AHC:A Islam Kingdom/Sultanate On Britannian Islands

It's "British Isles" for the record, and without a POD involving all of Europe becoming Muslim, no I don't think that would happen. Some people might postulate the "King John converts to Islam" theory but really that was never going to happen.
 
It's "British Isles" for the record, and without a POD involving all of Europe becoming Muslim, no I don't think that would happen. Some people might postulate the "King John converts to Islam" theory but really that was never going to happen.

Especially as the only source for it is Matthew "Lies Leavened With A Little Truth" Paris...
 
I concur w/Falastur's assessment.

It's "British Isles" for the record, and without a POD involving all of Europe becoming Muslim, no I don't think that would happen. Some people might postulate the "King John converts to Islam" theory but really that was never going to happen.
 
Perhaps if you can get Moorish piracy to begin a little earlier, and to further delay the consolidation of Britain to centralized powers, an enterprising pirate fleet commander could capture a few fishing villages somewhere in Cornwall or Ireland and proclaim a briefly-lived sultanate. A Christian state eventually ousts the pirates, and the event is a novel blip in the historical record that shows up on TTL's equivalent of Cracked.com.
 
Perhaps if you can get Moorish piracy to begin a little earlier, and to further delay the consolidation of Britain to centralized powers, an enterprising pirate fleet commander could capture a few fishing villages somewhere in Cornwall or Ireland and proclaim a briefly-lived sultanate. A Christian state eventually ousts the pirates, and the event is a novel blip in the historical record that shows up on TTL's equivalent of Cracked.com.


Maybe they capture the Channel Is and/or the Isle of Man. The South and west coasts of England get regularly raided, and when the Vikings come as well, Wessex is caught between two fires. Danes get the east, Moslems the west.
 
Maybe they capture the Channel Is and/or the Isle of Man. The South and west coasts of England get regularly raided, and when the Vikings come as well, Wessex is caught between two fires. Danes get the east, Moslems the west.

Or even go for a self-proclaimed Sultanate on Lundy.
 
Maybe Richard the Lionheart is somehow converted to Islam and returns to England, gives himself the title Sultan, is declared a heretic and is then murdered:p
 

katchen

Banned
Not a late Sultanate. But I could see an Islamic Emirate if Abd al Rahman isn't stopped at Poitiers, conquers to the Rhine and takes Britannia (probably easy to do in the 8th Century) but is stopped at or across the Rhine and then forced back by the Franks or someone else (Avars and Slavs maybe). An Islamic emirate or Caliphate persists on the British Isles, protected by seapower, as first Gaul and then Spain is reconquered for Christianity
 
Not a late Sultanate. But I could see an Islamic Emirate if Abd al Rahman isn't stopped at Poitiers, conquers to the Rhine and takes Britannia (probably easy to do in the 8th Century) but is stopped at or across the Rhine and then forced back by the Franks or someone else (Avars and Slavs maybe). An Islamic emirate or Caliphate persists on the British Isles, protected by seapower, as first Gaul and then Spain is reconquered for Christianity

How long would it last though? With Spain reconquered by Christendom the British sultanate has no allies who can do anything at all to help, and all of (western) Christendom is going to want that outpost of Islam eradicated. It's going to suffer invasion after invasion until it falls, and all this many years before the rise of navies strong enough to prevent them. Even if it had a pre-modern navy, it's going to fall in the end.
 

katchen

Banned
Europe was pretty disorganized for several hundreds of years. From the time the Saxons invaded it took a couple hundred years until the Danes conquered parts of England. And that was with England divided into several kingdoms. And another hundred years for a Danish King, Cnut, to unify England under his rule. And another hundred years or so before William, Duke of Normandy was able to conquer England. Which was not all that strong. Would William be able to conquer a well organized Caliphate? I think not. Or Henry Plantagenet? I doubt it.

I would give a Britannic-Hibernic Caliphate until about 1200 before it might face a well organized crusade at the hands of Louis IX that would put it in any immanent peril. And in that time, it would very likely have developed in naval strength--at least enough to keep in communication with Cordova and the Almohads and perhaps as the Mediteranean became more perilous, even around Africa to Mecca and the Indies (Yes, the haj would be a draw for sea exploration). And the Caliphate would have Iceland and Greenland. Maybe even Norway and Dennmark. Probably not Sweden.
In short, it would be advanced and every bit as tough a nut for Louis to crack as Tunis or Alexandria.
 
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