Challenge/What If: Christianity Revival/Comeback In The Middle East and North Africa During The Modern Era

[Comte de Dordogne]

By that logic, the Middle East should never have become majority-Muslim in the first place, since Christianity already had an organised religion and structure, and the Muslim conquerors didn't conduct a brutal campaign of religious genocide against their Christian subjects.

Anyway, the best way, IMHO, would be to do what the Caliphate did, but in reverse -- i.e., give Christians various legal and tax privileges, support Christian church-building and missionary activities whilst restricting similar activities from Muslims, and make it so that certain high-status positions are only open to Christians. People would start converting to Christianity as a result. Given enough time, there'd be enough converts for Christianity to be mainstream and common once more, as the OP requires; given even more time, Christianity would become the majority religion in the area.

I agree with you, but with one detail. In the early days of Islam the Muslims were all united during their expansion which allowed a wider diffusion of their religion.
I don't see Europeans uniting so easily even for religious reasons. Moreover they will have to make a lot of effort to push the population to convert without provoking revolts.
What you are proposing is possible, but it requires an overpowering and united Europe.

 

[Sarufiyyun]

Skallagrim is correct. The later the POD is, the more likely Christian reversion or conversion in the Middle East would require some degree of force and outside intervention from Europe. Here's an option: Napoleon III's foreign policy centered on flexing France's muscles while simultaneously assuring the rest of Europe that he would not expand France at the expense of everyone else. In addition he also advocated for the "principle of nationalities," replacing multinational empires with states based on nationality which in turn would become natural allies of France.

Forget Mexico; have Napoleon III focus on establishing a French protectorate in Mount Lebanon - the indigenous Maronites have been pre-disposed to European particularly French influence since the Crusades. He can use the 1860 civil war in Mount Lebanon to restore "Greater Phoenicia" out of the former Ottoman vilayet of Beirut and impose a Shihab princeling as King. The Shihabs, supported by French troops, impose draconian policies that incentivize conversion into the Maronite Church.

 

[walmart]

In the 1800s, Egypt was about a third Christian and Coptic was alive as a widely understood liturgical language. That gives Christianity a better headstart than it did in Korea and Coptic a better headstart than Hebrew had in Israel.

Japan doesn't have any religious or ethnic connections with Korea and heavily discriminated against them while Hebrew was chosen due to a need for a lingua franca. Any Arab government is going include Egyptians because they are Arab and Muslim at least normally or most likely lead by Egyptians. any Brutal and/or incompetent government is not going to have the same react as what happened with Korea and Japan.

 

[TickTock The Witch's Dead]

By that logic, the Middle East should never have become majority-Muslim in the first place, since Christianity already had an organised religion and structure, and the Muslim conquerors didn't conduct a brutal campaign of religious genocide against their Christian subjects.

Anyway, the best way, IMHO, would be to do what the Caliphate did, but in reverse -- i.e., give Christians various legal and tax privileges, support Christian church-building and missionary activities whilst restricting similar activities from Muslims, and make it so that certain high-status positions are only open to Christians. People would start converting to Christianity as a result. Given enough time, there'd be enough converts for Christianity to be mainstream and common once more, as the OP requires; given even more time, Christianity would become the majority religion in the area.

Could it be possible that Europeans could support Arab leaders who are willing to let Christian missionaries and groups convert the populace? That could be interesting.

 

[Socrates]

Japan doesn't have any religious or ethnic connections with Korea and heavily discriminated against them while Hebrew was chosen due to a need for a lingua franca. Any Arab government is going include Egyptians because they are Arab and Muslim at least normally or most likely lead by Egyptians. any Brutal and/or incompetent government is not going to have the same react as what happened with Korea and Japan.

Japan and Korea were both Buddhist. Egyptians only started identifying as Arab in the 1900s.

 

[Comte de Dordogne]

Japan and Korea were both Buddhist. Egyptians only started identifying as Arab in the 1900s.

How did the Egyptians identify themselves before 1900?

 

[Socrates]

How did the Egyptians identify themselves before 1900?

As purely Egyptians who happened to speak Arabic. Equivalent to the Irish being Irish people who spoke English.

 

[Comte de Dordogne]

As purely Egyptians who happened to speak Arabic. Equivalent to the Irish being Irish people who spoke English.

Is that all? Didn't the Egyptians have other elements to form their own identity? For example, to take your example, the Irish being Catholic unlike the British being Protestant?
I think preventing a "union" between the different Muslim communities could help the return of Christianity to the region (in the same way Muslims have benefited from the division between Catholics, Orthodox, Nestorians, etc.).

 

[Socrates]

Is that all? Didn't the Egyptians have other elements to form their own identity? For example, to take your example, the Irish being Catholic unlike the British being Protestant?
I think preventing a "union" between the different Muslim communities could help the return of Christianity to the region (in the same way Muslims have benefited from the division between Catholics, Orthodox, Nestorians, etc.).

I mean Egyptian identity was pretty damn strong. It represented a single people going back to the foundation of civilization as the first state society. Land of the pharaohs, land of the pyramids, land of the lighthouse and library of Alexandria. They regarded themselves as a beacon of civilization, conquered briefly by nomads from Arabia. Think of how the Chinese regarded the Mongols. The Arabs were regarded as having been a major influence in their culture just as the Greeks had been, but not the core of who they are. Arab nationalists in the 1900s appealed to Egyptian pride by rebranding them as the center and leader of the Arab world. It could easily have gone different. Especially if there was a hated Arab regime in charge instead of the Ottomans.

 

[Comte de Dordogne]

I mean Egyptian identity was pretty damn strong. It represented a single people going back to the foundation of civilization as the first state society. Land of the pharaohs, land of the pyramids, land of the lighthouse and library of Alexandria. They regarded themselves as a beacon of civilization, conquered briefly by nomads from Arabia. Think of how the Chinese regarded the Mongols. The Arabs were regarded as having been a major influence in their culture just as the Greeks had been, but not the core of who they are. Arab nationalists in the 1900s appealed to Egyptian pride by rebranding them as the center and leader of the Arab world. It could easily have gone different. Especially if there was a hated Arab regime in charge instead of the Ottomans.

I had no idea that the Egyptians at that time were so proud of the ancient culture of their region. I thought that Islamism had already largely permeated the region.

 

[walmart]

Japan and Korea were both Buddhist.

Japan is Shinto which is synchronized with Buddhism.

Egyptians only started identifying as Arab in the 1900s.

Don't mean they wouldn't do so earlier especially given the advantages to both the Egyptian and any Arabic speaking overlords.

 

[Iron_Lord]

Intresting idea. Colonisation of north africa by the french and the Spanish are a certian launching point.
The Church of the East still had holdouts in the middle east. Totally could see that with some help from there Orthodoxy friends, we could see some revival.
North africa had and still has a HUGE chistian minority.

A reverse Jizya or Non-beleiver tax would be a good move. Remember guys... Islam is not a particularrly evangalistic religion. On the Whole (please inform me if I'm wrong...) it took THOUSANDS of years for the chistian populations to be reduced in north africa. They spread by the sword and by nessessity. Traders would convert to it to trade with the wider muslim world. Get the government involved, use the colonial governments, destroy the Muslim orientated trade, and chistianity will spread

JUST DO NOT IMPLEMENT SHARIA!

 

[Gloss]

In the 1800s, Egypt was about a third Christian and Coptic was alive as a widely understood liturgical language. That gives Christianity a better headstart than it did in Korea and Coptic a better headstart than Hebrew had in Israel.

This is completely false:

-Coptic was completely dead as an actual spoken and living language since the 11th-12th century:

The Transition from Coptic to Arabic

The process in which the last stage of the Egyptian language, Coptic, was replaced by Arabic, has not yet received much attention from scholars. When the Arabs conquered Egypt in the middle of the ...

journals.openedition.org

-The same source above gives that Arabic became the main language of the Church by the 13th century:
-Muslims were about 90% by the Mid Mameluk period:

https://mamluk.uchicago.edu/MSR_X-2_2006-OSullivan.pdf

 

[Socrates]

Japan is Shinto which is synchronized with Buddhism.


Don't mean they wouldn't do so earlier especially given the advantages to both the Egyptian and any Arabic speaking overlords.

Buddhism in Korea is also syncretic with local paganism. But they and the Japanese identify with Buddhism.

And yes, it is possible the Egyptians could identify with Arabism earlier. It is also possible they revolt against it.

 

[History Learner]

Spain doesn't become Habsburg, and thus freed of European constraints continues the Reconquista into North Africa.

 

[Basileus_Komnenos]

Spain doesn't become Habsburg, and thus freed of European constraints continues the Reconquista into North Africa.

I feel like Spain if they do that could likely incorporate Portugal early on (ie Miguel de Aviz lives) and they could likely claim the old border of the diocese of Hispania and Africa as the means by which it formally becomes an Empire. There is precedent with medieval Iberian Kings calling themselves Imperator Totius Hispaniae (Emperor of all Spain). This spain if they don't become Habsburg then Spain's resources aren't depleted in Wars against in Germany and against France. Thus Spain would likely become very powerful and wealthy early on and would likely stay that way for longer. This Spain continuing the Reconquista into North Africa will be a major world power. If they can hold North Africa, then it can have large bastions of Christians and Latin Speakers.