AHC/WI: Coptic/Miaphysite Orthodoxy spreads throughout Eastern Africa

Why didn't Oriental Orthodox Christianity expand more from the Ethiopian highlands to neighbouring areas?

Well it’s hard to move up the Nile so there’s not an easy way of going deeper into Africa. Also, I guess Somalia just wasn’t attractive for Axumite expansion?
 
Well it’s hard to move up the Nile so there’s not an easy way of going deeper into Africa. Also, I guess Somalia just wasn’t attractive for Axumite expansion?
Axum controlled all the way up to the Horn of Africa and across to Yemen just have that happen earlier and Christianity would have expanded naturally into somila
 
Why? It didn't move IOTL.

Might Ethiopia get its own patriarch instead?

Earlier autocephalous Oriental Orthodox patriarchs in communion with the head Patriarch in Alexandria?

It took the Russian Church a very long time to separate from the Patriarchy in Constantinople after all.

In regards to the spread of Oriental Orthodox Christianity, what effects might this have on cultures throughout the world and the interaction that comes along as a result of it?

I think we can assume we have a stronger Axum and a strong Yemen (post-Himyarite) which is either part of Axum or a Christian vassal to it. That means Christians will have a large role in the Indian Ocean trade, and influence Kerala in India (and other coastal Indian regions, but I think Kerala would be the heartland of Christianity in India), and other areas like the Swahili Coast, Madagascar, the Maldives, and Indonesia. It's probably a fallacy to take OTL Islam in the Indian Ocean (which spread through similar factors of trade) and just switch it out for Christianity, but you'd have something similar. OTL Arabic script was used to write Malayalam, various Indonesian languages, and Malagasy. But inspired by their Oriental Orthodox brethen in faith, you might have Aramaic or Aramaic derived scripts replacing them (as Aramaic was used to write Malayalam OTL). Or more out there and less likely, Ge'ez--I think we could see Ge'ez being used to write Somali and some Bantu languages at least, although it will likely remain local to Africa. Madagascar will write their language in an Aramaic-derived script TTL, although it might be interesting if they use a Ge'ez derived script. I'd also love to see unique derivations of this, like the modern Dhivehi alphabet, spread widely and based on Aramaic or Ge'ez instead of Arabic.

Why didn't Oriental Orthodox Christianity expand more from the Ethiopian highlands to neighbouring areas?

IIRC, highland Ethiopians were more vulnerable to malaria than lowlanders. They also had an agricultural package less suitable for the lowlands than lowlander ethnic groups. And you have deserts to the north and east and swamps to the west which constrain their movements since their agriculture evolved in the highlands and was harder to adapt to other environments. This seems to have limited Ethiopian expansion.
 
It took the Russian Church a very long time to separate from the Patriarchy in Constantinople after all.



I think we can assume we have a stronger Axum and a strong Yemen (post-Himyarite) which is either part of Axum or a Christian vassal to it. That means Christians will have a large role in the Indian Ocean trade, and influence Kerala in India (and other coastal Indian regions, but I think Kerala would be the heartland of Christianity in India), and other areas like the Swahili Coast, Madagascar, the Maldives, and Indonesia. It's probably a fallacy to take OTL Islam in the Indian Ocean (which spread through similar factors of trade) and just switch it out for Christianity, but you'd have something similar. OTL Arabic script was used to write Malayalam, various Indonesian languages, and Malagasy. But inspired by their Oriental Orthodox brethen in faith, you might have Aramaic or Aramaic derived scripts replacing them (as Aramaic was used to write Malayalam OTL). Or more out there and less likely, Ge'ez--I think we could see Ge'ez being used to write Somali and some Bantu languages at least, although it will likely remain local to Africa. Madagascar will write their language in an Aramaic-derived script TTL, although it might be interesting if they use a Ge'ez derived script. I'd also love to see unique derivations of this, like the modern Dhivehi alphabet, spread widely and based on Aramaic or Ge'ez instead of Arabic.



IIRC, highland Ethiopians were more vulnerable to malaria than lowlanders. They also had an agricultural package less suitable for the lowlands than lowlander ethnic groups. And you have deserts to the north and east and swamps to the west which constrain their movements since their agriculture evolved in the highlands and was harder to adapt to other environments. This seems to have limited Ethiopian expansion.

Would be interesting if, yes butterflies I know, Spain discovers an Oriental Christian Philippines as a result of this
 
Having Amde Tseyon expand further than he did IOTL could potentially work but you'd need to prevent the rise of the Adal Sultanate - maybe during the Conquest of the Ifat Sultanate, the more militaristic elements of the Walashma Dynasty end up fighting to the death or are unable to escape the Ethiopian armies and end up getting captured before being executed.
 
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