Manuel the Armenian Manuel the Armenian was a prominent Byzantine general of Armenian origin , active from circa 810 until his death in 838 . After reaching the highest military ranks , a palace conspiracy forced him to seek refuge in the Abbasid court in 829 . He returned to Byzantine service the next year , receiving the position of Domestic of the Schools . According to one report , he died on 27 July 838 of wounds received while saving Emperor Theophilos ( r . 829 – 842 ) from capture during the Battle of Anzen . Some chronicles , however , record his survival past this date and report that he died some time around 860 . His niece , Theodora , became empress to Theophilos and ruled as regent for many years after Theophilos ' s death . Biography . Manuel was of Armenian origin , and the brother of Marinos , the father of the future Byzantine empress Theodora . Manuel first appears in the reign of Michael I Rangabe ( r . 811 – 813 ) , when he held the post of " protostrator " ( head of the imperial stables ) . At the time , he must still have been young , probably in his twenties . Although he urged Michael to confront Leo the Armenian , following Michael ' s deposition by Leo ( r . 813 – 820 ) , Manuel was promoted to the rank of " patrikios " and entrusted with the post of " strategos " of the Armeniac or the Anatolic Theme . The latter was the most senior of the Byzantine Empire ' s thema tic governors and military leaders , and Leo himself had held the office prior to his accession . According to historians John B . Bury and Warren Treadgold , in early 819 and for about a year , the Εmperor seems to have appointed Manuel to the exceptional post of " monostrategos " ( " single - general " ) of the five land themes of Asia Minor , but this unusual concentration of command authority was apparently directed towards the more effective suppression of iconophile resistance against Leo ' s reinstatement of Iconoclasm rather than for military purposes . This appointment is , however , most likely a misreading of the primary source , according to the editors of the " Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit " . Manuel probably continued serving as " strategos " of the Anatolics under Emperor Michael II the Amorian ( r . 820 – 829 ) , although he is not explicitly mentioned . Escape to the Caliphate . Shortly after the accession of Michael II ' s son and successor , Theophilos ( r . 829 – 842 ) , however , Manuel defected to the Abbasids as a result of machinations at court : the " logothetes tou dromou " ( foreign minister ) Myron had accused him to the new emperor of plotting to seize the throne . Theophilos was hesitant to believe the accusations , and was eventually convinced by the " protovestiarios " ( chamberlain ) Leo Chamodrakon and the " synkellos " John the Grammarian of his general ' s innocence . Manuel , however , did not wait for the Emperor ' s judgement . Using the carriages of the imperial post , he crossed Asia Minor in haste and offered his services to Caliph al - Ma ' mun ( r . 813 – 833 ) , on condition that he would not be forced to convert to Islam . According to the 13th - century historian Vardan Areveltsi , so great was Ma ' mun ' s joy at this defection that he gave him a daily salary of 1 , 306 silver " dirham s " , and continually presented Manuel with gifts . Theophilos , in turn , resolved to get him to return and sent John the Grammarian to Baghdad on a diplomatic mission , ostensibly in order to announce his accession . John was indeed able to see Manuel in private and offered him the Emperor ' s pardon , which Manuel seemed to accept , although for the time being , Manuel remained publicly loyal to his Abbasid allegiance . In the summer of 830 , Manuel participated in an Abbasid expedition against the Khurramite rebels of Babak Khorramdin in Azerbaijan , alongside a contingent of Byzantine captives . The campaign was nominally led by Ma ' mun ' s own son , al - ' Abbas , but it is likely , according to Warren Treadgold , that the more experienced Manuel was the actual commander . After winning a few modest successes , the army turned back south . Manuel , who by then had probably won the confidence of his Arab minders , suggested that he and ' Abbas take a part of the army and raid over the Pass of Hadath into Byzantine Cappadocia . Once across the mountains , he and the other Byzantine captives neutralized ' Abbas and his escort , took their arms and escaped . Abbas ' and his companions were left behind unmolested , and allowed to return to Abbasid territory . Domestic of the Schools . Emperor Theophilos welcomed Manuel with open arms , and named him " magistros " and Domestic of the Schools , commander of the elite " tagma ta " regiments . Manuel would remain Theophilos ' s leading general for the remainder of his life . Furthermore , as the uncle of Theophilos ' s new wife , the Empress Theodora , his position at court was now unassailable , as shown by the fact that the Emperor later served as godfather for Manuel ' s children . In 831 , Manuel accompanied Theophilos in an expedition against a raid by the Cilician Arabs . The Byzantines caught up with the Arabs near the fort of Charsianon , and inflicted a heavy defeat upon them , killing 1 , 600 and taking some seven thousand prisoner . Manuel is also recorded as accompanying Theophilos on his great expedition in 837 against the Arab cities of northern Mesopotamia , which led to the sack of Zapetra and Arsamosata . This campaign , however , and the atrocities committed by the Byzantines after the fall of Zapetra , provoked a large - scale retaliatory campaign by Caliph al - Mu ' tasim ( r . 833 – 842 ) . Manuel again accompanied the Emperor as his senior general , along with Theophobos , the commander of the large " Persian " corps , composed of Khurramite refugees . He participated in the disastrous Battle of Anzen on 22 July 838 , where Theophilos confronted the army of general al - Afshin . During that battle , the imperial army broke and fled , and Theophilos with his retinue were surrounded by the Arabs on a hill with some 2 , 000 " Persians " . When some of the latter reportedly began planning to surrender the Emperor to the Arabs , Manuel seized the Emperor ' s horse by the bridle and forcibly led him away . With a few other officers , he managed to break through the Arab lines , and brought Theophilos to safety in the nearby village of Chiliokomon . During this , he received heavy wounds , and according to the chronicle of Symeon Logothetes , he died of them soon after , likely on 27 July 838 . He was buried in his palace in Constantinople , which lay near the cistern of Aspar and which became a monastery named after him , now traditionally identified with the Kefeli Mosque . Possible life after 838 . The chronicles of Genesios and Theophanes Continuatus ( and following them Skylitzes and Zonaras ) , however , report that he survived his wounds , allegedly being miraculously cured after renouncing iconoclasm at the behest of some monks . After Theophilos ' s death , he is further said to have been appointed a member of the regency council for the infant new emperor Michael III ( r . 842 – 867 ) along with Theoktistos and Bardas , and to have refused the position of Emperor when the populace acclaimed him thus at the Hippodrome . The same writers report that he played an important role in the restoration of the icons , and that he became a " protomagistros " before falling out with Theoktistos and retiring . According to the same sources , in the late 850s , he saved the Emperor ' s life in another battle at Anzen and died shortly after . Traditional scholarship has largely accepted this account , but some modern historians have expressed doubts as to its veracity . The Belgian Byzantinist Henri Grégoire was the first to highlight its incompatibility with the narrative of Symeon Logothetes , speculating that it was a later invention , possibly carried out by the monks of the Monastery of Manuel , who venerated him as a saint and tried to mitigate his iconoclast past . Warren Treadgold , who considers Symeon Logothetes more reliable , also dismissed the reports of Manuel ' s post - 838 survival as invented . Other modern scholars continue to support the possibility of his continued life after 838 , especially given the existence of a seal , dated to the mid - 9th century , which names " Manuel " patrikios " , imperial " protospatharios " , " magistros " , and " bagulos " of the Emperor " , which seems to confirm both his survival into at least the early years of Michael III ' s reign , and his reported role as a member of the regency . Even so , the stories about his activities , and in particular his role in the restoration of the icons and the alleged second battle at Anzen ( which is clearly inspired by the events of 838 ) , are regarded as almost certainly fictitious . However , it may be that the story of his death after Theoktistos ' s downfall is reliable , which would probably place it sometime between 855 and 863 .