The general and aristocrat Nikephoros Melissenos had remained loyal to Michael VII Doukas during the rebellion of the strategos of the Anatolic Themeby Nikephoros Botaneiates (Nikephoros III).

Michael VII had rewarded him by appointing him to Botaneiates's post, but after Botaneiates's victory and entry into Constantinople in April 1078, Melissenos had been exiled to the island of Kos.

Leaving Kos and returning to Asia Minor in 1078, he had succeeded in gaining the support of the local population, and in recruiting many Turkish tribesmen as mercenaries to his army.

One by one, the cities of western and central Asia Minor have opened up their gates to him, and Turkish garrisons are installed in them.

Botaneiates tries to send Alexios Komnenos against him, but he refuses.

In February 1081, Melissenos's troops take Nicaea, where he is acclaimed as emperor, and defeats a loyalist army under the eunuch John.

Suleiman, having lent support to the pretender, is allowed to establish a permanent base a here.

All Bithynia is soon under Suleiman's control, a circumstance that allows him to restrict communication between Constantinople and the former imperial subjects in Anatolia.