What the hell does Pope Urban II do with all of his restless European Knights? Is Western European stability thereby reduced? Does the lack of an interface with the Islamic world retard the development of European sophistication? Is there a Crusade anyway? Who would be the target of that supposed Crusade? Are any of these questions on point, or are they missing more immediate concerns? I cannot overstate the implications of this, or the myriad alternative routes we could take from this point. At least not when they did, or in the same manner that they did. Without the Seljuk influx into Asia Minor, The Byzantines are not compelled to beg the Catholic West for military aid. The most major result is to Western Europe. Now (due to their own host of problems) this probably doesn't save the Fatimids either, but I would suggest that this improves the influence of Shia Islam into the future. I would suggest that the Fatimid Caliphate persists somewhat longer than they did in our timeline due to reduced pressure from the reduced Seljuk Sunni strength. This defeat does weaken the Seljuks, which is important to my second major change. The Seljuks probably don't see the tremendous growth that sacking Asia Minor permitted them in our timeline, but they were already a force to be reckoned with and were the single largest force in the Islamic world. In fact, in our timeline he would die only a year later in his attempt to subjugate the Christian Georgians. To the Sultan then! Now, I doubt that his capture, death, or execution dissolves the Seljuks. Maybe this sets the stage for long term reform, but we're already working with too many compounded maybes and suppositions. I could go on, but suffice it to say that the underlying disunity in the Byzantine Empire would continue and result in a disaster further down the line. Doukas dynastic rivalry (among others) probably still persist, with the former getting a significant advantage. Bureaucrat factionalism and the Diogenes vs. Even if Romanus IV Diogenes was more formidable (than he already was) and was able to instil the unity required to win at Manzikert as you describe, then the Militarist vs. In our timeline, Manzikert was a catastrophe a long time in the making due to many decades (if not centuries) of systemic problems and disunity in the Byzantine government and military. Difficult question with a lot of ripples and butterflies, so let's try to form an image of just the immediate aftermath.įirst off, I doubt that this saves the Byzantine Empire.
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