WI: Khalid isn't sacked.

SuperTechmarine · Mar 27, 2015

For the uninitiated, Khalid was the little-known military genius who won every battle he led the Arabs in and annihilated quite a lot of ERE and Sassanid armies he came across, notable victories include Yarmouk, and the Battle of the Chains, in the former, he destroyed a Roman force twice, thrice or might be four times his own number, and in the latter managed to deal a Cannae to the Sassanids, ending both of the Empire's rule over the Fertile Crescent.

After all was said and done, the Arabs had conquered Syria, Iraq, Persia and Egypt. Khalid was leading his army into Anatolia conquering town after town after town, when Umar decided he was getting too popular for his own good and relieved him of command.

So what if Khalid keeps his generalship? Can he bury the remains of the ERE?

Tjakari · Mar 27, 2015

Sounds like Belisarius Syndrome, too good for this sinful earth.

fasquardon · Mar 28, 2015

Hmm. Is there any way he could cross into Europe? Or was Arab seapower at this juncture still too weak to overcome the Roman fleet?

fasquardon

SuperTechmarine · Mar 28, 2015

fasquardon said:
Hmm. Is there any way he could cross into Europe? Or was Arab seapower at this juncture still too weak to overcome the Roman fleet?

fasquardon

The Arabs outperformed the ERE on the seas (Battle of the Masts, 200 Arab ships vs 500 Roman ships, Crushing Rashidun victory) thanks to exceptional leadership, except at Constantinople, where the ERE had the home turf advantage and a massive chain boom.

fasquardon · Mar 29, 2015

Huh, so we could possibly end up with a Muslim invasion of the Balkans 700 years early?

That could get interesting.

fasquardon

raharris1973 · Mar 29, 2015

Huh, so we could possibly end up with a Muslim invasion of the Balkans 700 years early?

That could get interesting.

I wonder how much of the Balkans the Arabs would even want to take in these cold centuries, it is often said they weren't interested in cold France as a permanent conquest in the 700s either.

They may see it as a just massive source of slaves by raid and trade, but not land being taxable enough to be worth occupying.

Are the Danube, Morava and Drina rivers actually a stretch? I would think so, for at least a few centuries until the Caliphate decentralizes.

Mikestone8 · Mar 29, 2015

raharris1973 said:
I wonder how much of the Balkans the Arabs would even want to take in these cold centuries, it is often said they weren't interested in cold France as a permanent conquest in the 700s either.

They may see it as a just massive source of slaves by raid and trade, but not land being taxable enough to be worth occupying.

Are the Danube, Morava and Drina rivers actually a stretch? I would think so, for at least a few centuries until the Caliphate decentralizes.

But would the Balkans need to be conquered?

Iirc, in the 7C the local Slavs, Bulgars etc were mostly still heathen, They could just as easily have embraced Islam as Christianity.

'Ezana · Mar 29, 2015

Mikestone8 said:
But would the Balkans need to be conquered?

Iirc, in the 7C the local Slavs, Bulgars etc were mostly still heathen, They could just as easily have embraced Islam as Christianity.

True, but the idea of the Caliphate back then was one of "one nation for all Muslims." At the time, embracing Islam would just mean asking for annexation, which doesn't seem very likely.

raharris1973 · Apr 2, 2015

yep, that's what I was getting at.

fanthemadman · Apr 2, 2015

SuperTechmarine said:
For the uninitiated, Khalid was the little-known military genius who won every battle he led the Arabs in and annihilated quite a lot of ERE and Sassanid armies he came across, notable victories include Yarmouk, and the Battle of the Chains, in the former, he destroyed a Roman force twice, thrice or might be four times his own number, and in the latter managed to deal a Cannae to the Sassanids, ending both of the Empire's rule over the Fertile Crescent.

After all was said and done, the Arabs had conquered Syria, Iraq, Persia and Egypt. Khalid was leading his army into Anatolia conquering town after town after town, when Umar decided he was getting too popular for his own good and relieved him of command.

So what if Khalid keeps his generalship? Can he bury the remains of the ERE?

This historical personality figured later as the Nosferatu Vampire Elder in the classic White Wolf role-playing game.

Thanks for the blast from the past!