Ibadi Iberia

Just how realistic is Ibadi Al-Andalus. Is it even possible at all? I read that there were a couple Ibadi strongholds in Morocco, so maybe the ideas migrate to Iberia and are combined with the Umayyads antagonistm towards the Abbasids in Damascus?
 
As it would eventually mean a Berber-dominated Hispania (rather than Iberia, as an aside), it's technically doable but wouldn't last and crumble quickly.

The big problem of Berbers was their desunion : even if the 740 revolt succeeded in Hispania (IOTL, they divided up and were separatly defeated), all the Arab nobility would refuse it for the sake of their interests, and Al-Andalus would simply shatter far earlier before someone incarnating Arab and Sunni interests (it was why Abd al Rahman was accepted eventually even IOTL) kick the hell out of them thanks to Arab and Sunni Berbers reinforcements. (Not to talk about deeper Christian early reconquests).

So, it's doable (and even plausible), but would be short-lived and would radically weaken Al-Andalus more than IOTL.

Aside from a PoD making Berbers adopting en masse ibadism instead of more radical kharidjism, I don't see another one : post-740 Berbers were far too divided politically and religiously (admittedly it was the same thing) to really unite on something else than a more dominant school.
 
A little off-topic, but about the ethnic problems in Al-Andalus, could a PoD exist that gives power to the actual native peoples (islamized)? Or perhaps the ruling dynasty becoming more "andalusian" (if the term coule have even existed then) and less foreign?
 
It would be hard.

See, Arabs were in really few numbers in Spain and after the Berber Revolt (and Umayyad takeover didn't helped) were entierly cut off Arab reinforcements (the last ones being Syrians djunds, that couldn't stand Yemenit Arabs anyway).

In order to maintain their power against not only a wholly Berber settlement when it come to Muslims but also a crushing majority of Christians, the power distinction had to be harsh.
It doesn't meant that Muladi (especially Hispano-Romans) couldn't access power, but it was under Arab (and Arabised, Arab culture being the measurement of how much social importance you could hope for) conditions.

I doubt that Arabs would joyfully give up what required several really important revolts (with even reconversion to Christianity) to establish in the Xth century.

Assuming it happens, and not by several revolts (whom some were actively supported by independent Christian, I think that giving more power to Muladi would eventually turn to the creation of de-facto Muladi states as Banu Qasi's, giving they outnumbered ethnic Arabs, and had a more local based power (partially inherited from pre-conquista).

Now, Umayyads certainly became "andalusians" (the term existed, but wasn't ethnicized) : physically, they were close to other south European rulers (Abd al Rahman being redheaded and blue eyed, by exemple), but Arabity remained an important marker probably more than elsewhere in the Islamic West (if not Arabo-Islamic world as a whole) because of the historical context of the conquista.
 
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