The Role of Religious Components and Beliefs in the Victory of the Seljuq Army in the Battle of Manzikert

One of the important events in the history of the Islamic world which is often a source of pride for Turks and Persians is the battle of Malazkirt. This was a battle fought in 1071 between the Seljuq sultan، Alp Arslan، and the Byzantine emperor، Romanos IV Diogenes، and ended with the victory of Alp Arslan. The importance of this event and its short- and long-term political، social، economic، cultural and religious outcomes and effects in two different worlds، namely the Christian Europe and the Islamic world، have ever since drawn the attentions of many historians and scholars of the past and present. Many ideas have been proposed as to the fundamental reason (s) of Romanos defeat and Alp Arslan’s victory، and many factors have been discussed. None of the factors discussed in the primary and later sources and researches can be ignored or rejected، yet one important question one can ask about this battle is as to the place of religious factors and beliefs in this event. This paper hypothesized that spirituality and religious beliefs were not only a factor contributing to the victory of the Saljuq army، but they in fact formed the most important and fundamental factor. The fact the factor was overlooked in the non-Islamic (Byzantine، Greek، Christian، Armenian etc.) primary sources and that still there is no independent and serious contemporary research work on it led the author to offer an independent descriptive-analytical research work، based on primary sources and some other important studies، about the role of religious factors in the battle of Malazkirt.