We all know the European enlightenment, the reëmergence of art like the Renaissance, major scientific advancements by Newton and Galileo and many others, and way later the first industrial revolution, and secularism replaces religion in politics.
But why didn’t this happen in the Muslim world ?
The Muslim world had the Islamic golden age, scientific discoveries was being made by khwarizmi and others, had a fair amount of different school of thoughts.
And how can a timeline where the Muslim world has it’s own enlightenment effect the region today ? And how will it happen ?
This is the question of this alternate history.
There's a very good book about this, it's called A History of the World through Muslim eyes by Tamim Ansary. In there he answers this exact question.
In short, the circumstances and details of Muslim society were such that there was no "church" to rebel against. There was no Pope. No clergy. No single, centralised religious authority. Unlike the Protestant reformation.
Also, the Muslim world was organised into just three big empires: Ottomans, Safavids and Mughals. Europe was divided into hundreds of competing states. This favoured innovation more.
Also, Europe was a more individualistic society and Christianity arguably a more individualistic faith, whereas Islam is more community based. Even irrespective of religion that is still the case. Ie northern Europe is more individualistic than southern Europe and less community focused.
Also, the incentive to industrialise arose from specific social circumstances involving the development of private capital, competitive long distance trade, the discovery of the new world and the Atlantic slave trade, as well as intense competition between all sorts of different social models.
None of that existed in the Muslim world, mainly for reasons of politics, geography, religious and social development. The incentives and mechanisms at play were different.