the Hellespont. With one stroke the traditional frontier separating Islam from Christendom was pushed four hundred miles west. For the first time Turks gained a foothold in that land—a foothold that was never lost.
Fragmentation of the vast sultanate soon followed. Asia Minor (Rum) was held by a cousin of Alp, Sulayman, who in 1077 established himself in Nicaea, not far from Constantinople. In 1084 the capital shifted south-east to Konya (Iconium). In the same year Antioch was recovered for Islam from the Byzantines by the Seljuks. Syria was in anarchy among Arabs, Seljuks, Turkomans and Fatimids until in 1075 Atsiz occupied Damascus. He exasperated its people by his exactions for two years before Alp Arslan's son Tutush took the city and killed him. At Malikshah's death (1079) Tutush became virtually independent. He took Antioch from the Byzantines (1084) and captured Aleppo (1094), but fell in battle in 1095. His holdings were split between his sons Ridwan at Aleppo and Duqaq at Damascus. The two amirs were soon involved in a family war, and a couple of years later Duqaq was forced to recognize the overlordship of his brother. In 1098 a brother-in-law of Tutush who held Jerusalem as fief surrendered it to the Fatimids.
Thus in 1097, when the Crusaders arrived in Syria after fighting their way across Seljuk Anatolia, they found Antioch under a Seljuk amir named Yaghi-Siyan, Aleppo under Ridwan and Damascus under Duqaq. The Fatimids held only a few ports—Acre, Tyre, Sidon, Ascalon—and were about to retake Jerusalem.
