The Fourth Revelation Of the Children of Abraham

Faraday Cage

I'm not sure I have the chops to write a TL, but just for discussion: what if a fourth Abrahamic religion came into prominence some time after the rise of Islam, but soon enough to carve out a sphere of influence and be part of medieval struggle between Christianity and Islam? Could some sort of heretical new sect take over the Byzantine Empire? Or maybe a new religion could arise in Persia before Islam could cross to there from Arabia? Or maybe contact with Christians and Muslims would create an Abrahamic but individual religion in the last pagan bastions of Eastern Europe/Eurasia?
 
I'm not sure I have the chops to write a TL, but just for discussion: what if a fourth Abrahamic religion came into prominence some time after the rise of Islam, but soon enough to carve out a sphere of influence and be part of medieval struggle between Christianity and Islam? Could some sort of heretical new sect take over the Byzantine Empire? Or maybe a new religion could arise in Persia before Islam could cross to there from Arabia? Or maybe contact with Christians and Muslims would create an Abrahamic but individual religion in the last pagan bastions of Eastern Europe/Eurasia?

Maybe the Slavs and Scandinavians could create a fusion religion that becomes popular in Northern Europe, and Central Asia.
 
Maybe the Slavs and Scandinavians could create a fusion religion that becomes popular in Northern Europe, and Central Asia.

That would be the place to do it, but remember that both areas were Christianized out of force, not some divine revelation. Cyrill and Methodius tried very hard to convert the Slavs and only ended up giving them a written language and a really dry biblical read. (Remember, Cyrill might have invented the Cyrillic alphabet, but it was Methodius. :D So the Bulgarians celebrate the wrong saint every year) Ivan IV systematically repressed the pagan practices of the Rus' after his own conversion, and I forget who did it in Scandinavia, but the process was rather similar. You would need something along the lines of the Russian "Holy Fool" to appear all of a sudden with a revelation detailing this singular God-head and somehow manage to connect it to Abraham and his offspring.

The reason Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are all Abrahamic is because, well, they all grew out of the same area.

Another good possibility is a large sect of Zoroastrians suddenly being given a crazy man in their midst to call out the errors of their ways and draw them back to the "true path."
 
Here's an idea: the Paulicians under their leader John Chrysocheir win the Battle of Bishop's Meadow against the Byzantines in 863. Michael III is killed in the battle, and the Byzantine Empire collapses into civil war as Bardas and Basil the Macedonian fight over the throne. Meanwhile, Boris of Bulgaria converts to Paulicianism (there may have been Armenian missionaries in OTL) and allies with John Chrysocheir. The two march on Constantinople by ~867, and the Byzantine empire is gone by 870. In its place is a sort of Paulician empire, an unstable state dominated by Boris and John. It barely survives the death of the co-emperors, but over time manages to stabilize. What develops is a state proclaiming itself to be Christian, but not viewed as such by any other state. By the time centuries have passed, even the Paulician emperors are beginning to forget their Christian roots, instead viewing themselves as the fourth Abhrahamic religion.

How does that sound? *[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
 
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