AHC: A Christian ruler with the title 'Caliph' rules strongest state in Mediterranean

The challenge is to have a Christian ruler with the title Caliph who rules the strongest state in the Mediterranean world.

Bonus points if the POD is after Muhammad's death.
 
Wiki says "Caliph" means "successor", so perhaps these Christian Caliphs could be the successor of some unusually successful Christian Arab army? Perhaps, in some Islam-free environment, a Ghassanid king who "goes rogue" against the Romans who are weakened after the 602-628 war is able to conquer much of Syria and Palestine, with his heirs styling themselves as the "successor" of that Ghassanid. Once they wrest Egypt away from Roman hands (or maybe conquer it from a more-or-less independent Coptic regime?) the status of the Mediterranean's most powerful state belongs to the Christian Arabs.

To consolidate, have the Romans be able to hold on to Anatolia and Constantinople as IOTL, so there's no temptation for the Christian Caliphs simply to start calling themselves Roman Emperors.
 
An arabized North Africa that somehow maintains a Christian majority could call itself Caliph as maybe a successor to the Roman Empire or Carthage, or even to the Umuyyads...
 
Pretty much what BG said. The Ghassanids where actually quite powerful in their own right, albiet subject to the power of the Romans. Perhaps a Byzo-Persian war that is more gruelling than OTL, for example, if Heraclius's successes in the Transcaucasus and Persia are not so... Successful...

Then the Ghassanids could fill the resulting power vacuum, as Muhammad did IOTL.

Actually, this would make a pretty badass TL.
 

OS fan

Banned
Alternatively, the Arab influence on western Europe could become stronger, even without a conquest.

Remember how Peter I of Russia forced western culture upon his country. Imagine Charlemagne had done the same with his empire. There, you have the caliphate of Frankistan.
 
If the Ottoman emperors could style themselves caesar, perhaps non-Muslims can do the same with caliph.
King XYZ the First of Jerusalem, Caliph of Arabia, Emperor of the East, Prince of Galilee, Emperor of Babylon, King of Persia and Asia, and Duke of Damascus.
 
King XYZ the First of Jerusalem, Caliph of Arabia, Emperor of the East, Prince of Galilee, Emperor of Babylon, King of Persia and Asia, and Duke of Damascus.


yes, but a crusader state in Outremere would not be the most powerful in the med unless some asteroid destroyed the rest of it.
 
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