AHC/WI: Sultanate of Rum converts to Christianity?

The Seljuk Turks were still only superficially Islamicised at the time of the Battle of Manzikert, and there were supposedly some Byzantines at the time who thought that they might be persuaded to abandon Islam for Orthodox Christianity. Obviously that never happened, but is there any way it could have done? And what difference would it make to world history? Assuming, for example, that Constantinople ends up falling to the Turks anyway, would the ALT-*Ottoman Empire be considered a continuation of the Byzantine Empire rather than a replacement of it?
 
What makes you think they were superficially Islamic?

I read it in a history book. (ETA: Unfortunately I can't remember its title. FWIW though the Seljuks had first converted in 985, less than a century before Manzikert, and it often takes considerably longer for a nation to be fully converted -- just look at the length of time pagan practices and superstitions survived after the Christianisation of Europe, for example.)
 
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There were some Turkish tribes who had converted to Orthodox Christianity and others who remained Pagan - the victory at Manzikurt gave legitimacy to the Muslim faith among the Turks, and the rest was history.

Have the Byzantines win, and Orthodoxy win out and take hold among the Turks. Eventually, they come to an agreement to be settled within the Empire, and the Turks become as instrumental to the Byzantine Empire as the Greeks.

I forget the TL, but there was one where such a thing happened - the the Turks would integrate themselves within the Empire, especially in the military where Turkish light cavalry supplemented Byzantine heavy cavalry.
 
There were some Turkish tribes who had converted to Orthodox Christianity and others who remained Pagan - the victory at Manzikurt gave legitimacy to the Muslim faith among the Turks, and the rest was history.

Have the Byzantines win, and Orthodoxy win out and take hold among the Turks. Eventually, they come to an agreement to be settled within the Empire, and the Turks become as instrumental to the Byzantine Empire as the Greeks.

I forget the TL, but there was one where such a thing happened - the the Turks would integrate themselves within the Empire, especially in the military where Turkish light cavalry supplemented Byzantine heavy cavalry.

That seems like that is interesting if you remember post it cause I would like to read it.
 

GdwnsnHo

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There were some Turkish tribes who had converted to Orthodox Christianity and others who remained Pagan - the victory at Manzikurt gave legitimacy to the Muslim faith among the Turks, and the rest was history.

Have the Byzantines win, and Orthodoxy win out and take hold among the Turks. Eventually, they come to an agreement to be settled within the Empire, and the Turks become as instrumental to the Byzantine Empire as the Greeks.

I forget the TL, but there was one where such a thing happened - the the Turks would integrate themselves within the Empire, especially in the military where Turkish light cavalry supplemented Byzantine heavy cavalry.

This would be by far and away the best PoD for a Byzantine revival - no depopulation of Anatolia, in fact a super-population, and the manpower and citizenry to invade Syria. *swoons*
 
Abdul said 10-15% of the Turks converted to Christianity upon settling in Anatolia. When the Greco-Turkish population exchanges occurred, it was done in the basis of religion, not language, and so there were "Turks" who couldn't speak Greek and "Greeks" who couldn't speak Turkish.

(Abdul had his hobby-horses, but this seems to be his area of expertise.)

Thing is, the Sultanate of Rum even existing requires Manzikert to be OTL's disaster, since Rum was a Turkish state in interior Anatolia. I'm thinking a Byzantine victory at Myriokephalon might do the trick though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Myriokephalon

Heck, even if Myriokephalon is lost, Manuel did win victories against the Seljuks later, so all might not be lost even then.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hyelion_and_Leimocheir

Winning Myriokephalon might still be the best bet, given how it represented a shift in strategic initiative even though the Byzantines still won battles afterward.
 
I'm not too sure about the precise religious make-up of the 11th century Seljuks, but could there be any plausible POD to reduce the percentage of actual Muslims in the Turkish army at Manzikert, so that the battle isn't so much seen as a specifically Muslim victory? That way we'd still probably see a Turkish settlement of Anatolia, but the chances of them converting to Orthodoxy would be higher than IOTL.
 
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