Following the success of the First Crusade, the Byzantine armed forces, led by John Doukas the megas doux, reconquered the Aegean coastline and much of the interior of western Anatolia. However, after the failure of the Crusade of 1101, the Seljuq and Danishmend Turks resumed their offensive operations against the Byzantines. Following their defeats, the Seljuqs under Malik Shah had recovered control of central Anatolia, re-consolidating a viable state around the city of Iconium. Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, aged and suffering from an illness which proved to be terminal, was unable to prevent Turkish raids into the recovered areas of Byzantine Anatolia, though an attempt to take Nicaea in 1113 was thwarted by the Byzantines. In 1116 Alexios was able to personally take the field and was enga