Alp Arslan (The Heroic Lion)

Alp Arslan (1029–1072), born Muhammad bin Da'ud Chagri, was the second Sultan of the Great Seljuk Empire whose military prowess earned him the honorific Alp Arslan ('The Heroic Lion'). Expanding Seljuk dominion from Central Asia to the borders of the Byzantine Empire with the administrative counsel of his brilliant grand vizier Nizam al-Mulk, he captured the strategic fortress of Ani in Armenia in 1064.

His defining triumph occurred on August 26, 1071, at the Battle of Manzikert. Facing a massive Byzantine army of over 40,000 men under Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes, Alp Arslan, clad in a white shroud, deployed classic nomadic feigned retreat and horse-archer encirclement tactics to rout the imperial host and capture the Byzantine Emperor alive. Treating Romanos with chivalric courtesy and securing a generous peace treaty, Alp Arslan's victory permanently fractured the Byzantine eastern frontier, opening Anatolia to Turkish migration and civilization.