Byzantine Anatolia refers to the peninsula of Anatolia (modern day Turkey) during the rule of the Byzantine Empire. Anatolia would prove to be of vital importance to the empire following the Arabic conquest of the Levant and of Egypt during the reign of the emperor Heraclius in the years 634-645. Over the next two hundred and fifty years, the region would suffer constant raids by Arabic forces raiding mainly from the cities of Antioch, Tarsus, and Aleppo near the Anatolian border. However, the Byzantine Empire would maintain control over the peninsula until the 1080's, when imperial authority in the area collapsed. The Byzantine Empire would reestablish control over parts of Anatolia during the First Crusade, and following the sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade, Anatolia woul