Lead: At the end of the 11th Century, the Emperor of the Byzantine Empire, struggling to check the expansion of the Seljuk Turks, asked the Pope in Rome for help.

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

The Seljuks were a nomadic tribe from Turkistan in central Asia. They were named after their first leader. When they moved west they became converts to Islam and conquered the Byzantine provinces of Asia Minor and the Holy Land which for four hundred years had been controlled by Arab Muslims. Fearing a Turkish advance into Constantinople, Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus asked the western Pope for help in defending the remaining Christian areas of the old Roman Empire.

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