over all the Balkans.

In the east, he has recovered Cilicia from local Armenian dynasts and managed to reduce the Crusader Principality of Antioch to vassal status.

However, the peace with Constantinople has also allowed Killij Arslan to eliminate internal rivals and strengthen his military resources.

When the strongest Muslim ruler in Syria Nur ad-Din Zangi dies in 1174, his successor Saladin is more concerned with Egypt and Palestine than the territory bordering the Empire.

This shift in power has given Kilij Arslan the freedom to destroy the Danishmend emirates of eastern Anatolia and also to eject his brother Shahinshah from his lands near Ankara.

Shahinshah, who is Manuel's vassal, and the Danishmend emirs have fled to the protection of Constantinople.

In 1175, the peace between the Empire and the Sultanate of Rûm falls apart when Kilij Arslan refuses to hand over to Constantinople, as he is obliged to do by treaty, a considerable proportion of the territory he has recently conquered from the Danishmends.

Both sides have for some time been building up their fortifications and armies in preparation for a renewed war.