Brian Todd Carey, Joshua B. Allfree, John Cairns

Road to Manzikert: Byzantine & Islamic Warfare, 527-1071

(Pen & Sword, 2021), 204pp. £14.99

As most Byzantine military historians know the Battle of Manzikert is seen as a decisive moment in the empire’s history. The Byzantine defeat led to the Seljuk Turks overrunning most of Byzantine Anatolia, a devastating loss of the Byzantine heartland and a major precipitating factor in the First Crusade. In Road to Manzikert: Byzantine & Islamic Warfare, 527-1071, author Brian Todd Carey examines not only the fateful battle itself, but the military history of both the Byzantine Empire and its Islamic foes leading up to 1071. Carey is joined in his endeavor by tactical and strategic map illustrator Joshua B. Allfree and regional map illustrator John Cairns.

After an introduction on the historical significance of Manizkert Carey’s first chapter recounts Byzantine military history from Justinian to Herakleios. The reader is immediately introduced to the state of the Byzantine military (and its foes) in the sixth century. This book is the sort of military history that readers of David Nicolle’s Osprey books will be familiar with, detailing military organization, weapons, tactics, and recounting the battles and campaigns themselves. Chapter One’s first battle is against Rome’s old enemy, Sassanian Persia, at the Battle of Dara (530). Dara sets the tone for the rest of the book; a brief review of the political circumstances leading to the battle, the campaign to that point, and the composition, arms and armor of the opposing sides. The terminology will be well-trod ground for the experienced reader, as famed Byzantine general Belisarios leads his Huns and Germanic Heruli to victory over Persian clibanarii. Dara leads on to North Africa and the Battle of Tricameron (533), and to Italy, the Gothic Wars, and the Battles of Taginae (552), and Casilinus River (554).

Chapter Two introduces what will be the Byzantine Empire’s most consistent and dangerous enemy for the remainder of its existence, Islam. Carey details Islam’s early battles, during Mohammed’s lifetime, at Badr (624), Uhud (625), and the Ditch (627). These battles are little studied in Western historiography, as are all the conflicts of Chapter Two, despite their great historical significance. The consolidation of the Muslim hold over Arabia during the Riddah Wars led to the expansion of Islam, and the subsequent confrontations with both the Byzantine Empire and Sassanian Persia. Carey rightfully devotes much of Chapter Two to the battles of Yarmuk River and al-Qadisiya, both fought in 636. The defeat of the Byzantines and Sassanian Persians at these battles opened the way for the Arabic Islamic conquest of the Middle East. For the Byzantines the years after Yarmuk resulted in nothing less than the complete loss of the Middle East and North Africa, while for the Sassanian Persians al-Qadisiya would lead to their complete destruction.

Aptly titled Byzantine Warfare in an Age of Crisis and Recovery, Chapter Three opens with the Arab sieges of Constantinople, events as historically significant as Yarmuk River in their own right. The Arab sieges, from 674-678 and again from 717-718, were famously defeated by Greek ingenuity in the form of Greek fire, utilized by the Byzantines in flamethrower type weapons that set Muslim ships alight and pushed their blockade away from the city (other factors also led to Byzantine victory, not least of which was the Bulgar attack against the Muslim siege lines during the second siege of 717-718). Chapter Three is key in examining the Byzantine military structure and how it reformed to deal not only with its Muslim enemies but new foes who appeared in the ninth and tenth centuries, namely steppe Bulgars and the Viking Rus. Carey details the reorganization of the Byzantine military into the professional, centralized tagmata and the provincial themal forces, complete with an examination of troops types and their weapons and armor, ranging from light psoloi javinleers and slingers to the heavy skutatoi infantry and the kataphraktoi and klibanophoroi heavy cavalry. This new Byzantine military was not immediately successful, as Carey details in the battles of Pliska (811) and Anchialus (917), both Byzantine defeats to the Bulgars. It was only in the second half of the tenth century, and under a series of military emperors, that the Byzantine tagmata and themes came into their own, detailed in the Byzantine victory over the Rus at the Battle of Dorostolon (971). Without detailing the battles Carey recounts the multiple successes of the Byzantines in the second half of the tenth century, from the reconquest of Crete (960-961) to the decisive victory over the Bulgars at Kledion (1014). This chapter could’ve been longer, with possibly another detailed battle and information on the Byzantine naval revival, but to be fair, Carey is attempting to cover an enormous amount of information in a relatively short book (164 pages of actual text, minus maps).

Chapter Four jumps back to Islam in the seventh century. Carey takes the reader back to the Umayyad dynasty and the Muslim conquest of North Africa, as well as the invasion of the Iberian peninsula and southern France. A book on Byzantine and Islamic military history by definition focuses on some of the most storied battles of Western history, and Chapter Four is no exception, with the Battle of Tours (732) being the only detailed battle in Chapter Four. Carey continues the established pattern, reviewing the campaign, the composition of forces, weapons, arms and armor. Readers new to this era will be introduced to terms like jund and mawali, as well as one of the great figures, both military and political, of European history, Charles Martel. After Tours Carey moves back to eastern Islam, covering the rise of the Abbasid Caliphate and the shifting of Islamic attention eastward, which will at last bring the Turks into play.

Chapter Five, Byzantine and Seljuk Campaigns in Anatolia and the Battle of Manzikert, begins with a look at the state of the Byzantine military in the eleventh century. Any number of campaigns, battles, and sociopolitical events covered in Road to Manzikert could be books in themselves, as the reasons for the eleventh century decline of the Byzantine military could fill many pages. Carey moves through Byzantine decline to the establishment of the Seljuk state, the Seljuk victory over the Ghaznavids, and the subsequent Seljuk push into Anatolia and the Middle East. Carey does an admirable job in this chapter of covering the early Seljuk campaigns and the Turkish attacks against Armenia and the Byzantine frontier that lead to Manzikert. With the stage set Carey reviews the campaign of Romanus IV Diogenes that led to Manzikert, and then details the fateful battle itself.

A Conclusion wraps up the book, as we learn of the fate of Romanus Diogenes and the collapse of the Byzantine Anatolian frontier in the 1070s and 1080s. Carey ends the books as the First Crusade begins, with a brief look at the ultimate fate of the empire.

Road to Manzikert is the type of medieval military history veteran readers will add to their collection and undergrads will use as a reference for years to come. The notes and bibliography sections will be familiar to Byzantine historians, with names like John Haldon, David Nicolle, and Warren Treadgold. Beyond the odd typo there’s little to complain of in Road to Manzikert. It’s a welcome addition to early Byzantine and Islamic military history, a pleasant read, and at its best covers ground that many military histories don’t, such as the Battle of Dorostolon or the Seljuk campaigns preceding Manzikert.  

Daniel Fratini
Texas A&M University- Texarkana
[email protected]