WI: No Byzantine Sassanid War of 602-628?

Yelnoc

Let's say that after Emperor Maurice's assassination, Khosrau II does not declare war. If you can think of a good why, let us know; for now I'll just assume he doesn't have the stomach for a war.

Without the grueling two and a half decade war which depleted the wealth and manpower of both Byzantine and Persians in OTL, how does history develop? For the sake of argument, let's say that Islamis history proceeds exactly as OTL until 632 (the death of Muhammad). What happens with the caliphates; are they still able to seize Byzantine and Persian land, or are they confined to the Arabian peninsula? How will the rulers of those states react (and who are those rulers).

Thoughts?
 

Xeal II

I actually started a timeline about this subject several years ago. However, what I had happen was that Maurice manages to eliminate Phocas as a threat, and retains the Byzantine throne awhile longer.

In that TL, the Arabs still invade under the banner of Islam, and do a lot of damage to Persia, but are unable to conquer it completely. Rome, more or less, weathers the storm pretty well, though there are some temporary Muslim conquests in Palestine, Syria and Egypt.. much of those are eventually beaten back, however, after Persia and Rome fight their common enemy.

In other words, it's my opinion that Islam could not have advanced as much as it did without that Roman/Persian war to really screw up the area first.
 

Maniakes

I've heard it claimed that a major factor in the early Muslim conquests of Byzantine territory, in addition to weakness in the aftermath of decades of war, was long-standing resentment of Byzantine attempts to impose Orthodox Christianity on the mostly-Monophysite population of Syria, Judea, and Egypt. In many areas, the Muslim invaders were welcomed as liberators.

Although this, too, was aggravated by the war of 602-628, as the Persians had played on the same resentments and had set up vassal states with Monophysite established churches in some of the territories they were occupying.
 

Prefrence

Banned
Xeal II said:
I actually started a timeline about this subject several years ago. However, what I had happen was that Maurice manages to eliminate Phocas as a threat, and retains the Byzantine throne awhile longer.

In that TL, the Arabs still invade under the banner of Islam, and do a lot of damage to Persia, but are unable to conquer it completely. Rome, more or less, weathers the storm pretty well, though there are some temporary Muslim conquests in Palestine, Syria and Egypt.. much of those are eventually beaten back, however, after Persia and Rome fight their common enemy.

In other words, it's my opinion that Islam could not have advanced as much as it did without that Roman/Persian war to really screw up the area first.
Click to expand...

With a POD in 602 Islam would be butterflied, unless the POD occured in the America's. Alot of trade came throught that region and with no war those patterns could be changed, which could affect Muhammad in some way which will butterfly Islam.
 

Xeal II

Prefrence said:
With a POD in 602 Islam would be butterflied.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. It -could- be butterflied.. then again it's possible it might not be. Muhammad was born around 570, by traditional accounts, after all. So a POD at 602 doesn't make him go away or alter his upbringing in any way. Of course it might alter affairs enough that he doesn't found a new religion... then again it might not. It might make said religion spread slower, or not at all... or spread faster or about the same. Either interpretation is plausible.

The expansion of Islam beyond Arabia, on the other hand, IS likely to be butterflied.
 

Basileus Giorgios

No Persian war means the Emperor Phocas retains the throne for longer, and no Heraclian dynasty rises to power. This has a few interesting knock on effects- notably that Phocas, as probably the last native Latin speaking Roman Emperor, was notably favourable towards the Patriarch of Rome. A world in which Rome and Constantinople remain important to one another will have radical implications in Western Europe as well as the Near East...
 

Yelnoc

Basileus Giorgios said:
No Persian war means the Emperor Phocas retains the throne for longer, and no Heraclian dynasty rises to power. This has a few interesting knock on effects- notably that Phocas, as probably the last native Latin speaking Roman Emperor, was notably favourable towards the Patriarch of Rome. A world in which Rome and Constantinople remain important to one another will have radical implications in Western Europe as well as the Near East...
Click to expand...
No east-west schism, eh?

I wonder if the Byzantines will be able to hold Italy. According to the below map, they still controlled much of the peninsula.

600.jpg
 
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