Consequences of a Roman Hejaz?

What would have been the consequences if the Hejaz had been incorporated into the Roman Empire as a province? Would that have been possible at all? If yes, would this have butterflied away Islam, or would it perhaps have lead to a latinized Islam?

The discussion hereby is opened! :D
 
It would depend on when Hejaz became a province.

But if butterflies were introduced into Hejaz and thus Mecca, I think it is unlikely that Muhammad will ever be born. That's not to say another religion won't develop there, just not OTL Islam.
 
Especially if the takeover of the Hijaz takes places before the division of the empire, then Islam is guaranteed to be butterflied away.

As for wether or not a Roman conquest of the Hijaz is possible; the answer is yes - if the Romans really wanted to conquer the Hijaz, then they could have done that.

However, why on Earth would the Romans want to conquer the Hijaz?

The area is sparsely populated, the local economy depends entirely on the trade routes between Yemen, Syria and Egypt, and due to the rough coastline, there are only a few small coastal villages.

The only thing in the Hijaz that the Romans would have considered interesting, are the gold mines not too far from Mecca and Medina.

And I'm not sure wether these mines were in use during Roman times.

Only if the Romans would have managed to conquer Yemen would they have had a good reason to control the Hijaz.
 
If the POD is early enough then it could butterfly Christianity. The best scenareo would be the Romans continuing its exansion into Asia and the Gulf. Set up trade with Africa and India and then take control of the Southern Arabian coast and Red Sea coast. After then the inner Arabian penisular comes under increased Romanisation until someone decides to mop it up. I would say there is no chance of Islam, not even a religion like it.
 

NapoleonXIV

Banned
Especially if the takeover of the Hijaz takes places before the division of the empire, then Islam is guaranteed to be butterflied away.

As for wether or not a Roman conquest of the Hijaz is possible; the answer is yes - if the Romans really wanted to conquer the Hijaz, then they could have done that.

However, why on Earth would the Romans want to conquer the Hijaz?

The area is sparsely populated, the local economy depends entirely on the trade routes between Yemen, Syria and Egypt, and due to the rough coastline, there are only a few small coastal villages.

The only thing in the Hijaz that the Romans would have considered interesting, are the gold mines not too far from Mecca and Medina.

And I'm not sure wether these mines were in use during Roman times.

Only if the Romans would have managed to conquer Yemen would they have had a good reason to control the Hijaz.

The Romans had no use for trade routes? (or is my geography off here?) I thought the main incense/spice routes ran right thru the Hejaz
 
If the POD is early enough then it could butterfly Christianity. The best scenareo would be the Romans continuing its exansion into Asia and the Gulf. Set up trade with Africa and India and then take control of the Southern Arabian coast and Red Sea coast. After then the inner Arabian penisular comes under increased Romanisation until someone decides to mop it up. I would say there is no chance of Islam, not even a religion like it.

The Romans wouldn't mop up the interior though, at this point that was a wasteland inhabited by pagan nomads. Even if the coast was ROmanized, the interior still would probably retain traditional Arabic culture.
 
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