Is there any chance of Byzantium converting to Islam in order to ease tensions with their Islamic neighbors? Would this allow them to survive any longer than IOTL? What effects would this have on Europe/The Middle East?
Plausibility Check: Byzantium converting to Islam to ease tensions
- Thread starter killertahu22
- Start date
Considering the Emperor's legitimacy comes from being God's appointed representative on Earth, this can't happen. Any Emperor who converted would be murdered and instantly replaced.
Was there any chance of the United States converting to Communism during the Cold War, to ease tensions? That's considerably more likely than what you ask for.
Only chance that is higher than 0 is if Islam* is merely a different branch of Christianity. So Muhammad just has to start a Christian subset and make it get as popular as, say, Monopyhsitism within the empire and you might be able to pull it off.
But not Islam as we know it. That's ASB.
But not Islam as we know it. That's ASB.
Even if it's reduced to a rump state? If faced with the decision between conversion and getting put to the sword, might some emperors choose the first?
Your scenario is just like the last years of the Empire and the Emperors never converted. And even if they did how would that stop the ottomans from conquering their territory? I think they could even become the most fanatic Muslim rulers in the history of Islam, and the ottomans would still try to crush them,
When it happened in OTL, they looked west not east. They converted alright, but to Catholicism.
It's not impossible that some Emperor, upon having his rump state conquered, would convert to avoid execution and improve his all-around prospects. However, in most such scenarios he would never be given the opportunity to stay ruler of an independent Byzantine Empire. The choice will be either "Convert and you live" or - at best - "Convert and you get to govern your former lands as a part of my empire".
And even in the extremely unlikely event that the Emperor in question is offered to keep his independent Byzantine state - he would be deposed immediately upon converting.
And even that would change the course of history a lot well before the Turkish presence in Anatolia that the main question would be irrelevant.
None, unless it is a forced conversion caused by conquest (OTL). Has there ever been any instance of a major imperial power with church and state intertwined voluntarily changing its state religion to a completely different alien faith?
Alcsentre Calanice
Gone Fishin'
It's more plausible that they convert to platonist polytheism than to islam...
Okay, as a follow up question, which religion besides Catholicism are they most likely to convert to, if any