The Seljuqs have wrested Syria, Palestine and the Hejaz from the Fatimids, who, having lost both Crete and Cyprus to Byzantium in the 960s, now hold only Egypt.

The disintegration of the great Seljuq empire soon begins, however.

Control of Palestine is contested between the European Franks of the First and Second Crusades and the Zengid dynasty of Syria and Iraq.

Near East (1108 – 1251 CE): Ayyubid Cairo, Crusader Tyre, Nubian Resilience, and the Nicaean–Seljuk Shore

Geographic and Environmental Context

The Near East includes Israel, Egypt, Sudan, western Saudi Arabia, western Yemen, most of Jordan, southwestern Cyprus, and western Turkey (Aeolia, Ionia, Doria, Lydia, Caria, Lycia, and the Troad), plus Tyre in extreme southwest Lebanon.

• Anchors: the Nile Valley (Egypt–Sudan), the southern Levant (with Tyre as the Near East’s sole Levantine polity), Hejaz and western Yemen along Red Sea corridors, southwestern Cyprus, and western Anatolia’s Aegean littoral.

Climate and Environmental Shifts

• The Medieval Warm Period (c. 950–1250) modestly lengthened growing seasons in the Nile Delta and Aegean valleys.

• Nile flood variability peaked in the late 12th century but recovered under Ayyubid hydraulic repairs.

• Red Sea monsoon timing underpinned predictable sailing between Yemen and Egypt.

Societies and Political Developments

• Egypt (Fatimids → Ayyubids):

  • Fatimid rule ended in 1171; Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (Saladin) founded the Ayyubid dynasty, recentralizing Egypt, Syria, and the Hejaz under Sunni rule.

  • Cairo remained the capital; al-Azhar continued as a major center of learning.

• Sudan (Nubia):

  • Christian Makuria and Alodia endured south of Egypt under the Baqṭ framework; diplomacy and intermittent raids marked the frontier.

• Southern Levant (Tyre):

  • Tyre fell to the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1124, becoming a key Crusader port and artisanal hub (glass, textiles).

  • After 1187, Ayyubid–Crusader truces and wars alternated; by 1251, Tyre remained a principal Latin stronghold and brokerage point with Egypt and Cyprus.

• Western Arabia (Hejaz):

  • Mecca and Medina acknowledged Ayyubid suzerainty; Hajj caravans tied the Hejaz into Cairo’s fiscal–logistics system.

• Western Yemen:

  • Sulayhids waned after Queen Arwa (d. 1138).

  • Ayyubids conquered Yemen in 1174, then Rasulids (from 1229) established a durable sultanate centered on Aden/Zabid, allied to Red Sea trade.

• Southwestern Cyprus:

  • After 1191–1192, the Lusignan Kingdom of Cyprus controlled the island; its southwestern ports provisioned Crusader Syria and traded with Egypt (overtly or via truces).

• Western Anatolia (Aegean coast):

  • The Komnenian recovery (to 1180) secured the littoral; Myriokephalon (1176) checked Byzantine inland advances.

  • Post-1204, the Empire of Nicaea held the Ionian/Carian coast against the Seljuks of Rum and Latin enclaves; by 1251, Nicaea dominated the Aegean shore while interior Anatolia remained Turkish.

Economy and Trade

• Cairo–Nile: grain, flax, and sugar surpluses financed the Ayyubid realm; waqf endowments sustained schools and hospitals.

• Red Sea–Indian Ocean: Aden/Zabid funneled spices, aromatics, cottons, and Indian goods to Aydhab and Qūṣfor Cairo; Yemen exported sāqiya-irrigated produce.

• Tyre: exported fine glassware, dyed textiles, and served as a transshipment port between Egypt, Cyprus, and Crusader Syria.

• Western Anatolia & Cyprus: wine, oil, timber, and manufactures moved through Ionian harbors and Cypriot ports, with Nicaean/Latin convoys policing lanes.

• Nubia: traded ivory, gold, and slaves for Egyptian grain and textiles.

Subsistence and Technology

• Hydraulics: Ayyubids dredged canals and maintained barrages after flood failures; Yemeni terraces and sāqiyawheels stabilized highland yields.

• Institutions: Sunni education expanded via madrasas (Ayyubid patronage), while al-Azhar remained a major scholarly forum.

• Military–fiscal: Ayyubids balanced iqṭāʿ-like land assignments with cash pay; Nicaea fielded professional troops and revived shipyards.

• Shipbuilding: lateen-rigged merchantmen and galleys plied the Red Sea and Aegean.

Movement and Interaction Corridors

• Nile corridor: Upper Egypt ⇄ Fusṭāṭ–Cairo ⇄ Alexandria.

• Red Sea: Aden/Zabid ⇄ Aydhab/Qūṣ ⇄ Cairo, keyed to monsoon cycles.

• Aegean littoral: Nicaean and Latin fleets contested Smyrna–Ephesus–Rhodes routes; southwestern Cyprus provisioned Levantine ports.

• Pilgrimage: Hajj caravans crossed the Hejaz; Coptic and Nubian pilgrimages linked Upper Egypt and Nubia.

• Tyre’s roadstead: remained Egypt’s key Levantine interface after 1187.

Belief and Symbolism

• Sunni revival: Ayyubids strengthened Sunni law and institutions; jurists and Sufi networks expanded.

• Coptic and Nubian Christianity: persisted across the Nile and Sudan; Nubian cathedrals and monasteries retained regional influence.

• Latin Christianity: entrenched in Tyre and Cyprus; Latin and Greek rites met in contested ports.

• Judaism: communities in Cairo and Tyre sustained trade finance and scholarship.

Adaptation and Resilience

• Hydraulic recovery in Egypt after the 1060s crises restored agrarian stability.

• Maritime redundancy: with much of the Levant in Latin hands after 1099, Tyre and Cyprus kept Egyptian–Aegean trade viable via truces and convoying.

• Frontier strategy: Byzantium (Nicaea) pivoted to coastal control; Seljuk iqṭāʿ funded cavalry in interior Anatolia.

• Hejaz–Yemen integration: monsoon schedules and Hajj logistics stabilized Red Sea commerce despite shifting overlords.

Long-Term Significance

By 1251, the Near East formed a polycentric web:

• Ayyubid Cairo dominated Nile–Red Sea exchange and Sunni learning.

• Tyre—now Latin—anchored Levantine trade, linking Egypt and Cyprus to Crusader and Byzantine markets.

• Nubia remained a Christian buffer south of Egypt.

• Western Anatolia (under Nicaea) sustained Aegean commerce while the interior Turkified under Rum Seljuks.

• Western Yemen’s Rasulids secured Aden’s role in Indian Ocean trade.

These strands bound Nile, Hejaz–Yemen, Tyre–Cyprus, and the Aegean coast into a resilient system that would frame 13th-century confrontations and exchanges among Ayyubids/Mamluks, Crusaders, and Nicaea/Rum Seljuks.

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.

News of the advance of the imperial army soon reaches Antioch.

Realizing that he has no hope of defeating Manuel, Raynald also knows that he cannot expect any help from king Baldwin III of Jerusalem.

Baldwin does not approve of Raynald's attack on Cyprus, and in any case has already made an agreement with Manuel.

Thus isolated and abandoned by his allies, Raynald decides that abject submission is his only hope.

He appears before the Emperor, dressed in a sack and with a rope tied around his neck, and begs for forgiveness.

Manuel at first ignores the prostrate Raynald, chatting with his courtiers; William of Tyre commented that this ignominious scene continued for so long that all present were "disgusted" by it.

Eventually, Manuel forgives Raynald on condition that he become a vassal of the Empire, effectively surrendering the independence of Antioch to Constantinople.

Manuel's dramatic recovery of Antioch causes the crusaders to treat the Emperor with a new respect.

Raynald is captured by the Muslims during a plundering raid against the Syrian and Armenian peasants of the neighborhood of Marash and held captive at Aleppo, where he will spend the next seventeen years in confinement.

Kilij had attacked Manuel in 1159 as he marched past Konya, or Iconium (the capital of the Sultanate of Rüm), as the Emperor returned from negotiating with Nur ad-Din in Syria.

After Manuel's nephew John Kontostephanus defeats Kilij in 1161, the sultan travels to Constantinople in a show of submission.

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.

Kilij's victory may also have won him the recognition of the 'Abbasid caliphs in Baghdad, for he has begun to mint coins bearing the name of al-Mustadi' (1170-80).

The outcome of Myrokephalion delights the German king Frederick I Barbarossa, who has supported Kilij against Manuel and who now openly threatens to take over Constantinople’s empire by force.

Manuel, to forestall the formation of a single Turkish sultanate, determines in 1176 to reassert his suzerainty over former imperial territory by capturing Iconium, but by this time, his dream of a restored Roman Empire has impaired his ability to measure the growth of Seljuq power.

The army gathered at Lopadion by Manuel is supposedly so large that it spreads across ten miles, and marches towards the border with the Seljuqs via Laodicea, …