No Christianity and no Islam

POD is there is no Jesus, Mohamed butterflied away.

The changes to the timeline will of course be spectacular. But what are they?
 
Too big to be really grasped past some centuries.
And what's even more important is that during the first centuries of its existence, Christianity had little influence on History, meaning that the changes would be subtle and imperceptibles at first (contrary to Islam, whom consequences of its absence would be obvious and quick to appear).

I would place my bet on the mix between popular religious rites (that differed greatly from province to province) and intellectual consideration (néo-platonicism, almost-monolatrism, etc.)
 
For all we know another Semitic religion could take the place of Christianity. Heck, any religion, even Buddhism could. Or a personal favourite of mine, Zoroastrianism
 
You should read "The Years Of Rice And Salt", by Kim Stanley Robinson. It depicts a world where the Black Plague mutates and basically depopulates Europe (basically everything but the British Isles lose something like 95% of their population), so you end up with a world where China and Dar al Islam (which now encompasses the Middle East and Europe) are the two superpowers. Highlights include the Japanese and the Iroquois Confederacy teaming up, Mt. Everest getting it's peak blown off by artillery, and the speed of light being discovered by a disgraced court alchemist from Samarkand.

It's not quite the OP (I mean, Islam is obviously still around), but it's really one of the best AH books out there. As for the challenge/WI, past even a century it's a super typhoon of butterflies that would be impossible to guess.
 
What I'm getting from this is that more constraints are needed if we're going to make any serious predictions. Alight, how close to OTL can we make a world without Islam or Christianity become? (You know, pull a Turtledove. :D)
 
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POD is there is no Jesus, Mohamed butterflied away.

The changes to the timeline will of course be spectacular. But what are they?

Well, Christianity is just a proselytizing sect of Judaism in my opinion.
Considering how many sects and branches Judaism had it seems almost inevitable that sooner or later one of these sects would decide to proselytize among the Non-Jews, the Gentiles. And most definitely that sect would have the similar success that the followers of Jesus had.
That will be Judaism for the Gentiles/Non-Jews. That will be without Christ, probably without crucifixion. But most definitely that would allow pork-eating and would not be too concerned about circumcision as it would have to fight for the followers in a highly competitive market.
So Christ or no Christ everything will be quiet similar to OTL give or take a hundred or so years.

I am not sure about Muhhamed though. Some kind of Abrahamic religion had a good chance to take root in Arabia. But without Muhammed that might be just another sect, I mean without Muhammed uniting all the Arabs and following conquests Islam had little chance to spread so far.
So without Muhammed there would have been some peculiar Christian/Judaistic sects in Arabia probably modified to suit the local Arab religious traditions.
 
For all we know another Semitic religion could take the place of Christianity. Heck, any religion, even Buddhism could. Or a personal favourite of mine, Zoroastrianism

Maybe a form of deeply hellenised judaism would survive...

Buddhism could reach out in what is now 'House of Islam', as it was in Soghdiane, Ghandara, and goes westward... It survive longer in India at least (the arrival of Islam was the coup de grace to buddhism it is argued). Zoroastrism fare better to say the least.
 
One immediately obvious POD is that without the Church to act as a unifying factor/preserve what remains of Classical learning/reintroduce Classical learning from the 12th century onwards, the Dark Ages are much darker and probably longer as well.
 
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