alternatehistory.com

Warning: This isn't all too plausible. I'm mainly interested in fleshing out a world to use as a basis for a possible story.

Basically the POD here is that merchants from Al-Andalus come to England to trade, possibly for tin. By the 9th century there are solid Islamic communities in most of the large trading towns of England. They are wealthy and a good source of taxes for the Crown and so are tolerated- most of the English see them as a rather strange sect of Christians and a few even convert over the years. By the 9th century this trickle of converts has actually increased- the seeming helplessness of the English in the face of the Viking hordes serves to dissillusion many with established Christianity. The path of Submission seems much more clear cut, especially among the professional warrior class of the huscarls.

Among those who pay attention to this new religion is the young prince, Alfred-aetheling. The ineffectuality of his elder brothers serves to undermine the authority of the traditional system of church and state even more. Unlike in OTL, Ethelbald, Ethelbert and Ethelred, Alfred's older brothers, are all killed in catastrophic clashes with the Danes. Alfred, the crown thrust on him, is faced with a Danish force advancing on Winchester itself. Alfred had only the shattered remnants of the forces raised by his brother with which to stop them. Gathering these men together, he announced that he would fight in the name of the Prophet. Though the priests decreed that this was blasphemy, the people were desperate enough not to care.

To everyone's surprise, Alfred inflicted a crushing defeat on the Danish army at Reading, securing the Kingdom for the next two years. On the field of victory at Reading, a Muslim advisor of the King led much of the army, and Alfred himself, in reciting the shahadah. Alfred himself had a stone erected at Reading with the words of the shahadah carved upon it in English and Arabic: "There is no God but God and Muhammad is His Prophet". The victory over the Danes was proof enough for many of the English that the new religion was superior to the old and many more converts followed.
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