After innumerable sacrifices, the Crusades rolled back the Muslim aggressors back to its pre-Muslim limit and liberated occupied Antioch, Damascus, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth. Which technically passed again into the hands of the Byzantines (although they had little more than formal suzerainty over these areas which were under the tumultuous rule of the truculent Crusaders). But unfortunately, the tide of the Crusades began to be rolled back in 1184 by Saleh-ud-din (Saladin the Accursed) who was an ally of the Turks. But the Crusaders clung on to the coastal towns till 1291, till the Turks under a new Turkish dynasty named Uthman (or Ottoman) gradually pushed their frontiers back to the walls of Constantinople by the middle of the 14th century.
In spite of this defection by an important general of his army to the enemy camp, Romanus continued to march to battle against heavy odds and joined battle at the fortress of Manzikert. Turkish double-cross leads to defeat at the battle of Manzikert
At the battle of Manzikert, the Muslim Seljuk Turks attacked the Byzantines at noon and then feigned a retreat and withdrew to higher ground to catch the Byzantine army in the valley by surprise. From higher ground the Turkish Archers picked off the Byzantine troops at will. But the Byzantines kept up the attack, and by sunset the Battle was still undecided. But when this ruse failed, the Turks tried another one.
The Turks had an ancient custom of sounding a bugle, heralding the beginning and end of a day’s hostilities. After the bugle was sounded, there was to be no fighting. On that day too at sunset, the Turks sounded the bugle and the Byzantine presumed that the Turks would cease battle as they in fact did. In response, Romanus decided to retire his army to his camps, after the Turks stopped hostilities and began withdrawing.
But the Turks had decided on subterfuge to ensnare the Byzantines who trusted the age old Turkish custom. Once the Byzantine army began disengaging and withdrawing to its camp, the Turks did a surreptitious encircling cavalry advance and attacked the astonished Byzantines from the rear. The Byzantine army was caught between two attacks and my midnight, their fate was sealed with the capture of their emperor Romanus by the Turkish chieftain Alp Arslan.
After the deception on the battlefield, Turks indulged in deception in diplomacy too
Having the Byzantine emperor himself as a captive, the Turkish chieftain treated him decorously and entertained him as a royal guest. With this deception, Alp Arslan promised to set Romanus free for only a withdrawal by the Byzanines to the pre-war lines. Arslan did not even ask for the surrender of the Fortress of Manzikert. With the surprisingly lax terms, Romanus was lulled into a false sense of security from his friendly captor.
The Seljuk Turks were now in charge of the routes of the Christian pilgrims through Anatolia to the Holy Land whom the Turks began to harass. As this harassment increased the stories of their depredations began reaching European courts along with the pleas of the Byzantine emperors which became more shrill after Manzikert for succor from Western Europe to battle the Muslim infidels. Thus the seeds for a re-conquest of the Holy Land and the relief of the beleaguered Byzantine empire were sown. The Crusades that began in 1096 (and continued till 1291) were indirectly a fallout of the Battle of Manzikert in 1071.
The terms of the treaty which the Turks imposed on the Byzantines included that Romanus order the Byzantine army to withdraw from the whole of Anatolia up to Constantinople, in return for a promise from Alp Arslan that the Seljuk Turks would not harass the Christian population in Armenia who were under Byzantine rule.
For Romanus who was then a captive, there was no option but to accept these terms, as a condition to regain his freedom. Romanus also needed his forces to tackle the internal rivalries at Constantinople while feeling assured that Alp Arslan would not pose a threat to his eastern frontier.
This treaty sealed the fate of the Byzantine presence in Anatolia, which was till then a part of Southern Armenia but henceforth was to become the domain of the Turks to be known as Turkestan (land of the Turks) or Turkey. The Seljuk Turks faced no more resistance to infiltration into the hitherto Christian Anatolia, and in a few decades they could wrest control of Anatolia from the Byzantines, and approach the Constantinople from the Asian side of the Bosporus.
The Crusades were a belated Christian response to Muslim aggression that began in 634 with the battled of Yarmuk
The Seljuk Turks were now in charge of the routes of the Christian pilgrims through Anatolia to the Holy Land. As this harassment increased the stories of their depredations began reaching European courts along with the pleas of the Byzantine emperors which became more shrill after Manzikert for succor from Western Europe to battle the Muslim infidels. The seeds for a re-conquest of the Holy Land and the relief of the beleaguered Byzantine empire were sown. The Crusades that began in 1096 (and continued till 1291) were indirectly a fallout of the Battle of Manzikert in 1071.
Lessons from the battle of Manzikert and the fall of Constantinople (1453)
After innumerable sacrifices, the Crusades rolled back the Muslim frontier back to its pre-Muslim limit with the liberation of Antioch, Damascus, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth from four centuries of Muslim occupation (640 to 1097). Technically the liberated areas passed again into the hands of the Byzantines (although they had little more than formal suzerainty over these areas which were under the tumultuous rule of the truculent Crusaders). The tide of the Crusades began to be rolled back in 1184 by Saleh-ud-din (Saladin the Accursed) who was a Muslim commander allied to the Turks. But the Crusaders clung on to the coastal towns till 1291, till the Turks under a new Turkish dynasty named Uthman (Ottoman) gradually pushed their frontiers back to the walls of Constantinople by the middle of the 14th century.
The final chapter of the Muslim attack on the Byzantine started with the third Muslim siege of Constantinople (which was the first of its two Turkish sieges, the earlier two being those by Arabs in 674 and 717). This first Turkish siege of Constantinople which began in 1350 was repulsed by the besieged but still spirited Byzantines, but the Turks tried again in 1453, when they finally overwhelmed the city by storm and brought about an end to the Byzantine empire.
The final chapter of the Muslim attack on Christendom started with the third Muslim siege of Constantinople (which was the first of its two Turkish sieges, the earlier two being those by Arabs in 674 and 717). This first Turkish siege of Constantinople which began in 1350 was repulsed by the besieged but still spirited Byzantines, but the Turks tried again in 1453, when they finally overwhelmed the city by storm and brought about an end to the Byzantine empire.
The point is that from their first attacks on Byzantium in 634 at Yarmuk, the Muslims relentlessly attacked the Byzantine empire for a period of eight hundred years. The Muslims faced many defeats at the hands of the Byzantines in this long period. But they never gave up, they kept attacking till, they finally captured the capital city Constantinople in 1453 and the Byzantine power was no more. This has an important lesson for us Americans today. The Muslims never ever give up, till they are done in for. If we want victory and to secure our way of life, we Americans need to keep attacking the Muslims till the Muslims all cease to exist, if not they will keep attacking the USA. There are no soft options in this death struggle with Islam.
Can the modernization of Muslims make them into liberal citizens of a civilized society?
Many malevolent communist wolves disguised in their sheep’s clothing who pose as liberals, keep parroting that it is the modernization of Muslims that will make them into liberal citizens of a civilized society(sic)! They advocate providing more funds to the Madrassah (the schools where Islam is taught to young Muslims), so that the Madrassash could buy computers, and other electronic gadgets to expose Muslims to modern technology. Seems fair on the face of it. But this leaves the basic grounding in hate (of the non-Muslims) that Muslim children are bombarded with in the madrassahs.
With the brainwashing they receive through the murderous mentality that the Quran inculcates in Muslims, the addition of modern technology can only transform these hate-driven, revenge seeking kids into more dangerous enemies. They would assemble more deadly bombs, use cellular technology to trigger the bomb blasts, or hack in to the web-compliant systems of sensitive defense installations and worse still assemble a dirty bomb or even a proper nuclear devise.
Educating the Muslims, while keeping their murderous Muslim mentality intact is like giving nuclear claws to a man-eater tiger
Technology increases their capacity to destroy while keeping intact the violent and cruel tendencies built to an instinctive level by the Quran that is thrust on Muslim kids five times a day during ibadat/salat (Muslim congregational prayer) in the Mosques and Madrassahs. With access to technology, they become more effective as Jihadis and can commit mass-murder of non-Muslims using advanced WMD technology instead of using sword-play to behead non-Muslims individually. So educating the Muslims, while keeping their murderous Muslim mentality intact is like giving nuclear claws to a man-eater tiger. A.Q.Khan of Pakistan is a classic case of a nuclear powered man-eater tiger. We have to decide if we want more such nuclear man-eaters so that we can easily end up as the dinner for these man-eaters!
The point is that from their first attacks on Byzantium in 634 at Yarmuk, the Muslims relentlessly attacked the Byzantine empire for a period of eight hundred years. The Muslims faced many defeats at the hands of the Byzantines in this long period. But they never gave up, they kept attacking till, they finally captured the capital city Constantinople in 1453 and Byzantine power was no more. This has an important lesson for us Americans today. The Muslims never ever give up, till they are done in for. So we Americans need to keep attacking the Muslims till the Muslims all cease to exist or give up Islam, if not, they will keep attacking the USA. There are no soft options in this death struggle with Islam.
This much should be enough for us to realize that providing better technology to Muslims, while keeping the murderous mentality of Islam intact is like educating a cannibal with the use of guns. After we do this, the cannibal will be able to hunt us down far more easily and efficiently. He can now use guns (read electronics, nuclear technology) instead of using his clubs spears or swords to do his ghastly acts. So the point is rather than providing more resources and technology to the madrassahs, or to supply Iran with the technology to build a nuclear plant to generate electricity(sic) we need to change the mentality of the cannibal.(read Muslims). And to do this we need to wield the stick (pre-emptive strikes), and not the carrot (appeasement), so that the ass (read Muslims) can be driven away from the path of murder and destruction and be brought to the path of sanity and peace or be made to rest in peace so that the rest of us can pursue peaceful lives.