(This thread is not meant to be offensive whatsoever.)
March 13, 624 A.D
The desert wind blew furiously. The fighting was fierce and brutal, men were dying and falling as the fierce followers of a new faith crashed into battle with the representatives of the old order. And it was at that moment that a stray arrow, its direction altered by the wind, hit the leader and prophet of the Medinans. It struck his heart, and he instantly fell to the ground dead. The battle slowed as the followers of Muhammed realised what had happened.
The Meccans pressed their advantage. The temporary rush of confusion and shock caused by the enemy leader's death was an advantage the Meccans did not forget, and before long the flow of the battle had changed dramatically, as the Meccans mercilessly continued their assault. Before long their enemies had routed completely.
Nobody realised what had happened just yet, although it would change the entire course of history...
Extracted from A History of Arabia (Romanos Doukakis)
Perhaps one of the most ignored pivotal moments in history is the Battle of Badr, in which the self-declared Prophet Mohammed, leader of the obscure Christian-schismatic[1] movement known as Islam, met his end. If he had lived, perhaps he could have taken Mecca, and proceeded to unite Arabia under his banner. If that had succeeded, the unification of the Arabian peoples, then he could conceivably have taken Egypt and Palestine from Rhomanion and maybe pushed into Persia.
Further expansion is unlikely however, due to simple matters of distance and geography. Bactria is highly mountainous and the people are stubbornly independent - even if we assume that Mohammed takes the whole of Persia, extending a line of march over massive distances and rugged terrain is extremely hard, and so is controlling the sheer amount of territory to be found in Africa. A successful invasion of Europe or Anatolia is so unlikely as to be blatantly impossible, and the seizure of Constantinople is even more unlikely than that.
[1] No, I'm not trolling. ITTL Islam is regarded as a schismatic movement from Christianity.
March 13, 624 A.D
The desert wind blew furiously. The fighting was fierce and brutal, men were dying and falling as the fierce followers of a new faith crashed into battle with the representatives of the old order. And it was at that moment that a stray arrow, its direction altered by the wind, hit the leader and prophet of the Medinans. It struck his heart, and he instantly fell to the ground dead. The battle slowed as the followers of Muhammed realised what had happened.
The Meccans pressed their advantage. The temporary rush of confusion and shock caused by the enemy leader's death was an advantage the Meccans did not forget, and before long the flow of the battle had changed dramatically, as the Meccans mercilessly continued their assault. Before long their enemies had routed completely.
Nobody realised what had happened just yet, although it would change the entire course of history...
Extracted from A History of Arabia (Romanos Doukakis)
Perhaps one of the most ignored pivotal moments in history is the Battle of Badr, in which the self-declared Prophet Mohammed, leader of the obscure Christian-schismatic[1] movement known as Islam, met his end. If he had lived, perhaps he could have taken Mecca, and proceeded to unite Arabia under his banner. If that had succeeded, the unification of the Arabian peoples, then he could conceivably have taken Egypt and Palestine from Rhomanion and maybe pushed into Persia.
Further expansion is unlikely however, due to simple matters of distance and geography. Bactria is highly mountainous and the people are stubbornly independent - even if we assume that Mohammed takes the whole of Persia, extending a line of march over massive distances and rugged terrain is extremely hard, and so is controlling the sheer amount of territory to be found in Africa. A successful invasion of Europe or Anatolia is so unlikely as to be blatantly impossible, and the seizure of Constantinople is even more unlikely than that.
[1] No, I'm not trolling. ITTL Islam is regarded as a schismatic movement from Christianity.