Muslim China? Challenge accepted!

One thing to be careful and bear in mind when trying to make Muslim China, there'll be Chinese who'll go 'Anti-foreign' or attack anything they see as 'foreign' in their eyes in defense of Chinese traditions, or so they claimed. One of prime examples is the Guangzhou massacre.
 

Kaze

Banned
It is unlikely China would become Muslim however the best POD is -

a. An Lushan Rebellion. A good portion of the Rebels were Hui. If the An Lushan Rebellion was successful in toppling the Tang and establishing a Muslim Dominated Dynasty, conversion to Islam would become very popular among the political ladder-climbers.

b. Wank - Western Xia. A good part of Western Xia has a Muslim population, becomes popular. If it defeats the Mongols (which in theory is possible, during the early days of Genghis he raided Western Xia, it is possible to kill him during this raid) and conquer the Jin Dynasty.

c. Genghis Khan & Kublai Khan convert to Islam. This is in the realm of possibility since there were many post-Genghis Mongol rulers that converted to Islam. When Kublai Khan takes the whole of China, China in theory becomes a Muslim Dominated Dynasty, conversion to Islam would become very popular among the political ladder-climbers.

d. other.
 
You think? But IIRC, for the most part, when samurai forces encountered the Mongols they tended to suffer. Rather badly (kind of inevitable when a warrior tradition focused on single combat goes up against guys with black powder).

I see what you're saying about naval tech, but if the Mongols had got a decent bridgehead...I don't see the Japanese being able to stave off conquest.

Bridgeheads need to be supplied and reinforced- and cavalry armies will have a hard time exercising control over the mountainous countryside. The Samurai may lose most set-piece battles, but if they can keep recruiting and resupplying locally, while the Mongols are dependent on ships plying the Tsunami beridden Yellow Sea, then at some point a tipping point will be reached - unless the Mongols have strong local allies who will provide them with recruits and supplies.

It is unlikely China would become Muslim however the best POD is -

a. An Lushan Rebellion. A good portion of the Rebels were Hui. If the An Lushan Rebellion was successful in toppling the Tang and establishing a Muslim Dominated Dynasty, conversion to Islam would become very popular among the political ladder-climbers.

b. Wank - Western Xia. A good part of Western Xia has a Muslim population, becomes popular. If it defeats the Mongols (which in theory is possible, during the early days of Genghis he raided Western Xia, it is possible to kill him during this raid) and conquer the Jin Dynasty.

c. Genghis Khan & Kublai Khan convert to Islam. This is in the realm of possibility since there were many post-Genghis Mongol rulers that converted to Islam. When Kublai Khan takes the whole of China, China in theory becomes a Muslim Dominated Dynasty, conversion to Islam would become very popular among the political ladder-climbers.

d. other.

a. OTL, the rebels were NOT Hui. Hui wasn't a thing yet. Many of them were (Mostly nominally Zorastrian, some Manichean. perhaps an odd muslim or two) Sogdians and (pagan/tengrist) Turks. But yes, TTL, the Central Asians serving the Tang Dynasty will be significantly more islamisized/shiified. A more plausible possibility, but one I chose not to pursue, was greater Abbasid involvement in FIGHTING the An-Lushan rebellion. OTL, the Abbasids sent 3,000 cavalry to help the Tang (remarkable, given earlier hostilities). What if they send more and try to puppetize/Islamicize the Tang? Or else make common cause with An-Lushan in return for, among other things, conversion? Neither option is likely to result in wholesale conversion immediately, but it might usher in an earlier downfall of the Tang, their breakup into a Five dynaty, Ten Kingdom homolog, and with an Islamized Xian based dynasty eventually coming up on top and islamicizing the rest of China (and possibly even adopting Shiism to signify independence from the Caliphate). I chose not to pursue this option, but it may actually be more plausible than what I did choose. Just not, I think, as interesting.
b. Even in the western Xia times, the population and elite were not significantly islamicized. Manicheanism was predominant. But Wanking the Western Xia would be difficult.
c. I do not think this late POD is in the realm of possibility. The Golden Horde and Ilkhanate (and CHagati) converted to Islam after four generations because their subjects were laregly Muslim. The Mongols in the homeland-China would not convert to Islam unless their own subjects were Muslim - or unless The Caliphate somehow converted them, or their predecessors (the Liao) by the sword as they did transoxonia... or if the Uyghurs inhabiting Mongolia back in the 9th century choose to convert to Islam rather than Manicheanism. and of course, that would probaly butterfly the Mongols away. Still, the latter possibility (Uyghurs converting to Islam 600 years early), Islam remaining the dominant religion in the Mongolian Plateau even after the Uyghur Khanate collapses, and then a *Mongol (Or Xibe/Khitan/Kyrgyz/Jurchen/Whatever) millitary genius GK analog and his descendents conquering China could islamify China or at least North China... up to a point. OTL Mongols were overthrown rather quickly. If those doing the overthrowing are as OTL millenial Budhists, they will likely purge Islam (OTL, the Ming founder put the Hui under his protection but also tried to assimiate them through intermarriage. That didn;t exactly work out as planned). At best, you will have more Hui, not a truely Muslim China.

This POD is railroading towards... but that will be telling. Now, I will be getting off my ass (or rather sitting on it. damm lockdown) and push the TL towards that point.
 
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