Background
Manuel I Komnenos, the Byzantine Emperor, had been at peace with Kilij Arslan II, the Seljuk Turkish Sultan of Rûm, during the 1170s. It was a fragile peace, however, as the Seljuks wanted to push westwards, further into Asia Minor, while the Byzantines wanted to push eastwards to recover territory they had lost since the Battle of Manzikert one hundred years earlier. Manuel was able to recover Cilicia and impose his authority over the Crusader Principality of Antioch, and was also aided by the fact that the emir of Aleppo, Nur ad-Din, died in 1174; his successor Saladin was concerned more with Egypt than the territory bordering the Empire, so the Seljuks were left without a strong ally. In 1175, the peace fell apart when Kilij Arslan refused to return territory he had conquered from their common enemy the Danishmends.