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 PROGRESS OF THE SELJUKS. 43 remain content with the territory occupied by them before the defeat of Komanos Diogenes.' In 112G another division of the Turks appeared in the north of Asia Minor under the leadership of Tanisman, an New incur- PioiiB muioi- Armenian renegade, who had with him, also, a con- siderable band of Persians. The family of Tanis- man contained the fiercest and most redoubtable enemies, says Nicetas, which the empire had seen in that age. Tanisman had captured Castamouni. The emperor, John Comnenos, al- lied himself with the Sultan of Iconium against him and his successor, Mahomet. Such alliances were, however, always risky, and Mahomet was able to induce the sultan to break faith. The emperor laid siege to the city of Gangra, south of Sinope, and took it."* But his triumph was of short duration. The Moslems returned, after the departure of John Comnenos, in great numbers and recaptured Gangra. Thenceforward, for the next ten years, the war was of a desultory character, the Turks being opposed by the Armenians and the Crusaders in the East, and by the troops of the emperor in the West. The nearest approach to a peace with the empire since the Turkish hordes had left Central Asia was during this period. In 1139 the Turks gathered in force on the Sangarius, a river running northward into the Black Sea, and flowing in one part of its course about twenty miles to the east of Nico- media. The emperor attacked them, and continued the war until the enemy had again been driven back as far as Neo- Caesarea. In 1144 the Turks were once more upon the shores of the Marmora in great numbers. They were chased back as far as Iconium. The country occupied by them around that capital was plundered, and a desultory war was carried on, in which the balance of advantage was always with the Greeks. AVher- ever the Turks could be fairly met, they were defeated by the superior discipline of their enemy ; and the enemy, knowing 1 Zonaras, xviii. 27 ; Ann. Com. xv. 377. ' Nicetas, c. 6. This author often speaks of Persians and Turks in- discriminately, -when his intention is to signify Moslems simply.