As the title says. There may be a possibility, helped by certain events of course, for the first Ottoman beys to become Christian Orthodox? If yes, how they would fare? They would have the energy to unify Anatolia, conquering the Balkans, building their Empire - likely a Roman Empire, not Ottoman, cause, being Orthodox, etc. Maybe I am asking because the idea is intriguing me and may be inspiration for a TL. Well what you would think?
Derek Pullem
Donor
Osman and his allies were not exclusively muslims and there were quite a few Byzantine converts / defectors to their side. At this time Michael VIII was trying to engineer a union of the Orthodox and Catholic churches which was very unpopular in the Empire.
Postulate an Osman marriage to a Christian wife and later conversion and Osman becomes a possible faction in this dispute, initially as kingmaker to a puppet ultra-Orthodox Byzantine candidate and later as per Western Empire, placing an Orthodox member of his family on the throne. So then you get a Turkish dynasty in Constantinople. Whether it could duplicate the success of the Ottomans against the Mamluks et al I'm not sure - but it would be an interesting story to write.
The Ottomans were already pretty heavily Romanized. In this scenario, they're even more a continuation of the Roman Empire. There's less Persian influence and much less Arab influence on the resulting empire. The world loses a chunk of Persian art and poetry. Russia is more heavily influenced by the Middle East in TTL, since once the Golden Horde go down the Christian Ottomans will pull Muscovy into its cultural orbit. I wonder if these Ottomans end up pulled more northwards... Iraq was a poor province throughout the Ottoman period and since it's full of Muslims, it's easy to see a Christian Ottoman Empire deciding it's too much trouble and leaving it to the Persians... And instead we might have an Ottoman Ukraine and Volga delta.
If the Ottomans inherit the Byzantine-era attitudes towards Copts, a conquest of Egypt could end up being unprofitable. We might see things looking alot like OTL's Ottoman Egypt as the Muslim Mamlukes retain their position due to not being Copts... If the Ottomans are more religiously tolerant, then Egypt and Syria become more interesting - both areas had significant Christian but not Orthodox populations. If the Ottomans manage inter-Church relations well, then the mind boggles at the interesting directions opened up.
Bosnia may never become so Muslim in TTL. OTL Islam spread really well among the Bogomil heretics. If the Ottomans aren't Muslim, likely Islam doesn't spread and we again come back to if the Ottomans allow the Orthodox Church to control their policy towards heretics, or if they resist and take a more tolerant approach... Then again, maybe the Ottomans remain very pro-Islam in order to ease the transition to Roman-ness for their many Muslim subjects. In this scenario, I suspect that Ottoman Islam would be a more positive version of TTL's Ottoman-era Islam (religions generally are less corrupt when the power of the state is locked away from them), so more divergent views, less corruption in religious foundations, less theology students participating in coups. So we could see Christian heretic groups converting to Islam anyway.
This Ottoman Empire would be even more pulled towards involvement in Italy.
If there's a Safavid revolution in TTL, it's probably even more successful, since in TTL it will be a revolt against a Christian Roman Emperor, not a revolt against a Muslim Caliph. Of course, it's over 200 years after your PoD, so probably we see some different revolt of the tribes in the mountains of Anatolia, and likely, the revolt is earlier.
fasquardon
Maybe Seljuks become majority Christian from Tengriism before Islam. But thats unrealistic, because of their ties to Islamic world. There Had been Christian Seljuk families in Byzanz although.
As if the Christian states were not fighting and conquering each other even if both sides were of the same creed, like Byzantine Empire and Bulgaria or the Russian Principalities. It is just that a war of conquest does not necessarily has a religious component. Religious fanatism of the elite troops does not prevent them from fighting their co-religionists as long as loyalty to the Boss is also a part of their upbringing.
Plus, the Muslim neighbors still would be there to conquer.
Like the Ottomans didn't happily conquer their fellow Muslims (even though that's a major no-no) and Christian states don't war and raid each other. England and Scotland were far from the only Christian countries who had a border dominated by bandits of dubious loyalty to either capital.
I don't know what you're asking here.
I guess it's possible that Christian Ottomans might be even more European than OTL's Ottomans, and never really conquer the inland regions of anatolia. And if they do conquer the area, then just like OTL I expect it'll be a long process. Especially if like OTL, there will be Timurlane happening to the world.
fasquardon
I guessed given your previous post that in your opinion those Ottomans would expand at least in both Balkans and Turkey. But you gave a proper explanation anyway.