What if Mohammed would have died before he became a prophet?
I really do not want to offend anybody, especially muslims. I really like speculations about a world without Jesus Christ, even though I´m Christian myself.
There would be some interesting consequences:
1. The Byzantine Empire would - as in OTL - win the war against Persia for good, and Emperor Heracleios would not need to wage a war against the caliphate. The Balkans, Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, today Tunesia would all remain Byzantine themes, as parts of Italy as well.
2. The Byzantine Empire would be far stronger and richer than in OTL and would probably defeat the Slavic invaders - the whole Balkans south of the Danube would effectively stay Greek.
3. The Arabs wouldn´t play any role in world history, because they would stay fractioned, weak and they would probably be christianized in the following centuries.
4. The defeat of the Sassanids, the Persian dynasty, would weaken Zorastrism and enhance the chances of Christian missionaries in the east, from Mesopotamia to India.
5. The Byzantine Emperor was at the time of Heracleios (died about 641 AD) a head of the church not only in his empire, but in Italy as well, and the popes aknowledged his authoritiy. A strong empire would have meant a weak pope und the command of Constantinople. Perhaps Italy would again, like und Justinian, a Byzantine province. The churches in Britain, Germany, France and Spain would have become national churches with weak links to the imperial church.
6. The eastern emperor would not accept a germanic western emperor like Charlemagne, he would have stayed a frankish king and out of Itlay. The frankish kingdom would have split in FRance and Germany, like in OTL, but in Germany, without the Italian policy, campaigns in Italy, the king would have become a national German king, Germany would have become as unified as FRance and England.
What do you think?
