وقعة ملاذكرد وأسر ملك الروم

al-Suyuti reports that in 463 AH there was a great battle between the Muslims and the Byzantines, in which the Muslims were given victory under the leadership of Sultan Alp Arslan. The king of the Byzantines was captured and then released for a great sum, and the sultan made a truce with him for fifty years. ¹

Ibn al-Jawzi relates that the sultan remained with some four thousand slave-soldiers after the armies had gone back to Khurasan because of the dearth. He charged them to obey his son Malikshah if he were killed. The king of the Byzantines had gathered a great army, and he rejected a truce that the caliph had mediated. ²

The sultan led the army in prayer on Friday, and he supplicated and wept. Then he marched on the Byzantines, and they were killed that day and night. The king of the Byzantines was captured, and the ransom was settled at a great sum of money, the release of Muslim captives, and the return of some cities. ²

al-Suyuti says that when the king was released he asked in which direction the caliph lay, and he uncovered his head and gestured toward it in service. ¹