In this first general book on the Byzantine army, the author traces the army's impact on the Byzantine state and society from the army's reorganization under Diocletian until its disintegration in the aftermath of the battle of Manzikert.

In Medieval Fortifications in Cilicia Dweezil Vandekerckhove offers an account of the origins, development and spatial distribution of fortified sites in the Armenian Kingdom (1198-1375). Despite the abundance of archaeological remains, the Armenian heritage had previously not been closely studied. However, through the examination of known and newly identified castles, this work has now increased the number of sites and features associated with the Armenian Kingdom. By the construction of numerous powerful castles, the Armenians succeeded in establishing an independent kingdom, which lasted until the Mamluk conquest in 1375. Dweezil Vandekerckhove convincingly proves that the medieval castles in Cilicia are of outstanding architectural interest, with a significant place in the history of military architecture.

The transition zone between Africa, Asia and Europe was the most important intersection of human mobility in the medieval period. The present volume for the first time systematically covers migration histories of the regions between the Mediterranean and Central Asia and between Eastern Europe and the Indian Ocean in the centuries from Late Antiquity up to the early modern era. Within this framework, specialists from Byzantine, Islamic, Medieval and African history provide detailed analyses of specific regions and groups of migrants, both elites and non-elites as well as voluntary and involuntary. Thereby, also current debates of migration studies are enriched with a new dimension of deep historical time. Contributors are: Alexander Beihammer, Lutz Berger, Florin Curta, Charalampos Gasparis, George Hatke, Dirk Hoerder, Johannes Koder, Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, Lucian Reinfandt, Youval Rotman, Yannis Stouraitis, Panayiotis Theodoropoulos, and Myriam Wissa.

Armenians in the Byzantine Empire is a new study exploring the relationship between the Armenians and Byzantines from the ninth through eleventh centuries. Utilising primary sources from multiple traditions, the evidence is clear that until the eleventh century Armenian migrants were able to fully assimilate into the Empire, in time recognized fully as Romaioi (Byzantine Romans). From the turn of the eleventh century however, migrating groups of Armenians seem to have resisted the previously successful process of assimilation, holding onto their ancestral and religious identity, and viewing the Byzantines with suspicion. This stagnation and ultimate failure to assimilate Armenian migrants into Byzantium has never been thoroughly investigated, despite its dire consequences in the late eleventh century when the Empire faced its most severe crisis since the rise of Islam, the arrival and settlement of the Turkic peoples in Anatolia.

The Saljuq Turks' defeat of the Byzantines at Manzikert opened the way for their conquest of Anatolia and domination of the Near East. On 26 August 1071 a large Byzantine army under Emperor Romanus IV met the Saljuq Turk forces of Sultan Alp Arslan near the town of Manzikert. The battle ended in a decisive defeat for the Byzantine forces, with the Byzantine emperor captured and much of his fabled Varangian guard killed. This battle is seen as the primary trigger of the Crusades, and as the moment when the power of the East Roman or Byzantine Empire was irreparably broken. The Saljuq victory opened up Anatolia to Turkish-Islamic conquest, which was eventually followed by the establishment of the Ottoman state. Nevertheless the battle itself was the culmination of a Christian Byzantine offensive, intended to strengthen the eastern frontiers of the empire and re-establish Byzantine domination over Armenia and northern Mesopotamia. Turkish Saljuq victory was in no sense inevitable and might, in fact, have come as something of a surprise to those who achieved it. As David Nicolle outlines in this highly illustrated account, it was not only the battle of Manzikert that had such profound and far-reaching consequences, many of these stemmed from the debilitating Byzantine civil war which followed and was a direct consequence of the defeat.