1072AD- Less than 1 year after the battle of Manazkert (August 26).

The treaty agreed with emperor Romanus IV and Sultan Alp Arslan after the Byzantine defeat.

The stipulations were:

The surrender of Vaspurakan, the cities of Edessa and Antioch.

An annual payment.

The marriage of the daughter of Romanus to the Sultan's son.

However by June 1072 Romanus was exiled to a monastery, and soon blinded by order of his arch enemy, John Ducas. He died soon afterwards.

And so Alp Arslan was left feeling defeated when he had been victorious. There was nothing to stop him occupying the lands conquered, only without the money to pay his soldiers, who soon took the initiative to invade into Anatolia.

On the 21 of November 1072 the Sultan was near the Amu Darya in Kwarazm, having defeated the local Emir.

This Emir, Yussef al-Kwarazmi, decided to fight the Sultan in a last effort of defiance.

He rushed towards the Sultan, his dagger held high.

The Sultan confidently reached back for an arrow, drew it, but then slipped.

At this moment Yussef was upon him and swiftly stabbed the Sultan before being dispatched by the Sultan's bodyguards.

Before he died four days later he ensured that his Emirs backed his son, Malik Shah, as the successor to the throne.

By the end of the year with both Romanus and Alp Arslan dead the situation in Anatolia did not appear to be any the worse following Manakert and the exhaustive civil war that followed, yet appearances were deceptive...