One of the common cliches you see whenever interaction between Islam and Catholic Europe is how the Muslim invasions paved the way for unity among the Christian nations which in turn eventually led to the rise of nation states and the concept of "Western civilization" that would lead Europe to conquer the world.
I'm not kidding from the Pat Roberston's news special about the Siege of Vienna and how the "heroic knights" saved Christianity when they stopped the Ottomans from conquering Austria and Islamicizing the region to how many Catholic historians often describe its a sign of the coming back of Christ whenever the kingdoms team up to keep the Moors stuck in Andalusia, I cannot tell you how many movies, daily news, general history books, video games (such as Stronghold Crusader), and biased documentaries made in the West all make it seem as though the disunited Christians (who been fighting each other) finally found a common enemy to fight (the Muslim armies). Everytime the invading Muslims are described as one mighty superpower empire completely devoted to waging Jihad to destroy the Catholic Church.
I seen them all describe under the same brush-from the Abassids to the Seljuks to the Mamelukes to the Mughals to the early Arab converts during Muhammad's life time and of course most famously the Ottomans. If you'd watch Pat Robertson's daily news talk or go to the movies to see a typical Hollywood flick such as Kingdom of Heaven, its always shown as Christians have "turned away from the path of Christ" and the evil Muslims sent by Satan are a punishment/message from God to Christians to keep their act together. Basically you might as well call it another Thermopylae because thats how much the narrative in mainstream media parallels the Persian invasion of Greece (Westerners squabbling each other suddenly forced to unite against the evil Middle Eastern homogeneous superpower empire).
So I am curious what if the various Muslim civilizations that raided into Europe had incredible political instability akin to how divided feudal Europe was each time a major historical incursion such as Battle of Tours and Siege of Vienna occurred?
If for example the Ottomans had much of the backstabbing associated the Italian city states, would they have been unable to make it as far as Hungary? If the Arabs started arguing over gold, would they have stopped at Andalusia rather than trying to expand into southern France and attempt to invade Tours?
I mean if you listen to Christian commentaries such as Pat Robertson and the Catholic Church's historians, you'd get the impression that the various Muslim superpowers such as the Abbassids, Mughals, and Ottomans were a united homogeneous racial identity who have a politically stable government and social structure and are hell bent on waging Jihad (and could afford to do so because as opposed to the Medieval Europeans, Ottomans and other powerful Muslim tribes did not have to deal with various race, cultural, tribal, ethnic, and regional problems among their vessels).
Its not just the Christians, Hindu commentaries about Muslim invasions (specifically the Seljuks) seem to have such a similar view to the Christians on the Muslim conquerors as a united homogeneous enemy completely devoted to waging holy war. I seen similar talk from nations that had problems with Muslim minorities and had conflict with Muslim raiders/pirates in the pat such as Thailand and parts of Burma and Cambodia describe Muslim groups in a similar manner.
So I am curious if the various Islamic empires that tried to invade Europe were just as disunited as the medieval European feudal states were, how does this affect Islam and its spread? And how does it impact jizya and tolerance of minorities religion? I am curious particularly about the Ottomans who are often the one Muslim civilization often described as a "homogeneous superpower fanatically bent on waging Jihad on the West" as I always see the Siege of Vienna, Siege of Malta, and other Ottoman era battles being used to support this "united Muslim culture". The only non-Ottoman parallel I can think of is the Battle of Tours and the Reconquista (both which tends to be overlooked by the Ottoman incursions except by the Spanish who view both events as the pinaccle of united Muslim conquerors in their history books).