AHC Islamic Lithuania

Although a fairly interesting scenario in its own right, it's not achievable with OTL conditions.

Though not about Lithuania specifically, I made a few thoughts about why Eastern European pagans did not convert to Islam in past discussions:

Implausible for a number of factors.

The biggest factor, in my opinion, is that pagans in Eastern Europe didn't convert to random religions on a whim or because of their heart's desire, but only if converting to a religion would give them or their nation an advantage. Christianity gave pagan rulers an advantage: it opened up trade and relations with their neighbours, it encourages the spread of technology and innovation from their Christian neighbours (which were almost always more advanced than the fresh converts themselves, for obvious reasons), and it also allowed ambitious rulers to go on conquest sprees in the name of Christianity, and, in something that a lot of people forget, becoming Christian (at least Catholic) allows you to advance in the title pyramid and become a king, Islam does not.

Islam would be a detriment to any Eastern European nation which adopts it: it would immediately be hostile to nearby Christian rulers, it would be very distant from any Muslim nations worth a damn, so no trade or innovation spread, and while I suppose it would still enable an ambitious ruler to use his religion as reasoning for conquering neighbours, it doesn't enable the royal title (I mean, you can still claim you are a King or equivalent, which is what the Lithuanians were doing until the Union of Krewo, but nobody will recognize you as one).

As such, no EE pagans adopted Islam. It's quite simple, really.

In the 14th century, which is when we need the conversion to take place, there were no nearby Islamic powers to serve as an anchor for a Lithuanian conversion. The Ottomans wouldn't begin projecting power in the Northern Black Sea area for another ~200 years (and even then, their reach would be very limited, not the least because they have plenty of other fronts to keep in mind before supporting Lithuania), while the Golden Horde is past it's prime at this point.

You need a different set of conditions - larger spread of Islam into Eastern Europe is a must - which can't be achieved with a 1340 POD.
 
If the Rashidun Caliphate conquers the Byzantine Empire and then later builds a more European-centric Empire you could get Islamic Lithuania. Maybe even Islamic Poland if you're lucky.
 
What about if the Golden Horde allies with Lithuania and converts it to Islam? I'm assuming that's not too likely but I'd love to know why.
 
What about if the Golden Horde allies with Lithuania and converts it to Islam? I'm assuming that's not too likely but I'd love to know why.
The Golden Horde was allied to Lithuania in a number of cases, most notably the pact between Vytautas and Tokhtamysh which resulted in the Battle of Vorskla. No conversion to Islam happened.
 
Building off of a previous thread
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...ithuania-to-adopt.449320/page-4#post-17434230

How could one, with a PoD sometime after 1340 achieve an Islamic conversion of Lithuania?
Like I assumed in the other thread, an early Islamic Rus state could lead to Islamic Balts and Prussians. Maybe other Eastern Slaves and Finns follow aswell. Maybe even Scandinavia is effected by Muslim ideas in varying degrees. The boundary between Islam and Christendom will lie somewhere in Eastern Central Europe. If pagans of Eastern Europe converted , then German Eastern colonization in the Middle ages is halted possibly. The Lithunians will certainly develope their own Sufi traditions, possibly containing traditional folklore. The further question is, how Islamic Lithunians and other peoples far with further nomadic Steppe invasions, which will certainly occur Düring the Middle Ages .
 
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The Golden Horde was allied to Lithuania in a number of cases, most notably the pact between Vytautas and Tokhtamysh which resulted in the Battle of Vorskla. No conversion to Islam happened.
To be fair, we don't even know if the Golden Horde even really tried to convert Lithuania to Islam. If you can get Andalusia/Morocco/another powerful Islamic state to win a decisive battle and begin to reverse the momentum in Spain, or really if you just get a son of the King to really dive into Islam and like it, you could probably get the kingdom to convert. Keeping the Teutons from eating Lithuania, however, is another task entirely
 
What if Timur didn't stop after defeating Tokhtamysh, and pushed into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania? Timur's allied generals, Edigu and Temur Qutlugh, did defeat Grand Duke Vytautas and the exiled Tokhtamysh at the Battle of the Vorskla River.

Maybe if Timur himself had been present in the campaign and captured Vytautas in battle, Timur could decide to turn Lithuania into a puppet state and powerbase for an attempted invasion of Europe, which could necessitate finding a Tatar Khan to rule the region, or getting the conversion of some Lithuanian princes to Islam.
 
I suspect that an Islamic Lithuania is more plausible if Timur doesn't hurt the Ottomans and Golden Horde so bad, or if it somehow stays pagan for another 1-3 generations.

It would require the stars to align just right though. For every one road leading to a Muslim Lithuania, there are maybe 6 leading to a Christian Lithuania.

A personal union between the Golden Horde and Lithuania would make for a fascinating TL though...

fasquardon
 
Have Russia adopt Islam instead of Orthodox Christianity in the early Middle Ages, and then spread it to neighbouring Lithuania. Or something. This would need to occur earlier than 1340, though.
 
Yeah so not to give away the tl, but a spreading series of butterflies is going to lead to 1. An eastern oriented timur, and 2. A western oriented Jani Beg, which gives a very narrow window to achieve a conversion
Keep your eyes on the Wild fields
 
If the Rashidun Caliphate conquers the Byzantine Empire and then later builds a more European-centric Empire you could get Islamic Lithuania. Maybe even Islamic Poland if you're lucky.

I mean, shit, a Rashidun conquest of the Byzantines probably leads to Islamic domination of the entire Mediterranean, which in turn practically guarantees Islamic Europe.
 
Have Russia adopt Islam instead of Orthodox Christianity in the early Middle Ages, and then spread it to neighbouring Lithuania. Or something. This would need to occur earlier than 1340, though.
Naybe the Rus Empire picks up an Arabic or Persified/Turcified Name like Rusistan or Rusiyyah ?
 
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The Golden Horde was allied to Lithuania in a number of cases, most notably the pact between Vytautas and Tokhtamysh which resulted in the Battle of Vorskla. No conversion to Islam happened.

More than that. It was allied with the GH in 1380 (battle at Kulikovo - Jagello allied with Mamai), 7 years before "baptism of Lithuania", with no results.
 

Kaze

Banned
Turks conquer Russia. Russia converts, Lithuania years later will take whatever religion Russia has.
 
Turks conquer Russia. Russia converts, Lithuania years later will take whatever religion Russia has.
Maybe we see a Russia even gradually turkify ( at least elites). Could appeal to Lithunians then, too. Maybe all the East Slavic and Baltic countries take the Persian-Turkic suffix stani. Home of the Rus, home of the Lithunians.
 
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