Abd al-Malik had also resumed campaigns against the Empire in Anatolia in 692, but no permanent conquest ensues.

These campaigns are partly designed to keep the Syrian troops fit.

The Seljuks win control of most of Anatolia within ten years of the Battle of Manzikert.

The Seljuk sultanate in Baghdad, although successful in the west, reels under attacks from the Mongols in the east and is unable—indeed unwilling—to exert its authority directly in Anatolia.

The ghazis carve out a number of states here, under the nominal suzerainty of Baghdad, states that are continually reinforced by further Turkish immigration.

The strongest of these states to emerge is the Seljuk sultanate of Rum ("Rome," i.e., Byzantine Empire), which has its capital at Konya (Iconium).

Rum becomes dominant over the other Turkish states during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

The society and economy of the Anatolian countryside are unchanged by the Seljuks, who have simply replaced Greek Christian officials with a new elite that is Turkish and Muslim.

Conversion to Islam and the imposition of the language, mores, and customs of the Turks progresses steadily in the countryside, facilitated by intermarriage.

The cleavage widens, however, between the unruly ghazi warriors and the state-building bureaucracy in Konya.

Iconium, located near the imperial frontier in central Anatolia, had been taken from the Empire by the emerging Seljuq Turks in 1072 or 1082.

Renamed Konya, it becomes the capital of the Seljuq sultanate of Rum (Rome) in 1092.

A separate force under William II of Nevers had arrived at Constantinople soon after the Lombard contingent had left Nicomedia.

He had crossed into imperial territory over the Adriatic Sea from Bari, and the march to Constantinople had been free of incident, an unusual occurrence for a crusade army.

He had quickly marched out to meet the others, but in fact never catches up with them, although the two armies must have been close to each other on numerous occasions.

William briefly besieges Iconium (Konya) but cannot take it, and …

The defeat of the crusaders has allowed Kilij Arslan to establish his capital at Konya, and also proved to the Muslim world that the crusaders are not invincible, as they had appeared to be during the First Crusade.

The crusaders and the Greeks each blame the other for the defeat, and neither of them are able to ensure a safe route through Anatolia now that Kilij Arslan has strengthened his position.

The only open route to the Holy Land is the sea route, which benefits the Italian maritime republics.

The lack of a safe land route from Constantinople also benefits the Principality of Antioch, where Tancred, ruling for his uncle Bohemond, is able to consolidate his power without interference from Constantinople.

Both the Second and Third Crusades will suffer similar difficulties when attempting to cross Anatolia.

Kilij Arslan, Sultan of Rüm, had conquered Mosul in 1107, but had been defeated in the Battle of the Khabur River by Emir Jawali al-Saqawu for Muhammad I of Great Seljuq, supported by the Artuqids and Radwan of Aleppo, at the Battle of Mosul.

He had drowned in the river while retreating from Mosul.

His son, Malik Shah, kept prisoner in Isfahan, returns to Anatolia in 1100 to assume his father's succession in Konya.

Seljuq weakness after 1150 enables various Turkmen leaders to establish their own principalities along the fringes of the empire of Rum, where they act as ghazis, or warriors for the faith of Islam, against the infidels.

The Seljuq state of Rukn ad-Din Mas'ud has, by the time of his death in 1155, become the dominant power in central and eastern Anatolia.

Thoros had quickly established a friendly rapport with Kilij Arslan II, the new Seljuq sultan of Rüm; and in 1158 a peace treaty is concluded.

Kilij, engaged in a power struggle with rival Turkish groups in 1158, requests military aid from Constantinople.

Emperor Manuel Komnenos, complies, apparently reasoning that intertribal warring will weaken all the Turks and thus prevent any group from incorporating Anatolia into their domain.

Kilij, using the imperial aid to great advantage, kills his enemies and expands his territory.

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.