Manuel the Armenian

'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.

[10][11][12] 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.

[11] According to the 13th-century historian Vardan Areveltsi, so great was Ma'mun's joy at this defection that he gave Manuel a daily salary of 1,306 silver dirhams, and continually presented him with gifts.

[13] Theophilos, in turn, 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.

[12][14] In the summer of 830, Manuel participated in an Abbasid expedition against the Khurramite rebels of Babak Khorramdin in Adharbayjan, alongside a contingent of Byzantine captives.

Manuel, who by then had apparently 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.

[13][15][16] Theophilos welcomed Manuel with open arms, and named him Domestic of the Schools, commander of the elite tagma (regiment) of the Scholae and de facto commander-in-chief of the entire army.

Furthermore, as the uncle of Theophilos's 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.

[12][23][24][25] 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.

The same sources report that after Theophilos's death, he assumed the overall command of the Byzantine army and was appointed a member of the regency council for the infant new emperor Michael III (r. 842–867) along with Theoktistos and Bardas.

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, being accused of lèse-majesté, and retiring from public life to his estates.

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.