I think we can come to reasonable conclusions about the varieties of Islam across the Mediterranean, Europe, east Africa, and Persia. But the variety of Islam that would develop in India, Tibet, south-east Asia, China, Japan, and sub-Saharan Africa would largely be determined by how Islam spreads to those places. To what degree are the varieties of Islam that develop far from the Mashriq even recognized as Islamic? Will Chinese Islam be so Sinicized that it is unrecognizable to Mediterranean Muslims? How will Indonesian Islam look when compared to OTL? What new religious movements would develop across Asia and Africa? It's too far off from the POD to tell, too divergent to make a clear case that such-and-such will certainly occur.
Implications of Islam as a Universal Religion
- Thread starter Mr_Fanboy
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I imagine that Muslim states based in Southwestern Europe will eventually fill roughly the same role that countries such as Spain, Portugal, and France did when it came to colonization in our timeline. Therefore, the New World would be overwhelmingly Muslim, with perhaps the exception of an area in our timeline’s Eastern Canada and Northeastern United States settled by Britons, Germans, and/or Scandinavians.
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@Mr_Fanboy
In otl, Latin Christendom was essentially a Germanic religion, with outliers of Hungary, Poland, Ireland, Lithuania, etc...Only later with revisionism in the renaissance in Italy and in the rest of Europe by the enlightenment, did such syncretic natures of Germanic and Latin come to be artificially separated. Certainly, should the Frankish kingdom and Lombard kingdom fall and the Germanic elements therein enter Islam; the rest of the Germanic areas in the continent, will submit eventually or not embrace the religion of victims.
Regarding how they interact with each other, is difficult to answer. For one point at least, rapidly, we can imagine in Europe a certain drift from the Umayyad to set in. The Umayyad might come to be seen there, as they were in Iraq; namely usurpers to the throne of the Imams and hence evil. I could certainly foresee mass conversion and appeal for Shi’ism and Kharijism among the european populaces simply due to hatred of Arab rule and a revolutionary desire to restore local rule, if not under a new veneer. Even without Shi’ism or Shurba, this is possible... Ya’qub bin Layth al-Saffar is an example of a Sunni mujahid who came to reject Abbasid rule and promote a revived Islamic Iranian regime. It is certainly plausible to find a Lombard Islamic entity or Frankish one that begins a break with firm caliphal rule.
In otl, Latin Christendom was essentially a Germanic religion, with outliers of Hungary, Poland, Ireland, Lithuania, etc...Only later with revisionism in the renaissance in Italy and in the rest of Europe by the enlightenment, did such syncretic natures of Germanic and Latin come to be artificially separated. Certainly, should the Frankish kingdom and Lombard kingdom fall and the Germanic elements therein enter Islam; the rest of the Germanic areas in the continent, will submit eventually or not embrace the religion of victims.
Regarding how they interact with each other, is difficult to answer. For one point at least, rapidly, we can imagine in Europe a certain drift from the Umayyad to set in. The Umayyad might come to be seen there, as they were in Iraq; namely usurpers to the throne of the Imams and hence evil. I could certainly foresee mass conversion and appeal for Shi’ism and Kharijism among the european populaces simply due to hatred of Arab rule and a revolutionary desire to restore local rule, if not under a new veneer. Even without Shi’ism or Shurba, this is possible... Ya’qub bin Layth al-Saffar is an example of a Sunni mujahid who came to reject Abbasid rule and promote a revived Islamic Iranian regime. It is certainly plausible to find a Lombard Islamic entity or Frankish one that begins a break with firm caliphal rule.
Interesting.
Now, again, I know little about Islamic history, and less about history of East Asia at around the time of the expansion of Islam, but I was curious as to what a Muslim China would look like. My impression is that missionaries for the religion first had a significant presence in the country at around the same time that Manichaeism and Nestorian Christianity arrived, but that these were all faiths that the Tang Dynasty sought to purge from their realm. My other impression is that Buddhism had a distinct advantage over the Abrahamic religions in appealing to the Chinese in that it was more open to syncretization with the country’s folk religions. Therefore, while it is possible to imagine a world where Christianity or Islam makes serious inroads in China, there would likely have to be significant concessions made to local customs. I vaguely recall threads discussing the possibility of a Christian China were folks have pointed out that Jesuit missionaries asked their superiors to allow them to accommodate the veneration of ancestors as practiced by the Chinese.
There were no missionaries. Islam generally does not spread in this manner; at least not the Sunni variety at the time period. Islam spread to China via intermarriage and trade ties, not through overt missionary ventures. At least among the Hui. For the Turkic populaces, these areas are Muslim prior to Chinese occupation.
Islam does not permit the practice of veneration of ancestors. At least generally. In the case of the Jesuits, they have flexibility regarding their theological principles on this matter; Sunni Muslim legal jurists do not. There is more of an argument whether one can even keep photographs, portraits and so forth of family members who have been made deceased. Much less veneration of ancestors.
Frankly, I feel that Islam could conquer Europe near totally, America, Africa mostly, Central Asia, Siberia, Mongolia, Manchuria, Indonesia, more of Hindustan (possibly, Vietnam, Burma, Siam, etc....
However, a total conversion of Hindustan or a majority, is most likely ASB. Likewise, a Muslim conquest of China is improbable without a Muslim steppe invasion of China (such as Islamic Qhara-Qhitan). As such, these areas would, alongside Japan remain non Islamic. Of a population of 7 billion people, having approximately 2-3billion non Muslim and the other 4-5 billion, is a wank of extreme proportions.