How could Muhammad convert to Christianity?

I know what you are all thinking. "Please not another 'What if Muhammad became a Christian?' thread!" I am aware that this has been discussed many times, I have read most of the threads (and I know Turtledove's "Agent of Byzantium" as well).

Here, however, I would like to discuss a question that has not, to my knowledge, been discussed in much detail in these other threads: how, exactly, could it happen that Muhammad converts to Christianity? What could be the exact circumstances behind this?

We know that, by Muhammad's lifetime, Jewish and Christian communities had existed in Arabia for hundreds of years and traditional Arabic paganism was apparently already in retreat in the face of this spread of monotheism. We have very little information on these Arab Jewish and Christian communities, but it seems that larger Christian communities existed in the Yemen, in eastern Arabia, and in the far northern parts of Arabia bordering Syria and Mesopotamia. By contrast, there seem to have been no larger Christian communities in the Hijaz (the western side of Arabia where Muhammad lived), although individual Christians apparently existed there and the religion was not unknown (Fred M. Donner, Muhammad and the Belivers: At the Origins of Islam, Harvard University Press 2010).

There was also the Christian kingdom of Axum in Ethiopia, which had trade contacts with western Arabia across the Red Sea. According to Islamic tradition, some of the early followers of Muhammad fled the persecution of the Quraysh in Mecca around 613-615 CE and found refuge in Axum.

With this in mind, here are my thoughts:

- I think that the Arabic Christian communities in Yemen and on the fringes of Syria and Mesopotamia are too far away from Mecca to plausibly posit that Muahmmad would make contact with them or travel there, at least at an early stage of his life when he is still in Mecca with almost no followers and no means at his disposal. So this is not a good PoD.

- More realistic would be a PoD where Muhammad goes to Axum. After the death of his wife Khadija and his uncle Abu Talib, Muhammad's position in Mecca deteriorated rapidly and he had to leave. IOTL, he received an invitation from a group of men from Yathrib (Medina) to be an arbiter in their affairs. What if he had not received this invitation? In my mind, the most plausible thing for Muhammad to do would then have been to seek refuge in Axum, where some of his followers had gone before. Once in Axum, he might seek the support of the king by emphasising the common ground between the Christian faith and his own movement, maybe going as far as to declare himself a Christian and officially convert to Christianity. It is then conceivable that the Axumites could sponsor an expedition of Muhammad and his Arabic exiles to take over Mecca, a town where they had tried to set up a friendly ruler before (the Axumite viceroy of Yemen, Abraha, had attacked Mecca around 570 CE).

- Another PoD would be Muhammad going to Yathrib (Medina), as he did IOTL, but then getting killed in one of the early battles against the Meccans, such as the Battle of Uhud in 625 CE or the Battle of the Trench in 627 CE. In this case, Islam as a new, separate religion would be butterflied away - it was still in an embryonic state at the time of Muhammad's death and has not gathered enough followers and worldly success to survive. Yathrib (Medina) would be sacked by the Meccans, those of Muhammad's followers who are not killed would flee and disperse. However, it is unlikely that Muhammad's legacy would be forgotten entirely - memories would survive of a man preaching about the one God, gathering a small community of like-minded followers and eventually being killed by the Meccan pagans. If, a generation or so later, Axum or the Byzantine Empire move into the Hajiz (which they were seeking to do because the Hajiz is an important trade route) and the region becomes Christianized, it is possible that Muhammad would be declared a Christian martyr and a saint. In this scenario, then, Muhammad does not actually convert to Christianity, but is later declared a Christian through revision.

This is as far as my thoughts take me, for the time being. Post your feedback if you like, and let me know if you can think of other ways of how Muhammad could convert to Christianity.
 
Both are interesting PODs. In the former, might be possible for the Christian or Jewish Mohammed, charismatically drawing a critical mass of support, that explodes out of Arabia, to conquer and convert the Persians and if Christian, still going after the ERE because they are not the "right" kind of Christians. As a Jewish force, the reasons for going after the Empire are self-explanatory.

Would it would take a custom-made variant of either Christianity or Judaism that Mohammed espouses to get the non-Christian and Jewish Arab tribes on board? Or is the charisma and presence of Mohammed enough to win support, no matter what his religion? I don't think he can ride the support of Axum very long after taking Mecca if he is to win over Arabia. Also, any independent ambitions of Axum in Arabia would have to be taken under account.
 
Both are interesting PODs. In the former, might be possible for the Christian or Jewish Mohammed, charismatically drawing a critical mass of support, that explodes out of Arabia, to conquer and convert the Persians and if Christian, still going after the ERE because they are not the "right" kind of Christians. As a Jewish force, the reasons for going after the Empire are self-explanatory.

Would it would take a custom-made variant of either Christianity or Judaism that Mohammed espouses to get the non-Christian and Jewish Arab tribes on board? Or is the charisma and presence of Mohammed enough to win support, no matter what his religion? I don't think he can ride the support of Axum very long after taking Mecca if he is to win over Arabia. Also, any independent ambitions of Axum in Arabia would have to be taken under account.

I don't really see an "explosion" out of Arabia ITTL. Because of demographic factors at the time (the growing Arab population), there will still be an Arab migration into the Greater Middle East. But without Islam as a unifying force, the Arabs will remain divided by tribalism and infighting. The migration will thus be a slower and less focused process, not the rapid conquest of OTL, but more like the other migrations that were going on during Late Antiquity.

I smell a Shitstorm a brewin

Religious PoDs, like Jesus dying as an infant or Muhammad becoming a Christian or a Jew, have been discussed a hundred times before on these boards. It is not a problem. The only people who seem to mind are religious fanatics, of whom fortunately there aren't many here.
 
I don't really see an "explosion" out of Arabia ITTL. Because of demographic factors at the time (the growing Arab population), there will still be an Arab migration into the Greater Middle East. But without Islam as a unifying force, it will be a slower and less focused process, more like the other migrations that were going on during Late Antiquity, not the rapid conquest of OTL.

I was positing, and thought that you were implying, in your POD one of the other 2 religions becoming that unifying force. Of course, butterflies will out and perhaps a Christian or Jewish Mohammed can't create the requisite boiling pot for the Arab tribes to spill out and to conquer in the name of their faith.


Really, this is a subject, mature, non-fanatics should be able to reasonably discuss.
 
I was positing, and thought that you were implying, in your POD one of the other 2 religions becoming that unifying force. Of course, butterflies will out and perhaps a Christian or Jewish Mohammed can't create the requisite boiling pot for the Arab tribes to spill out and to conquer in the name of their faith.

In my PoD, I was positing that Muhammad converts to Christianity or at least comes to be regarded as a Christian martyr / saint by later generations (I am not sure why you brought up a Jewish Muhammad - that is of course also a possibility, but a different one).

If Christian Arabs migrate into the already Christian lands of Syria, the Levante or Egypt, without the incentive of spreading a new faith, they would very likely be absorbed by the local populations or blend with them culturally instead of conquering and transforming these lands outright as IOTL. There would be no Quran and Arabic would not become an important literary language - Greek would continue to fill that role in the Eastern Mediterranean. The only real "conquest" I see Arabs making in such a scenario would be Mesopotamia, which was already largely Nestorian and ripe to be taken away from a weakened, Zoroastrian Persian Empire.

All that said, I am more interested in discussing what happens during Muhammad's lifetime here, and how he could plausibly become a Christian. The question of what happens afterwards has already been discussed many times here.
 
- I think that the Arabic Christian communities in Yemen and on the fringes of Syria and Mesopotamia are too far away from Mecca to plausibly posit that Muahmmad would make contact with them or travel there, at least at an early stage of his life when he is still in Mecca with almost no followers and no means at his disposal. So this is not a good PoD.

Muhammad was a successful merchant who did travel to Syria many times in his life. He may also have visited Yemen, considering he was heavily involved in trade as a youth. Supposedly, Muhammad met a Christian monk on a trip to Syria named Bahira, and Bahira foretold Muhammad's career as a Prophet. So its not like Muhammad did not interact with Christians.

Furthermore, Muhammad's first wife Khadija, had a paternal cousin named Waraka bin Nawfal who was an Ebionite Christian priest.

Any interaction between the aforementioned could lead to Muhammad becoming Christian. It is very likely that Muhammad was influenced by Waraka bin Nawfal's Ebionite teachings. Ebionites reject the divinity of Jesus but accept his claims to be a Messiah. They also placed great importance on following Jewish customs and laws. Sounds a lot like our Islam.
 
Probably because it's a more accessible topic. As I've already said, you've come up with the bones of a couple of plausible conversion scenarios.

True, I think both PoDs I outlined are pretty good. I was hoping that someone might perhaps think of something else in addition, but if not, that is not a problem.

Muhammad was a successful merchant who did travel to Syria many times in his life. He may also have visited Yemen, considering he was heavily involved in trade as a youth. Supposedly, Muhammad met a Christian monk on a trip to Syria named Bahira, and Bahira foretold Muhammad's career as a Prophet. So its not like Muhammad did not interact with Christians.

As with other religious figures like Buddha or Jesus, the problem with Muhammad is that a huge amount of stories exist about him and it is difficult to separate fact from fiction. Some of the stories about Muhammad obviously belong to the realm of legend, like him performing miracles. Other stories are of the "It could have happened, but we cannot be sure" kind.

The only academic book I have read about Muhammad is Muhammad and the Belivers: At the Origins of Islam by Fred Donner, which I already mentioned. Donner in his account tries very hard to distinguish between what we can say about Muhammad with a certain degree of confidence and that which is very tenuous. He mentions that Muhammad married a well-to-do widow, Khadija, and that he "managed her caravan business". He does not mention any specific locations where Muhammad may or may not have travelled as a merchant, though.

Which sources say that Muhammad travelled to Syria? Is this talked about a lot in the traditional Islamic sources, or is it more like isolated references? Do you know?

Furthermore, Muhammad's first wife Khadija, had a paternal cousin named Waraka bin Nawfal who was an Ebionite Christian priest.

Any interaction between the aforementioned could lead to Muhammad becoming Christian. It is very likely that Muhammad was influenced by Waraka bin Nawfal's Ebionite teachings. Ebionites reject the divinity of Jesus but accept his claims to be a Messiah. They also placed great importance on following Jewish customs and laws. Sounds a lot like our Islam.

Yes, I have heard about Waraka bin Nawfal. And indeed, there have been quite a few historians and religious scholars who have pointed out the similarities between Ebionite Christianity and Islam.

Of course, if in this different timeline Muhammad sought refuge in Axum, he would come into contact with the Miaphysite branch of Christianity practiced by the Axumites. In practical terms, I don't think it would make a huge difference, actually - most of the early followers of Muhammad were probably illiterate and only knew about the faith in broad and simple terms, "This is what you are supposed to do and not supposed to do!", rather than engaging in intricate theological debates. But in regard to the debates of later generations, it could happen that both Ebionites and Miaphysites try to claim "Saint Muhammad" as one of their own.
 
True, I think both PoDs I outlined are pretty good. I was hoping that someone might perhaps think of something else in addition...
Actually both PoDs are the only probable ones concerning Christianity.
But these PoDs are after the moment Muhammad started to hear voices in his mind.

In OTL Muhammad knew something about monotheistic religions before he heard "the voice in his head". Of course we do not have a hard data, but we might guess from what we know.
Muhammad had been personally inclined to monotheism, but he had not had any particular interest in Christianity or Judaism. Because if had done then he would have converted to Christianity (speaking about the subject of this thread).
In OTL Muhammad first heard "voice in his head" and after that he started to guess whose voice it was. When he was convinced that it was not a voice of somebody evil, he wondered what kind of God or angel it was. When in OTL Muhammad flew to Medina where there were a lot of Jewish tribes he at least for some time thought that his voice might have been that of a 'Jewish God'. So in OTL he was ready to identify his voice with already existing religion and with the God of this religion.
So most naturally in ATL if Muhammad flew to some Christian country he might have identified his voice with the Christian God and with Christianity.
So here you are right IMO.

But there might be the other PoD - what if Muhammad got closely intimately acquainted with Christianity BEFORE he started to hear a voice in his head.
Here we have two possibilities: 1) Muhammad converted to Christianity 2) Muhammad seriously considered his conversion to Christianity
As 'the voice in his head' was Muhammad's subconscious speaking the result of this close acquaintance with Christianity might be the following:
- from the very beginning the voice in his head might mention Jesus Christ or something else which clearly identified this voice with Christian God or Christianity in general.
In this case from the very beginning Muhammad would be a Christian prophet and it would not matter too much where he was going from Mecca. Or he would be naturally inclined to move to some Christian country.
 
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