If Muhammed had a son who lived?

WhiteHawk

Banned
I was reading the Wikipedia page on Muhammed, and apparently he had three sons, all of whom died before two years of age. What would the effects have been on te Caliphate, and Islam at large if Muhammed had had a son who lived to father children.
 
Could make the Shia branch appear earlier and be more popular/widespread therefore making it a larger competitor to the Sunni one. Alternatively it might not really affect them all that much other than his descendants being first among equals and likely a shoe-in for the position of Caliph at least for the first couple times. I don't really know enough about the early Caliphs and the spread of Islam to make an educated guess about what alternate leaders in the first years might change though.
 

Orry

Donor
Monthly Donor
If he had more than one son might there be the possibility of factional infighting from the beginning over who takes over?

Might this weaken the Arab conquests if some of that energy and resource is being used against themselves? Leading to the Byzantine and Persian Empire lasting longer?

Christians still lose the Holy land and Egypt but maybe hold onto Syria etc?
 
Maybe the opposite would happen later on down the line with his grandsons or when one of the sons is mature enough.
The early arabs were anarchic and anti-monarchy, so the khalifate would have gone to Abu bajer, and Umar and Ali and UThman.
But after than one of muhammed sons could have been in line if he was politically savvy.
Allot of the support Ali recieved would go to the sons of Muhamed.
 
Top