WI: Jesus as Muhammad?

What if the Gospel of Jesus of Nazareth had been as close as possible (with small changes, of course, so as to make the story "fit") to the Koran?
 
Will Jerusalem be swapped in for Mecca?

EDIT: Are we saying that Jesus is going to act like Mohammed, or are we saying Jesus is going to be reported like Mohammed? Significant difference there.
 
Will Jerusalem be swapped in for Mecca?

EDIT: Are we saying that Jesus is going to act like Mohammed, or are we saying Jesus is going to be reported like Mohammed? Significant difference there.

Yes. Christianity's early customs, traditions, etc. are to be as close as possible to direct analogues of Islam, with Jesus playing the part of Muhammad.

To cut and paste from a Wikipedia article (heresy, I know) as an example, the ATL Jesus' Wiki page would start like this:

Jesus ben Joseph (6 BC-56 AD) is the founder of the religion of [substitute Aramaic for Islam, though it should be close] and is regarded by Christians* [need new name here] as a messenger and prophet of God, the greatest law-bearer in a series of Christian* prophets, and by most as the last prophet as taught by the [Koran equivalent] 33:40–40. Christians* thus consider him the restorer of an uncorrupted original monotheistic faith of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and other prophets. He was also active as a diplomat, merchant, philosopher, orator, legislator, reformer, military general, and, according to Christian* belief, an agent of divine action.

Born in 6 BC in the Jewish city of Bethlehem, he was orphaned at an early age and brought up under the care of his uncle [name] in Nazareth. He later worked mostly as a merchant, as well as a shepherd, and was first married by age 25. Discontented with life in Nazerth, he retreated to a cave in the Sinai for meditation and reflection. According to Christian* beliefs it was here, at age 40, in the month of [name], where he received his first revelation from God. Three years after this event Jesus started preaching these revelations publicly, proclaiming that "God is One", that complete "surrender" to Him (lit. [Aramaic equiv. of Islam]) is the only way acceptable to God, and that he himself was a prophet and messenger of God, in the same vein as other Jewish prophets.

Jesus gained few followers early on, and was met with hostility from Jewish religious leaders; he and his followers were treated harshly. To escape persecution first Jesus sent some of his followers to Egypt before he and his remaining followers in Mecca migrated to [where? Capernaum?] in the year [Hejira equivalent]. This event, the [name], marks the beginning of the Christian* calendar. In [x], Jesus united the [Galilean Jews?], and after eight years of fighting with the Judeans, his followers, who by then had grown to ten thousand, conquered Jerusalem. In 56, a few months after returning to Jerusalem from his Farewell pilgrimage, Jesus fell ill and died. By the time of his death, most of Palestine had converted to Christianity*; and he united the peoples of Palestine into a single Christian* religious polity. [Within the Roman Empire?]

The revelations—which Jesus reported receiving until his death—form the verses of the New Testament*, regarded by Christians* as the “Word of God” and around which the religion is based. Besides the New Testament*, Jesus’s life and traditions are also upheld by Christians*. They discuss Jesus and other prophets of Christianity* with reverence, adding the phrase peace be upon him whenever their names are mentioned.
 

Leo Caesius

Banned
Yes. Christianity's early customs, traditions, etc. are to be as close as possible to direct analogues of Islam, with Jesus playing the part of Muhammad.
I had something like this in mind, but instead of Jesus playing the part of Muhammad, it was John the Baptist... and Jesus played the part of Ali.
 
I see. I suppose it depends on Rome's reaction to this. Does the parallel keep up after his death, or is history allowed to diverge at that point?

If Jesus-as-Mohammed continues, Rome is going to get taken down, conquered or converted by the Christians over the next couple hundred years.

If not, Rome is probably going to take issue with this take-over of Palestine, and the mess with be unbelievable, if Palestine is committed to fighting back.
 
I had something like this in mind, but instead of Jesus playing the part of Muhammad, it was John the Baptist... and Jesus played the part of Ali.

That's superbly subtle, but I didn't think to do anything other than attack this straight on.

Instead of Shi'ites do we have Simonites? (Yes, they aren't "Ali-ites", but I'm no linguist.) :p
 
I see. I suppose it depends on Rome's reaction to this. Does the parallel keep up after his death, or is history allowed to diverge at that point?

A Christianity* strangled in its cradle by the legions isn't worth bothering discussing 2000 years from that point, so I'd prefer to keep the parallel up.

If Jesus-as-Mohammed continues, Rome is going to get taken down, conquered or converted by the Christians over the next couple hundred years.

Rome needs to have a nice round of Civil Wars that last oh...thirty or forty years. Until Christian* Syrian legions are stopped by [not Greek fire, but something invented by an Archimedian genius] at the gates of Rome.

If not, Rome is probably going to take issue with this take-over of Palestine, and the mess with be unbelievable, if Palestine is committed to fighting back.

Indeed. Rome needs to start fighting a nasty war with somebody (Parthians?) in around 45 or 46 AD, so that the Galilean auxiliaries led by this Jesus fellow have to take care of those pesky Jews that are always revolting over some nonsensical issue.
 
Well I can't really see Jesus referring to himself nothing less than him being the Son of God so I'm going to say John the Baptist is a better candidate for an Islamic analogue/ATL Christianity.
 

Leo Caesius

Banned
That's superbly subtle, but I didn't think to do anything other than attack this straight on.

Instead of Shi'ites do we have Simonites? (Yes, they aren't "Ali-ites", but I'm no linguist.) :p
Well, actually, Shiite is shorthand for "Party of Ali (Shi3at Ali)" and the term Alawi/Alevi (quite literally "Ali-ite") is used to describe a variety of Shiite sects in many countries.

If we are going with Jesus, I think the better Ali analogue would be John the Apostle, with Paul and Peter being the Rashidun equivalents.
But John was the one apostle who managed to live to a ripe old age, whereas Ali was violently martyred and even becomes deified in some traditions. In the end, though, it was the martyrdom of Hussein at Karbala which occupies in Shiite tradition the role of the Crucifixion in Christianity.

The problem with Jesus-as-Muhammad, after all, is that Muhammad was decidedly just a human being, even if some Muslim scholars identify him as the Paraclete promised by Jesus.

Another good Ali analogue would be James the Just, who was the sole member of Jesus' family to arise as a successor or deputy, but was eventually eclipsed by others who were not related to Jesus (including one who was the early Christian community's worst enemy--Paul). The parallels are quite obvious, actually. The James Gang in Jerusalem could become an embryonic Shiite sect, along with the alleged "Johannine community" which reputedly rejected Jesus in favor of his cousin John.

In any case, the OP is an interesting idea and I certainly don't want to be responsible for derailing it with my musings.
 
I was just thinking of John's personality of most beloved disciple meshing with Ali's more, but you are right. Perhaps James and John could be the stalwart generals of the new faith, living up to their "sons of thunder" appellation more martially.
 
Part of the reason Rome did let Christians be at times was because of the whole "caesar what is caesar's" idea. Submission to the state in a temporal realm but submission to God in the spiritual with obviously some cross over in terms of who you worship and what you are allowed/not allowed to do. Christians told their members generally to pay their taxes and not rebel and Rome was on-board with that. So any religion that actively established a theocracy or tries to is going to be seen as a major threat. And it's pretty much cannon around here that absent the Roman-Persian war of the 600s the Arabs would have mostly been confined to Arabia.

That said I think this is a pretty awesome PoD as well. I'd call then Jesufins or Issafins myself.
 
Last edited:
I had something like this in mind, but instead of Jesus playing the part of Muhammad, it was John the Baptist... and Jesus played the part of Ali.

Now THAT would be interesting - particularly if, as in OTL, Jesus gets crucified by the Romans and does of the same stuff he did as mentioned in the Bible, i.e. his miracles.
 
Top