Islamic "Empire" from Iberia to Papua

hey, all. this idea just occurred to me. true to form, it's me coming up with an end scenario and then working on how it gets to that point :D

anyway, what does everyone think about a sheer mass of Islamic/Muslim-majority countries in a huge band of territory from the Iberian Peninsula to OTL Papua New Guinea? what PODs would allow for such an "empire" to come to pass?

this huge "empire" would have to include OTL Spain and Portugal, the Italian Peninsula (or possibly just Sicily), Ottoman Europe (the Balkans, etc.), North Africa, the Middle East, Central and South Asia, and Southeast Asia straight through to the Pacific. other areas (Australia and China for instance) can be included as well but those listed are the necessities for the purpose of this idea
 
This is almost OTL, with the exception that polities equivalent to the Cordoban Caliphate, Zirid Sicily, the Ottoman Empire, and the Mughals at their respective heights persist into the modern era.
 
This is almost OTL, with the exception that polities equivalent to the Cordoban Caliphate, Zirid Sicily, the Ottoman Empire, and the Mughals at their respective heights persist into the modern era.

Hmmm. The Mughal Empire may be a little late. Depends when you want your POD to be. If you want it reasonably late, then you'd have to somehow have the Mughal Empire strike up a deal with the British etc to retain their sovereignty, and also ramp up their missionary efforts in both India and Southeast Asia to get more Muslims. Meanwhile, the Ottomans would have to conquer Spain and Italy. Or perhaps Egypt or someone :/

For an earlier POD, its a lot easier :L You can have the Caliphate win the Battle of Rajasthan, and more subsequently, until its subjugated much of India, and converted huge amounts of the populace. Arab, Indian and Persian traders can convert Indonesia and so on as in OTL, but even more so. The establishment of indigenous Sulatanates and Emirates would help things out, as they could set up their own missionary efforts. Insular Southeast Asia shouldn't be too hard. Peninsular will take some more work, and may require some establishment of Islamic states on the peninsula, seeded from India and/or the islands to their south. Meanwhile, the Caliphate consolidates its hold on Iberia, maybe even pushing north, with the aid of able strategists. They also conquer Italy, at some point, and push into Southeast Europe. Missionaries and armies heading south, many of them Tuareg and Beja, or Somali, convert Sub-Saharan African right down to the Bantu areas, and maybe indigenous states even conquer parts of the Congo, converting the populace. With India, Southeast Asia, North Africa, the Levant, parts of Europe and Southwest Asia all Muslim, the chances are industrialisation would occur in the Islamic world, rather than Christendom, or at least partially. Muslim states would colonise the Americas, Sub-Saharan Africa, Australia, and might well even convert substantial portions of East Asia and parts of Europe to their religion.

I'm working on a TL of which the earlier sections apply.
 
To get the Balkans Islamic early on you may want to have the Byzantine Empire completely destroyed early on and then get the Avars to convert somehow (probably wouldnt be too hard, any TL where the Arabs conquer the whole empire in one go is going to require the Avars to play a big part in attacking Constantinople).
 
i decided to whip up a rough map of the OTL areas that this empire would most likely cover based on what i initially envisioned, just to give a basic idea of its international geography. keep in mind that this would be many different states rather than one big one
 
The early Caliph could easily have conquered the Franks, Italians and Byzantines. The rest of Europe more or less follows from there.

I have a hard time seeing an empire ruling Europe, India and mainland South East Asia simultaneously though, the logistics just seem impossible.
 
On second thoughts, maybe the Mongols or some other steppe tribe could pull it off? Obviously this requires our Genghis Khan analogue to convert to Islam, then conquering the existing Caliphate and claiming the title for himself.

If we are generous and count countries paying tribute to this "Mongol Caliphate" as part of its empire, then I could see them reaching those borders. In addition to the historical territories of the Mongol Empire they only need India, North Africa and West-Central Europe. Just a tad more successful- not botching the campaign against the Egyptians+their leader not dying during the European campaign- and the other Islamic rulers of the Euro-Mediterranean might pay them homage as the rightful Caliphate.
 
fuck, i forgot to attach the map! :eek: here it is. i've also re-included teh text from my other post for reference
i decided to whip up a rough map of the OTL areas that this empire would most likely cover based on what i initially envisioned, just to give a basic idea of its international geography. keep in mind that this would be many different states rather than one big one

Islamistan.png
 
fuck, i forgot to attach the map! :eek: here it is. i've also re-included teh text from my other post for reference

Kazakhstan Vivat!

Do they need to be converted? Muslim political rule over India and Indochina is a lot easier than actually converting it all.
 
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