ABSTRACT
The Turkish expansion in Asia Minor has to be studied on basis of broad range of narrative sources written between late eleventh and fifteenth century in geographical area stretching from Constantinople to Egypt and Baghdad, and, as far as crusaders' viewpoint is concerned, even to Western Europe. Conceptions of history, attitudes towards current issues, and authorial intentions are likewise important factors shaping the representation of conflicts and enemy images in available narratives. The result is a broad range of images and modes of perception existing side by side. Byzantine or Armenian descriptions of Turkish invaders strongly differ from those in Persian and Arabic texts, but distinction between Christian and Muslim sources is certainly not sufficient to grasp multi-layered complexity of these phenomena. Anna is the first historian to allude to sort of religious conflict and Anatolian Turks' Muslim identity, while Alexios is styled as champion of Christian faith rescuing his co-religionists from slavery and leading barbarians to baptism.
