WI: Arabs Defeat Roman Empire/Sasanian Empire Pre Islam?

What If Arabs Defeat Roman Empire/Sasanian Empire Pre Islam?

This is a bit of a tall order. The scenario is the Levantine Arabs are stronger then OTL and are able to defeat the Roman and Sasanian Empire's earlier then the 7th century Islamic conquests. Total conquest of Byzantium and the Sasanian Empire would be really hard so by defeat I mean taking and holding Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia and Anatolia. What would the effects be? How would this impact Islam's spread?

Two possibilities I thought of:

1. 3rd Century Palmyra under Zenobia. A more Arab centric Palmyrene Empire. Emperor Aurelian is killed while campaign against them, he was wounded in OTL, and Zenobia is able to absorb most of the eastern half of the Roman Empire. Zenobia then turns her attention to the Persians taking Ctesiphon, her husband Odaenathus besieged the city previously, and takes Mesopotamia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenobia

2. 4th Century Tanûkhids under Mavia. The Romans in OTL got beat pretty badly by Queen Mavia and it was a fear she could seize the entire east. So lets say after Emperor Valen's death the Eastern Roman Empire completely collapses and the Tanukhids are able to sweep up the remnants.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mavia_(queen)

Mavia and her forces proved themselves to be superior to Roman forces in open battle as well. A century of having fought alongside Roman forces meant that they were familiar with Roman tactics and easily defeated the forces of the Roman governor over Palestine and Phonecia, the first to be sent in to crush the revolt. She gained favour among townspeople in the region, sympathetic to her cause as well, and it seemed as though the whole Roman East would break away to be ruled by Mavia and her Arabs.

More recent scholarship has approached Mavia within the context of the history of Arab warrior queens who preceded her, most prominent among them, Zenobia. For example, Irfan Shahid notes that the armies of both queens reached the same waterway dividing Asia from Europe, with Mavia even crossing the Bosporus into Byzantium.
 
Last edited:
What If Arabs Defeat Roman Empire/Sasanian Empire Pre Islam?

This is a bit of a tall order. The scenario is the Levantine Arabs are stronger then OTL and are able to defeat the Roman and Sasanian Empire's earlier then the 7th century Islamic conquests. Total conquest of Byzantium and the Sasanian Empire would be really hard so by defeat I mean taking and holding Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia and Anatolia. What would the effects be? How would this impact Islam's spread?

Two possibilities I thought of:

1. 3rd Century Palmyra under Zenobia. A more Arab centric Palmyrene Empire. Emperor Aurelian is killed while campaign against them, he was wounded in OTL, and Zenobia is able to absorb most of the eastern half of the Roman Empire. Zenobia then turns her attention to the Persians taking Ctesiphon, her husband Odaenathus besieged the city previously, and takes Mesopotamia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenobia

The better POD would be to keep Odaenathus alive for ten years more or even longer. He is a truly military and political genius.

That would be the ERE with Arab military elite. That Empire would include Mesopotamia at best.
I guess the Arabs would get assimilated into ERE culture and would get Greek speaking. That's pretty much unavoidable.
As for religion, guess Christianity would still win all the same in this empire.
Probably it would get deeper into Arabia proper than in OTL. Which makes any analogue of Islam less probable...
 
Top