After ditching an alternate WWI timeline (thanks for the very polite and detailed criticisms for those who made them), I have decided to try something I find more interesting - an Islam-dominated world (both socially and politically). I know what I want to do, but I am really struggling to get a decent divergence - preferably not a Rice and Salt scenario. I obviously do not want all the work done for me, but any pointers would be welcome. I have bought some second-hand books on the Ottoman Empire and so on, but any advice at all welcome.
The best I can come up with is that Charles Martel is defeated at Tours, leading the Caliphate to gain French territory and continue to expand (to quote Gibbon)
"A victorious line of march had been prolonged above a thousand miles from the rock of Gibraltar to the banks of the Loire; the repetition of an equal space would have carried the Saracens to the confines of Poland and the Highlands of Scotland; the Rhine is not more impassable than the Nile or Euphrates, and the Arabian fleet might have sailed without a naval combat into the mouth of the Thames. Perhaps the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Mahomet"
[Old fashioned and anti-Islamic, but it suggests historians thought Islamic expansion possible, although I would have it slower - although given the rate of later Ottoman conquest and assimilation in the Balkans, perhaps this is not utterly absurd]
I like this divergence, as I have it all planned out, but will it work?
And so on. I will not say any more as that will spoil the timeline if I pull it off - is this OK?
PS: Sorry about this, but as you can see I am incredibly new and felling my way in very gently.
The best I can come up with is that Charles Martel is defeated at Tours, leading the Caliphate to gain French territory and continue to expand (to quote Gibbon)
"A victorious line of march had been prolonged above a thousand miles from the rock of Gibraltar to the banks of the Loire; the repetition of an equal space would have carried the Saracens to the confines of Poland and the Highlands of Scotland; the Rhine is not more impassable than the Nile or Euphrates, and the Arabian fleet might have sailed without a naval combat into the mouth of the Thames. Perhaps the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Mahomet"
[Old fashioned and anti-Islamic, but it suggests historians thought Islamic expansion possible, although I would have it slower - although given the rate of later Ottoman conquest and assimilation in the Balkans, perhaps this is not utterly absurd]
I like this divergence, as I have it all planned out, but will it work?
And so on. I will not say any more as that will spoil the timeline if I pull it off - is this OK?
PS: Sorry about this, but as you can see I am incredibly new and felling my way in very gently.
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