A more oriental Islam

A more Eastern Islam - the Caliphate of Rum

There have been numerous and, erm, animated discussion on this site about how no Islam would impact world history, and especially technological development.
Here I ask something else: what would be the long-term consequences of a different Muslim colonisation, where, due to an internal Byzantine PoD, Constantinople falls in the late VIIth century (not necessarily the OTL siege) and as a result, Asia Minor and the Balkans divert the Caliphate's war effort and it fails to conquer the Maghreb and Spain?
 
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The Changes would be so big than few people can understand it... much of European Medicine & Science come from the Exchange with the Caliphate of Cordoba(only recently the European Canon start to Understand it...), that included Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy...

With a more 'Eastern'(Greco-Balkanic) Islam, maybe the Muslim will follow a more 'greek' scientific Tradition?(with some Islamization, like eliminate any trace of old Greek paganism), that would be another big change, even keeping a more literate & Scientific tradition...

the effects are big, but now the people would speak of a 'eastern' Europe as the muslim one... the effect in Hungary & Ukraine are without peer in history...
 
It's impossible to overstate how big this would be. In OTL, the fall of the Byzantium heralded the beginning of the Renassaince, and the rise of the modern age as ancient texts from Constantinople flooded Europe. If Constantinople falls shortly after the rise of Islam - lets say around 800 or so - we would probably see a lot more technological development in Europe a lot sooner.
 

Winnabago

Banned
Iberia would eventually be united by a strong, Romanized king, same as France was.

We would probably see something similar in Tunisia, with the Berbers continuing to be independent.

With Constantinople down, the Balkans would be open to repeated Muslim invasion. Expect a Balkans with lots of conflict between Christians and Muslims.

The states of the Western Med would be even more ready than before to turn outwards to the Atlantic, as (pre-schism) it looks to the West as if Muslim hordes have taken the valuable Bosporus from good Christian hands.

I imagine the Tunisian state would be first to do this, practicing its system of fort-ports on the Berber tribes, moving westward along the coast.

Iberia gets the Azores and Madeira, and Europe follows suit. Italians, Germans, Austrians and French all join crusades in the Balkans and Mideast to get their own trading empires.

Russia becomes divided between Muslim and Catholic quarters (located somewhere near Kiev and Novgorod, respectively). The Pope supports the Christians, but the Muslims are much richer.

And then Novgorod builds the equivalent of St. Petersburg as the Atlantic heats up, eventually annexing Kiev.

The Mongols come to a Mideast that is much poorer than it was OTL. They likely make it much further, and side with Christian crusaders.

Yay, that was fun, if not in chronological order.
 
It's impossible to overstate how big this would be. In OTL, the fall of the Byzantium heralded the beginning of the Renassaince, and the rise of the modern age as ancient texts from Constantinople flooded Europe. If Constantinople falls shortly after the rise of Islam - lets say around 800 or so - we would probably see a lot more technological development in Europe a lot sooner.

And yet there were developments all through the Middle Ages building on what was known in the past. What exactly did the ancient texts inspire technologically, as distinct from culturally?
 
How much effort would the Westerners put into a Reconquista-like effort? I'm thinking not a whole lot, TBH. Also, we're talking about a time when Byzantine culture was MUCH stronger. If the Caliphate or whatever adopts that (and they probably would've), Byzantine bureaucracy (hah!) might pervade the Caliphate all that much more. The Eastern borders were also much weaker, so the Caliphate could pull an Ottoman, and go well into Central Europe, should the Balkans be wiped out.
 
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