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An old member Leo Caesius once posted a thread about this. You can still find it by searching, but I post this new thread to incite a fresh discussion and to avoid necromancy Here's a quote from the original thread :

Day 24 of the Month of the Truce, 601 A.H.

The death of Walter Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury, was the catalyst for a crisis of faith. The monks of Canterbury elected Prior Richard, one of their own number, as his successor, and dispatched him to Rome to be confirmed in his new role. After he had departed, King John of Robin Hood infamy, the Angevin King of England, forced the monks to elect John de Gray, Bishop of Norwich, in his place, and sent him to Rome as well. When the two men arrived at the court of Lothario de Conti, Pope Innocent III, the Pope dismissed both and appointed Stephen Langton, Professor of Theology at the Université de Paris, as the new Archbishop.

The reaction from King John was immediate. Encouraged by his barons and the bishops, he refused to accept Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury, and expelled the monks from England. Innocent retaliated by pronouncing an interdict against the Kingdom of England. All churches were closed. The English were denied the sacraments of the Eucharist, confession, marriage, and even the last rites. In the past such interdicts were a powerful tool to bend kings to the Pope's will, and if the king refused to bend, his subjects often rebelled against him. In this case, though, John refused to budge, and with few exceptions his subjects stood behind him.

For the next five years, the churches remained closed, and Christian worship became a hazy memory in England. Innocent peremptorily excommunicated John without effect. The situation had come to a head. Bereft of any other options, he threatened to declare a crusade against the renegade John and his infidel England.

At this point, history took an unexpected turn. Three emissaries, Thomas of Erdington, Radulus, son of Nicholas Esquire, and a cleric, Robert of London, arrived in Marrakesh at the court of the Almohad caliph, Muhammad an-Nâsir. They brought with them an unusual proposal--the King was offering England's submission to Islam and an-Nâsir, in exchange for his support against the coming crusade. Furthermore, John would not merely relinquish the Christian faith, which he considered vain, but would adhere faithfully to the law of Muhammad.

History tells us that the Caliph an-Nâsir, chastised by his defeat the previous year at Las Navas de Tolosa, spurned John's offer. Some say that he responded that no free man should willingly become a slave, and no man should ever abjure the faith into which he had been born. This rejection was the last straw for John, who then approached Innocent, hat in hand, and offered to surrender the Kingdom of England to God and the Saints Peter and Paul for a feudal service of 1,000 marks annually, 700 for England and 300 for Ireland. While John had few other options at this point, this was widely viewed as a smart move, as it prevented Innocent from following through with his threat of a crusade. Nevertheless, having been thoroughly hamstrung, John met his barons at Runnymede the following year and signed the Magna Charta; the rest, as they say, is history. Robert of London later became the guardian of St Albans Abbey, where he related this strange tale to the chronicler Matthew Paris.

What if an-Nâsir had been more favorably disposed towards John's emissaries and had accepted his submission? What if John and his supporters among the English barons and the clergy had converted to Islam? How would his subjects, abandoned by Rome and threatened by a brutal crusade at the hands of Innocent and Philippe Auguste of France, react to this turn of events?

I think Almohad victory in Las Navas de Tolosa is a crucial requirement for this scenario, and in fact, the most suitable and almost the only possible PoD. The question is what comes after the conversion. John will certainly get his crusade, and it can be the end of his misadventure. Military battles are full of uncertainties, however. Lots of possibilities. Before anyone starts shouting "everyone will rebel and burn John at the stake", I'll have you know that the establishment was pretty much firmly behind him, and the peasants surely didn't care much. France would be enough to squash John, however, but I don't think it's a given. How the battle will go will determine the outcome, so defeat is not imminent. In addition to that, we should consider the continental dynamics. Frederick Barbarossa was on good terms with Capetians around this time, but would he want to see the Pope succeed ? Or perhaps other parties that won't like seeing Phillip succeed ? Almohads that have survived Las Navas de Tolosa I think can send a reinforcement, though I'm not sure how large, and how long it will take them to send one. Of course, there will still be Richard, assuming he won't die on the way home. There are lots of ways this can go. We can get a Capetian England, or we can get an Emirate of Angliettere, or we can get a Richardian England. What is sure to come is that this will leave a deep impression for both England and Europe, a major turning point in history.

Also one more thing : the Cathars. Albigensian Crusade was going on around this time. Should John and the Almohads decide to make an alliance with them, while I would say they were doomed from the start, I think their allies can provide for refuging destination later on. More likely more will settle for england eventually, even though Almohad realm is closer, since I don't see long term tolerance for them from the Almohads, while John's folk are the kind that are apparently crazy enough to take Islam in the first place. There are lots of crazy possibilities this PoD can provide.
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