WI: Genghis Khan was a Nestorian zealot

What if Genghis Khan was raised as a Nestorian Christian, as well as all of his family and generals and commanders. What if he were a zealot, trying tospread his religion as much as possible. What effects would it have on world history and demographics?
 
I don't think the Mongols would have been as successful as they were. Part of the formula for Mongolian success in the conquered areas was "believe whatever the hell you want, as long as you keep the peace and pay your taxes". If this turns into some kind of religious war, I think Genghis would have had a more difficult time uniting the various Mongol groups to begin with. People don't tend to like having their God of choice screwed with.
 
I don't think the Mongols would have been as successful as they were. Part of the formula for Mongolian success in the conquered areas was "believe whatever the hell you want, as long as you keep the peace and pay your taxes". If this turns into some kind of religious war, I think Genghis would have had a more difficult time uniting the various Mongol groups to begin with. People don't tend to like having their God of choice screwed with.

Wasn't that after millions were already slaughtered? It might have been the mass slaughter part that pacified the people more than the keep your own beliefs.
 
Wasn't that after millions were already slaughtered? It might have been the mass slaughter part that pacified the people more than the keep your own beliefs.

I'm sure it didn't hurt. In the Mongol conception of "carrot-stick", the "stick" part was rather profound. But I still think their willingness to leave conquered peoples up to their own devices, within the conditions I mentioned in my first post, dampened the desire to raise hell as well.
 
As soon as he'll meet the Muslims, that's gonna be... apostasy is forbidden for them, but then again, Spain and Byzantium also converted Muslims (back) to Christianity, whether it was a good idea or not.
 
What if Genghis Khan was raised as a Nestorian Christian, as well as all of his family and generals and commanders. What if he were a zealot, trying tospread his religion as much as possible. What effects would it have on world history and demographics?
Maybe a charismatic Nestorian wife influences him during the peak of his rule and gives birth to a favorite hair, who is raised Christian. Genghis always looked for an unifying ideology.
 
Wasn't that after millions were already slaughtered?

No, it was from the very beginning: the Steppe people whom he made into the "Mongols" had been multi-religious and religious zeal in favor of any one religion would make task of unification close to impossible. The same goes for the conquests. In OTL during the invasion of the Northern China there were numerous defections to the Mongolian side (including by the whole provinces and major army units) which would be quite unlikely if change of a loyalty involved change of the religion as well. The same goes for the Central Asia: how would you get a loyalty of the local Muslim merchants (who served as Genghis spies and got the important positions in the Mongolian administration after conquest) if you force them to convert? Kuchlug (who was a Nestorian converted into Buddhism) tried anti-Muslim policy in Qara Khitai empire and as a result the locals appealed to Genghis for help, he sent Jebe and this was the end of Kuchlug. Genghis was way too intelligent to do things the hard way.

It might have been the mass slaughter part that pacified the people more than the keep your own beliefs.

Of course, the empire was not conquered by religious tolerance. But this tolerance helped to keep it and to get the cooperation from the local religious leadership.
 
What if Genghis Khan was raised as a Nestorian Christian, as well as all of his family and generals and commanders. What if he were a zealot, trying tospread his religion as much as possible. What effects would it have on world history and demographics?

As if the deaths weren't enough. Expect a lot of more victims of war and the Middle East/Central Asia being a quagmire of Hostile Muslims not accepting the Zealot Christian.
 
Maybe a charismatic Nestorian wife influences him during the peak of his rule and gives birth to a favorite hair, who is raised Christian. Genghis always looked for an unifying ideology.

In the case of Genghis "ideology" was distinctively separate from the religion and it (Yasa) was strictly for the "people who live in the tents", not for the city dwellers.
 
As soon as he'll meet the Muslims, that's gonna be... apostasy is forbidden for them, but then again, Spain and Byzantium also converted Muslims (back) to Christianity, whether it was a good idea or not.

The areas conquered by the Byzantines or Christian Iberians had small Muslim pops and conquered bit by bit. The Mongols conquered large swath of lands including millions of Muslims. Imagine being a Zealot Christian within a hostile area. It would be like 20 humans being surrounded by 5,000 hornets.
 
The areas conquered by the Byzantines or Christian Iberians had small Muslim pops and conquered bit by bit. The Mongols conquered large swath of lands including millions of Muslims. Imagine being a Zealot Christian within a hostile area. It would be like 20 humans being surrounded by 5,000 hornets.
Genghis Khan must have known about Islam.
 
He might not even get past China, since the Jin Empire is pretty well populated, and the millions there aren't going to care much for crusader imposed iconoclasm.
 
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