Stronger Byzantine Empire

What if Khosrau of Persia did not declare war on the Byzantines, leaving the Sassanid and Byzantine Empires stronger and more likely to cooperate against the Islamic invasions?
 
I doubt they would cooperate against the Arabic invasions. However, Islam would be constrained to Arabia proper.
 
Really all you need to do is avoid their final conflict, that left them so exhausted and beaten that the Arabs where able to beat them much more easily then if they had been staring eachother down for those years.

That and a POD with Khosrau I would likely butterfly islam.
 

Germaniac

Donor
Islam can still grow out into east Africa and trade in the Indian ocean will inevitably spread it in a similar but smaller scale.
 
How do you propose they get passed Byzantine held Egypt? They only did so in OTL because of how weakened they were.

Arab herdsmen had already lived in Egypt for many hundreds of years before the expansion of Islam. These nomadic tribes would definitely bring Islam from the Arabian peninsula to North Africa.
 

Razgriz 2K9

Banned
Carthage at this point, not sure of the names of the others in this era.

Carthage is the most populous of North Africa, but there was also cities like Cyrene (probably around the Libyan-Egyptian border, but it did give Cyreneacea its name.

But With a stronger Byzantine and Sassanid Empire, you now have the Islamic Rashidun Caliphate constrained to Arabia, with the only possible route of expansion being south of Aegyptus, that being OTL Sudan, as well as the Horn of Africa.

Still, it could in turn butterfly away the divide between the Islamic faiths...probably.
 
In this scenario, it's more likely than not that Islam as we know it will not arise at all. Sure, there'll be monotheistic Arabs who were united by Muhammad, but will they call themselves Muslims? It's quite possible that they will not.
 
Many of the Imperial citizens in Aegyptus and the Levantine at that time were Monophysite Christians who were already religiously distinct from the church of Rome. Also, the Copts have their own papacy out of Alexandria that dates back to before this time, and they are likely to continue down their own path. I think that Islam will still spread by trade routes but much more slowly, we could still see eastern Africa down to Zanzibar and parts of coastal India influenced by Islam along with the Persian Gulf coast. Arabia proper and perhaps some hinterlands will be converted but not much more than that.

If permitted to continue on their own course the religious friction between Aegyptus and the Levantine will become a problem. But without the Muslim conquests, Egypt along with Sicily will remain Byzantine for at least a while longer, sources of significant manpower and agriculture that could prove pivotal in a reconquest attempt in Italy or even Spain. An irony might be having a Byzantine force arrive in Spain in 711 and retake the whole of the peninsula, should they be able to exploit the same situations the Arabs did. By 750 there is a chance under the right leadership to have much of Spain recovered along with Italy with targets for conquest in southern Gaul, Helvetia, Pannonia, and maybe even southwestern Britain (Cornwall with its tin mines)
 
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