How to convert Europe to islam ?

Okay, guys, I've been wondering for a while how could Europe become islamic, in a way of another. I'm thinking about the cases of a few countries, like Egypt, that had muslims conquerors a long time before most of its population converted to islam. Could that be possible in Europe ? I'm dreaming of an islamic Great Britain, that would be fancy to me :p

Nevertheless, I think that the traditionnal "Arabs-go-to-Europe-to-conquer-it" could be changed : let's imagine a muslim russia with views over western Europe...

You get a cookie if you can islamize Europe before the year 1500 of the christian calendar. What's more, you get a bonus if China is christian in this TL (a chinese crusade to take back Palestine would be nice to me !).
 
I don't think that it is possible convert whole Europe to Islam but it is possible make islamic Western and Southern Europe and Balkans. Arabs conquer Constantinopole and then get Balkans and Charles Martel loses in Poitiers. But most difficult is keep them areas on hads of Muslims. There is surely wide reconquista.
 
If you assume that the the Muslims conquer all of the Iberian peninsula, and southern France, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Malta (etc all western med islands) and that the Turks take Vienna...

You may see England "winning" in the Hundred years War (although major butterflies) - that is northern France (roughly) becomes a part of the English crown. This would keep England very busy, and not able to devote much in the way of resources to a "reconquista". Long term Iberia is Muslim, with both Jewish and Christian minorities (2nd class status), Med islands are completely or mostly Muslim as are OTL's Bulgaria, Albania, Yugoslavia, maybe even Greece. Eastern med islands stay Muslim mostly. Hungary, Austria, Romania have significant localized Muslim minorities.

IMHO HRE/Hapsburg remnants, Germany, Italy are too weak and/or too fractured and internally squabbling to mount a serious "reconquista" over this much area and England is either too busy absorbing northern France and/or maritime oriented to field such a land army on the continent. Worst case scenario for Muslims is med islands east & west all or most, Iberian peninsula (mtn barrier works both ways and no residual Christian kingdoms south of the Pyrenees) and most of Balkans with Muslims either absorbed or expelled from areas "regained" by Christianity.
 
Much more military conquest is the obvious one. Historically Islam was also spread by traders, so if you can find a way of putting more trade acoss the Med into Islamic hands, that will help.

The big thing, though, is early conquest that puts Islam as a serious local contender in the late Dark Ages when the OTL barbarians were converting to Christianity.
 
The Frankish kingdom was pivotal. If it had been conquered by the Arabs (which of course would have been difficult, even if they'd won at Poitiers), then the dominoes might have fallen. Not many other European states at this time had the resources to fight the Arabs. The Byzantine Empire did, but in this scenario it could eventually find itself surrounded.
 
So, let's build a TL : what could be the POD of a different world where islam has a significant presence in Europe ?
Eventhough that some people think islam could not be applicated to northern european populations, I believe that to find a way to convert those people would create a lot of butterflies in the modern world, including the religious practices and the great discovering that we find in OTL at Renaissance time.

EDIT : I believe we should forget the idea of an arabian invading at Poitiers in 732 ; like most historians explain, this was a battle for gold, not to conquer new territories in Europe. I think that we must imagine a POD before Poitiers to have a chance to convert Europe to islam.
 
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Anaxagoras

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Historically Islam was also spread by traders, so if you can find a way of putting more trade acoss the Med into Islamic hands, that will help.

That won't work in Europe the way it worked in India and the East Indies. The latter had religious diversity and a pretty laid back attitude towards religious questions. Medieval European states were solidly Christian and did not tolerate other faiths (except, in limited circumstances, Jews).
 
I'd say it's easier if you go by eastern route. ERE/Byzantium falls earlier giver Arabs easier route to advance than defeating Franks.
 
That won't work in Europe the way it worked in India and the East Indies. The latter had religious diversity and a pretty laid back attitude towards religious questions. Medieval European states were solidly Christian and did not tolerate other faiths (except, in limited circumstances, Jews).

Depends on the territory, no? If Byzantium falls, the Balkans and Russia are open to the Faith.
 
Depends on the territory, no? If Byzantium falls, the Balkans and Russia are open to the Faith.

Bulgars adopted Islam to spite the Khazars, more or less. If every trade partner of consequence is Muslim I can see Russia doing the same.
 
Everyone seems to assume that Islam in Europe can grow only by the expansion of ethnically Muslim demographic groups, or by constant immigration. Isn't it conceivable that it could become naturalized and thereafter grow by conversion, especially in areas where Christianity is atrophied and lacking prestige? As the "immigrant" association gradually wanes, Europeans with a vague religious sensibility might gravitate to this vibrant up-and-coming community, just as lapsed Catholics in Latin America have been snapped up by Evangelical Protestantism.
 
Everyone seems to assume that Islam in Europe can grow only by the expansion of ethnically Muslim demographic groups, or by constant immigration. Isn't it conceivable that it could become naturalized and thereafter grow by conversion, especially in areas where Christianity is atrophied and lacking prestige? As the "immigrant" association gradually wanes, Europeans with a vague religious sensibility might gravitate to this vibrant up-and-coming community, just as lapsed Catholics in Latin America have been snapped up by Evangelical Protestantism.

It could, but it's a two-way street - there are Muslims leaving the faith to become secular (or convert to other faiths), too. Demographic growth through conversion is hard to predict.
 
Would this work as a TL?

Has anyone here considered the effects on the spread of Islam in Europe with a more (or less) succesfull Mongol Empire?

No invasion of Persia and Mesopotamia?

Or getting all the way to the Holy Cities of Jerusalem, Mecca, and Medina?

Or, the Muslims don't go batshit crazy by slaughtering the Khan's envoys and their entourages and they cut a deal instead?

What if Ogotai goes all out for Europe? Resulting in the devastation of the Continent, yet with a Mongol withdrawal following Ogotai's death?

If this leaves a more-or-less intact Muslim world, and a much depopulated Europe, would it be easier pickings for the Arabs to advance into Europe through the Med and the Balkans?:confused:

Opinions?
 
Islamic doctors find a cure for the Black death.
People in europe convert in large numbers to Islam to save their lives.
 
Islamic doctors find a cure for the Black death.
People in europe convert in large numbers to Islam to save their lives.

I'm pretty sure that the Black Death was actually a virus (not Bubonic Plague, as the Black Death spread too quickly), so a cure isn't possible. Not unless said Islamic doctor invents Immunology. Which would require so many precursor technologies that I couldn't even list.
 
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