Christianity fails in Europe, Mohammed and the Arabs convert to Christianity

Titus_Pullo

Banned
How would this TL look? Christianity stays an Eastern religion after it fails to win a foothold in Europe. The Germanic tribes stay pagan and European Christianity dies with the Roman Empire. Europe remains a collection of pagan kingdoms. 300 years later Mohammed converts to Christianity after seeing a vision of the Angel Gabriel in a cave.
Anyone care to make tackle this one



430 AD Gaiseric's pagan Vandals conquer North Africa.
St. Augustine a Berber Churchman dies of hunger from the Vandal siege of Hippo Regius

POD:
610 AD, an Arab sheppherd by the name of Mohammed is meditating in a cave on Mount Hira in Mecca. Accounts vary but according to Christian triditions the Angel Gabriel appears to Mohammed and commands him to recite: "in the name of thy Lord The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, he died on the cross for your sins for the Salvation of man."
A terrified Mohammed runs home and is told by his wife's Christian cousin Waraq Ibn Nawfal that he might have recieved a vision from God. Convinced by his wife and cousin that Christ has chosen him to be his prophet,
Mohammed condemns the pagan idiolatry of the Meccans.

615 AD: Mohamed's followers grow. Some of the the early Christians flee from persecution by the Meccans to the Christian kingdom of the Ethiopian king Ashama Ibn Abjar.

Basically within several years Christianity spreads throughout the entire Arabian Peninsula, and soon the new Christian empire comes into conflict with the Vandals in North Africa.

Anyone care to contribute to this timeline? Would Christianity be reintroduced into Europe through the Chritian Moorish Conquest?
 
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How would this TL look? Christianity stays an Eastern religion after it fails to win a foothold in Europe. The Germanic tribes stay pagan and European Christianity dies with the Roman Empire. Europe remains a collection of pagan kingdoms. 300 years later Mohammed converts to Christianity after seeing a vision of the Angel Gabriel in a cave.
Anyone care to make tackle this one



430 AD Gaiseric's pagan Vandals conquer North Africa.
St. Augustine a Berber Churchman dies of hunger from the Vandal siege of Hippo Regius

POD:
610 AD, an Arab sheppherd by the name of Mohammed is meditating in a cave on Mount Hira in Mecca. Accounts vary but according to Christian triditions the Angel Gabriel appears to Mohammed and commands him to recite: "in the name of thy Lord The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, he died on the cross for your sins for the Salvation of man."
A terrified Mohammed runs home and is told by his wife's Christian cousin Waraq Ibn Nawfal that he might have recieved a vision from God. Convinced by his wife and cousin that Christ has chosen him to be his prophet,
Mohammed condemns the pagan idiolatry of the Meccans.

615 AD: Mohamed's followers grow. Some of the the early Christians flee from persecution by the Meccans to the Christian kingdom of the Ethiopian king Ashama Ibn Abjar.

Basically within several years Christianity spreads throughout the entire Arabian Peninsula, and soon the new Christian empire comes into conflict with the Vandals in North Africa.

Anyone care to contribute to this timeline? Would Christianity be reintroduced into Europe through the Chritian Moorish Conquest?

Interesting idea, but what happens to the Eastern Roman Empire in TTL? If they are still around, no doubt they will have forcefully attempted to convert Germanic tribes in the West to Christianity, so the existence of pagan Vandals is unlikely.
In this scenario, I could see Mohammed forming an alliance with Constantinople and whoever is Basileus at the time, against the Persians and the western barbarians, but first you'd need to explain what happened to the ERE...
 
You need to give a detailed account of what Mohammed says about TTL's "good news of Jesus Christ"and why people listen to & follow him in large numbers. I note that you have others convincing Mohammed that he's been chosen by God as a prophet. This may be problematic (unless you're wanting him to be a false prophet) and might diminish his message's impact. When God calls prophets or in general gives people tasks to do, God issues a direct invitation or call to a mission/ministry. God is very clear about what's to be done, where to go, what to say, and promises to be present and helpful. Mohammed needs to 100% sure that God has asked something of him (even though he may be unsure about his abilities or fearful of what will happen if he does say "yes" to God). One other note, while you might have done it for simplicity's sake, I'm not so sure that this world would be using "A.D"., nor would it likely use the year of Jesus' birth as year "1", on its calendars. One question too, how does TTL's Christianity look like 300 years after the POD?
 
Interesting idea, but what happens to the Eastern Roman Empire in TTL? If they are still around, no doubt they will have forcefully attempted to convert Germanic tribes in the West to Christianity, so the existence of pagan Vandals is unlikely.
In this scenario, I could see Mohammed forming an alliance with Constantinople and whoever is Basileus at the time, against the Persians and the western barbarians, but first you'd need to explain what happened to the ERE...

The Eastern Romans didn't hold Africa, Spain and Italy for as long as they could have, so the existence of the Christians and the Polytheists is somewhat balanced here. Besides, years after the conquest of the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy, the Lombards moved in, and they were mainly Polytheist at this point.

That said, if Christianity failed in the west, I wonder if the Germanic successor states would have adopted Roman Gods?! For most of the Germanic leaders only ostensibly converted to Christianity because it was Rome's state religion, and to them, everything about Rome's culture was superior. So maybe they would have officially adopted the worship of Jupiter and his family?! Or perhaps they won't have seen the difference between the Roman Godship and their own?!

Perhaps after a century of fusing Roman culture with their own, a religious revolution of sorts takes place among the Romano-Germanic Kingdoms. If they maintain good relations with their distant cousins in northern Europe, many people from there could migrate to Italy, Spain and Africa, potentially swelling their respective demographics, and maybe the Germanic Kingdoms could launch invasions to the Eastern Empire. And perhaps even with the religious persecutions prevalent Eastward, some Hellenists could seek sanctuary in the west, if they hadn't done already.
 
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I'm not so sure that this world would be using "A.D"., nor would it likely use the year of Jesus' birth as year "1", on its calendars. One question too, how does TTL's Christianity look like 300 years after the POD?

The Arabic Christians of Mohammed, unless they come to create their own religion anyways, would adopt the Calendar of the Byzantines, or in some cases, may even adopt the Jewish Calendar.

The Romano-Germanic Polytheists (one should find a better collective name for them) might in their new culture, date their year after Rome's founding (Ab Urbe Conditia), or you'll have to find Latin words for "After Rome" or "The Year of the Gods". I think there is a bit more room for creativity here.
 
Interesting idea, but what happens to the Eastern Roman Empire in TTL? If they are still around, no doubt they will have forcefully attempted to convert Germanic tribes in the West to Christianity, so the existence of pagan Vandals is unlikely.
In this scenario, I could see Mohammed forming an alliance with Constantinople and whoever is Basileus at the time, against the Persians and the western barbarians, but first you'd need to explain what happened to the ERE...

+1. Also, Christians had been proselytizing the Goths and others before they migrated into the Empire-- e.g. St. Ulfilas and the Gothic bibles. By the late 400s, most of the Goths, Vandals, etc. were Arian Christians.

I could see an relationship between Constantinople and the Arabs analogous to the one between the (historical) Arabs and the Turks-- second-generation converts and highly-motivated military manpower.

Also, what about the Sassanids?
 
Most Goths remained Pagan in Ufilas' time before they settled within western Roman territory.

Just how would Polytheism prevail in the west? Does Julian manage to survive long enough to retard Christianity's progress and weaken it's grip on the Empire's administration? Does he create a unified Polytheist Church to counterbalance with the Christian Clergy? So his successors in the west could cleave to the good old Roman Polytheism while the eastern Emperors stick with Christianity? You might wanna go for it.
 
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