AHC/WI: All Turkic peoples are Christian

Albert.Nik

Banned
In this AHC,make all prominent Turkic peoples,since the Medieval era and in the Modern era and also whoever they Islamized(Caucasians,etc),in an over overwhelming majority follow Christianity. Turkish,Tatars,Uighurs,Uzbeks,Azeris,Kazakhs,Kyrgiz,etc,etc all follow Christianity in this timeline and are considered an extension of Europe since the Medieval era giving rise to various influences on either sides,alliances,settlements towards the East,More Orthodox Slavic influence and population in the World,Greeks assimilating the Byzantine Turks,etc,etc could be the possibilities that could arise from this. Choose the type of Christianity you want. Orthodox,Catholic,Nestorian or even Sufi Catholic Hybrid Christianity could be created. Bonus points if a lot join and assimilate in the European Christian peoples.
 
Have Christianity spread over at least in Central Asia. Persia is a net positive. If Christianity becomes a major religion in Central Asia at the beginning of the 7th century then it is almost inevitable for the Turks to turn Christian largely.
 

Albert.Nik

Banned
Have Christianity spread over at least in Central Asia. Persia is a net positive. If Christianity becomes a major religion in Central Asia at the beginning of the 7th century then it is almost inevitable for the Turks to turn Christian largely.
A small number of Tocharians and Sogdians and maybe some Scythians followed Nestorianism in Central Asia alongside the majority religion, Buddhism. Other than that,it was mostly limited to Middle East,Anatolia if not a few remote parts of Eastern Europe under the Byzantines. But what I think is that Nestorianism might not bind the Turks and any other Central Asians enough as you didn't have a significantly large empire that was stable. Nestorian Persia can do it. Otherwise,they convert to Byzantine Catholic/Orthodox and become Client kingdoms of the Byzantines. Tatars and Bashkirs could be the first ones to convert as would follow the Oghuz and others.
 
A small number of Tocharians and Sogdians and maybe some Scythians followed Nestorianism in Central Asia alongside the majority religion, Buddhism. Other than that,it was mostly limited to Middle East,Anatolia if not a few remote parts of Eastern Europe under the Byzantines. But what I think is that Nestorianism might not bind the Turks and any other Central Asians enough as you didn't have a significantly large empire that was stable. Nestorian Persia can do it. Otherwise,they convert to Byzantine Catholic/Orthodox and become Client kingdoms of the Byzantines. Tatars and Bashkirs could be the first ones to convert as would follow the Oghuz and others.

I really think the East Romans have the best chance converting them. Make some promises, be successful against Persia and you got an advantage.
 
Can't imagine this to be posible without a christian Iran.

I agree with this. Turkic people had extensive trading relations with Islamic powers that led to their conversion to Islam. Turkic people would need extensive trading relations with Christian nations instead (like the Bulgars did) in order to convert to Christianity. So that would necessitate a Christian Iran
 
Some kind of Christian Scythia miiiight work as an alternative to Iran, but the latter will always be better thanks to trade routes. Well, them and India...

Uhh, for a nearly ASB suggestion, massive St. Thomas Christian wank leads to a Pan-Indian Christian empire that spreads the faith via trade routes?
 
But what I think is that Nestorianism might not bind the Turks and any other Central Asians enough as you didn't have a significantly large empire that was stable

Here's the thing - the Church of the East (Nestorian is a pejorative its adherents scrupulously avoid with good reason) only managed to arrive in Central Asia and even China precisely because of its trading relations with Islamic powers and because the Church of the East's main strength was that it was not linked to any one imperial power but planted roots via persuasion/negotiation. Eastern Christians of the Oriental Orthodox tradition were inherently distrustful of any Imperial form of Christianity (including both Roman [Western] and Greek [Eastern Orthodox]) to begin with as a result of various theological arguments and a suspicion of merging church and state (since it would completely go against the teachings of Jesus Christ); it's this theological argumentation that led to its adherents to claim that they had special knowledge and skills to the Islamic powers that occupied Mesopotamia and thus helped to build Baghdad into a major medieval center before the Mongols sacked it. Since Christianity already has a tendency to hybridize with pre-existing national traditions (hence why Western Christianity was able to exist at all, as a resulting of blending in with various pre-existing pagan faiths in the Greco-Roman world), it's certainly possible for Oriental Orthodox Christianity as propagated by the Church of the East to adapt to Turkic traditions, and would show that you didn't need an empire as a prerequisite for the survival of Christianity; it certainly did for a time in Tang dynasty China.
 

Albert.Nik

Banned
Bulgars spreading Orthodoxy to Tatars cannot be ruled out. Tatars can in turn spread it to Bashkirs and the Central Asian Chagtai,Oghuz,Kazakhs who could in turn take it to Uyghurs,Tajiks/Sogdians,Pashtuns,etc. By the time it crosses into the Buddhist regions,it could start getting a Sufi like movement probably could be more stronger due to the decentralised nature of Christianity as the individual Churches could adopt those movements and so would the followers. Interesting things. Note that though many of these are Indo-European,I mentioned them because of their historical association with the Turkic peoples. Speaking about Indo-Europeans,I could imagine even an earlier conversion of Slavs of Russia who take it to the Bulgars,Tatars,Kazakhs who would in turn turn into loyal Russian clients who would spread it further into the South to the Uyghurs,Oghuz Turks,Chagtai,etc. Slavic wank is very interesting. The ones who first became the client states of Russia could eventually assimilate into Russians due to influence and closeness in almost everything, making it a reverse assimilation for the first time a Turkic peoples assimilating into the Indo-European peoples. I'll make a separate thread for Slavic influenced Central Asia though.
 
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Is worth taking into account that otl islam in Central Asia is really sincretic in beliefs and customs. So I think central asian christianity would be even more hybrid.
 
The easiest POD to me is no or failed Islam. Christianity (and Judaism) vs Hinduism vs Buddhism. Probably end up Christian eventually
 
Can we get some insights into this?
Honestly I don't know that much. I hear once that in Kazakhstan and other places with widespread nomadism some shamanistic customs and rituals coexisted with islam all the way to the 19th century, then the Russian empire come in. I am not shure how russian domination affected islam there but I suspect that it strengthened the ulemas as leaders of their communities.
 
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If the Golden Horde converts to Christianity and survives/reforms it could stand a good chance of doing this since it could put together a pan-Turkic state no problem. The main challenge would be the Anatolian Turks, who could be dealt with by a late Byzantine recovery combined with perhaps the efforts of Georgia and Armenia. They'd mostly assimilate though, and the minority Turks would probably stay Muslim.
 
The easiest POD to me is no or failed Islam. Christianity (and Judaism) vs Hinduism vs Buddhism. Probably end up Christian eventually
Not necessarily failed, but maybe less successful. If they fail to take Persia, you will have a good chance of a Christian Central Asia, even if the Persians stay Zoroastrian, and they were not really big on converting others.
 

Albert.Nik

Banned
Not necessarily failed, but maybe less successful. If they fail to take Persia, you will have a good chance of a Christian Central Asia, even if the Persians stay Zoroastrian, and they were not really big on converting others.
There was plenty of opportunity for Christians even with Islam existing. Conversion of Pontic Turks gives a huge push who could in turn spread it to all other Turks including the Oghuz(the ancestors of Ottomon).
 
In this AHC,make all prominent Turkic peoples,since the Medieval era and in the Modern era and also whoever they Islamized(Caucasians,etc),in an over overwhelming majority follow Christianity. Turkish,Tatars,Uighurs,Uzbeks,Azeris,Kazakhs,Kyrgiz,etc,etc all follow Christianity in this timeline and are considered an extension of Europe since the Medieval era giving rise to various influences on either sides,alliances,settlements towards the East,More Orthodox Slavic influence and population in the World,Greeks assimilating the Byzantine Turks,etc,etc could be the possibilities that could arise from this. Choose the type of Christianity you want. Orthodox,Catholic,Nestorian or even Sufi Catholic Hybrid Christianity could be created. Bonus points if a lot join and assimilate in the European Christian peoples.
Moldavian Gagauz Turks are Christian mainly.
 
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