ABSTRACT
An exchange of embassies in 1049/50 inaugurated diplomatic relations between Byzantium and the Great Seljuk sultanate. The Turkish warrior groups, which started to spend increasingly longer periods on Anatolian soil, imported many of the practices they had adopted in the Muslim lands to the Byzantine territories. The Turkish invaders seem to have gained a foothold in the region of Tulkhum, from where they gained access to the routes leading across the Anti-Taurus Mountains to the Arsanias Valley and to those leading in a southwesterly direction to the Euphrates. Besides Frankish mercenaries, members of the remaining Armenian and Georgian aristocracy took advantage of the situation by forging military coalitions with Turkish warlords. The political and religious pre-eminence of Sebasteia and the wealth of the Armenian aristocracy undoubtedly made the city an especially enticing target as soon as the Turks were able to extend their activities to eastern Cappadocia.
