The Battle of Pasinler, which is considered one of the largest battles during the first incursions of the Turks into Anatolia, ignited the Turkish-Byzantine tension that lasted for hundreds of years. Let’s take a closer look at the story of the Battle of Pasinler, in which the Seljuks collected a huge amount of wealth despite losing.
Turkish tribes living as nomads in Central Asia had actually been organizing expeditions to Anatolia since the 4th century. However, these were only for looting purposes. From the 6th century onwards, things got tighter and the Turks became a threat to Byzantium. Before the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 The Battle of Pasinler, one of the harshest battles, took place for this very reason.
The Battle of Pasinler was not actually fought only between the Byzantine Empire and the Great Seljuk State. Many different communities ruling in Anatolia at that time also participated in this war. Even though the Turks lost, they strangely took countless captives and gained great booty. Bride Let’s take a closer look at the reasons and importance of the Pasinler War And let’s see its historical story in all its details.
The causes of the Pasinler War were actually caused by the unrest in Anatolia:
After the last king of the Armenian Bagratuni Kingdom died without an heir in 1040, Byzantine Emperor IX. Konstantinos focused on this region and persuaded the governor to He annexed the capital Ani to Byzantine territory. On the other hand, Georgian King IV. He took full control of the region under the pretext of helping Bagrat.
Byzantine domination shifted from Anatolia to the Caucasus and eventually encountered the Turks. Because at that time he was actively There was an influx of Turkish migration to Anatolia through today’s Azerbaijani lands. İbrahim Yınal Bey, the half-brother of Tuğrul Bey, made a great raid in the summer of 1048 and damaged many Byzantine cities.
The Byzantine emperor, who was disturbed by this situation, ordered his two generals named Katakalon Kekavmenos and Aaronios and sent them to support the lands that were the Georgian Kingdom at that time. Byzantine army consisting of a huge army of 50 thousand people and the Turkish army under the command of İbrahim Yınal Bey faced each other on September 10 or 18 of 1048 in Pasinler Square, which is today within the borders of Erzurum province.
The Battle of Pasinler took place in blind darkness:
On one side was the Byzantine army of 50 thousand people, consisting of Greeks, Armenians, Georgians and Abkhazians, and on the other hand, There was a Seljuk army consisting of Turks commanded by İbrahim Yınal Bey and Kutalmış. Fighting in the dark is difficult even under today’s conditions, but interestingly, the Battle of Pasinler started after sunset and it is said that it continued until the first rooster crowed in the morning.
The Byzantine army had never before encountered the tactics used by the Turks. The Byzantine army, which had three wings, was successful on two wings, but The middle wing has already been destroyed and even the Georgian commander IV. Liparit was taken prisoner. Since this news did not reach the commanders of the two wings in the darkest hours of the night, they thought everything was fine.
The real facts were revealed when the day dawned. It turns out that İbrahim Yınal Bey sent only his rearguard against the Byzantine army, The main army had not even left the subject. For this reason, the Turks suffered very few casualties, captured a large number of captives and gained a lot of booty. In other words, the Turkish army, which they could have flattened with the power they had, became the winner thanks to the tactics they employed.
The number of loot and captives is greatly exaggerated:
Let’s sit crooked and talk straight. Okay, the tactics used by the Turks are truly incredible and you are outnumbered. This is how you achieve maximum gain with minimum casualties in a war. However, it is almost impossible to obtain 100 thousand captives and 10 thousand camel loads of booty, as in the work titled El-Kamil fi El-Tarih, written by Ali İbnü’l-Esîr in the 12th century.
Of course, we can still say that the loot obtained was quite good for its period. Because İbrahim Yınal Bey rejected the gifts given by Tuğrul Bey for his success. Likewise, IV for the release of the captives. The ransom offered by Liparit was not accepted by Tuğrul Bey. Instead IV. Liparit was made to swear never to fight the Turks again and was released.
The most important outcome of the Pasinler War was the agreement made:
IV. Even though the Byzantines won this battle tactically because there were important captives such as Liparit, The envoys of the two sides held a peace meeting. Accordingly, the mosque built by the Umayyads in Istanbul will be repaired, the symbols of Tuğrul Bey will be engraved and the sermon will be read in the name of the Abbasid caliph and the Seljuk sultan. These two requests were accepted, but the Seljuks’ request to collect taxes from Byzantium was not accepted.
The Battle of Pasinler is important because the first sparks of the centuries-old war were thrown:
As we mentioned a little in the introduction, Turks had actually been raiding Anatolia for a very long time. However, these raids were mostly aimed at collecting small spoils. But It emerged with the Pasinler War that The Turks were no longer checking the door, they were pushing it. That door was already opened once with the Manzikert Victory and will not close again.
For Western historians, this war is actually the beginning of a period that will last hundreds of years. It lasted until the collapse of the Anatolian Seljuk State in 1306 and The period known as the Byzantine-Seljuk Wars It started with the Battle of Pasinler in 1048.
Historian Prof. Dr. Mehmet Altay Köymen looks at the Pasinler War from our perspective. At that time, Byzantium was like a castle that seemed difficult to shake, let alone collapse. With the Battle of Pasinler, it became clear that this castle was actually made of paper. So, from this perspective, we can say that perhaps even the first seeds of the Turkish army conquering Constantinople and establishing Istanbul in 1453 were sown with the Battle of Pasinler.
One of the biggest battles that the Turks experienced when entering Anatolia. Importance, causes and consequences of the Battle of Pasinler We told its historical story. How fascinating it is that events affect each other so much even though there are hundreds, sometimes even thousands of years between them.