190 A HISTORY OFTHE CRUSADES I 
 
 
until the reign of Constantine IX Monomachus. It is indeed with that reign
that Byzantine historians date the beginning of the Selchükid menace
and the eventual loss of the major part of Asia Minor. 
 Two major Selchükid raids in Byzantine territory took place during
the reign of Constantine IX, one in 1048 under Ibrãhim tnal (or Ylnal).
and the other in 1054 under the sultan, TughrulBeg himself. Both times the
situation was favorable to the invaders, for they found the eastern provinces
stripped of the major part of their troops: in 1o48, because these troops
had been recalled in order to suppress the revolt of Leo Tornicius, which
had broken out in Adrianople in 1047; and in 1054, because they were being
used in an effort to stop the Pechenegs. 
 Ibrãhim Inal ravaged the province of Iberia and the back country
of Trebizond, but it was on Erzerum, a city of commerce, wealth, and population,
that he inflicted the greatest disaster. The city was burned to the ground;
the major part of its population — one hundred and forty thousand,
according to one Byzantine historian — was destroyed ;10 and its wealth
was plundered and carried away. The Byzantine governors of Vaspurkan and
Iberia at first hesitated as to what action to take, but when they were joined
by the Iberian prince Liparites (East Armenian, Liparit), a vassal of the
empire, they came to grips with Ibrãhim Inal only to be defeated.
Liparites himself was taken prisoner. An exchange of ambassadors between
the Byzantine emperor, who was in no position to send reinforcements to the
east, and the Turkish sultan followed, and Liparites was liberated; but there
was no stop to the Turkish raids, and in 1054 it was the sultan himself who
led the expedition into Byzantine territory. His forces plundered the regions
between Lake Van, Erzerum, and the mountains of the back country of Trebizond;
they also laid siege to Manzikert, but failed to take it. The sultan withdrew,
but not all of the marauders left the territory of the empire. Three thousand
under a certain Samuk (called ~apoi~ixris in Byzantine sources) remained
to continue their pillaging; they were active during the reign of Michael
VI 
(1056—1057). 
 These incursions under Ibrãhim Inal and Tughrul-Beg were the beginning
of a series of raids which became increasingly more frequent. On this fact
all the Byzantine historians agree.1' In 1057, when the troops of the Armenian
provinces were withdrawn in 
 
 10 Cedrenus, Historiarum compendium, II, 578. 
 11 See, for instance, Bryennius, Commentarii, pp. 3 I—aZ; Zonaras,
Epitomae historiarum, III, 64o—641; Glycas, Chronicon, p. 597.