WI: Muhammed was kidnapped

According to the encyclopedia of Islam, Muhammad sent a letter to Khosrau II demanding him to convert to Islam. Khosrau, annoyed that some random Arab merchant would ask him to convert to his guy's religion, told his vassal in Yemen to send two men to kidnap Muhammad and bring him back to Ctesiphon.

IOTL, nothing came of it. But, what if Muhammad was kidnapped and dragged before the emperor of Persia? What butterflies would it create?
 
While part of Islamic tradition, but it's much probably (as many details about this era) apocryphal, critically with Khosrau being used as a pretext for moral tales (along the lines of "bad royalty" and "good caliphate").
 
While part of Islamic tradition, but it's much probably (as many details about this era) apocryphal, critically with Khosrau being used as a pretext for moral tales (along the lines of "bad royalty" and "good caliphate").

I assumed it was apocryphal, but I still think it would be cool to have Muhammad dragged before the Khosrau and seeing what happens.
 
Kidnap

If this is before Mohammed notches a large following, we have plenty of "No Islam" timelines. The Persian King would most likely have Mohammed killed, as he was unwilling to convert in the first place, and, as you said, was angry that a random Arab wanted him to abandon his old religion.

If this is after Mohammed notches a large following (Holding Mecca and Medina, let's say) then the Islam movement would either stop without their leader and stay in those respective cities or become enraged at the loss of their prophet and we would see a more brutal conquest of the Persian Empire than we saw in the OTL.
 
I assumed it was apocryphal, but I still think it would be cool to have Muhammad dragged before the Khosrau and seeing what happens.

Muhammad is probably not even put before Khosrau, and he's executed.

The confederation of tribes he set up collapses, probably replaced by an handful of confederation or states (as Yemen, that incidentally wasn't really under Persian vassality by the early VIth century, mostly only under a really nominal one).
 

Mookie

Banned
He already had a large following. And was converting the tribes in Arabia en masse, due to the truce with Mecca. He even sent embasadors to Egypt and Byzantines.

If he is captured and kept they would offer a giant ransom for him.
If he is killed there were plenty of people willing to kill Kisrau at that time.
I dont know if Islam would stay as one thing though, but if it does, we might even see extermination of everyone in Persia as revenge.
 
I'm not sure. Islam without Muhammad might not become as popular, and there were Arab tribes that were either Christian or Jewish. I'm not sure how they would react to the early demise of Muhammad.

This would also have a big effect on linguistics in general since Arabic would no longer become a prominent language, and with that, we just pushed back the development of mathematics and sciences. Navigation will be hard to study, and no algebra at all.
 
I think that without Muhammed his movement would fall apart as there'd be fierce squabbles over who'd succeed him, the fair-weather converts (Those in it just for the booty) would leave enmasse and then i'd say they'd be picked apart piecemeal by all the enemies they've made.
 
You underestimate how much the early Caliphate was a collection of tribes, barely tied up.

Even admitting that this aporcryphal tale takes place in 628 (and that's being generous about it), you still have "Munafiq", Hawâzin and Jewish tribes.
Hell, Muhammad didn't even had access to mecca before 630!

Would have he been kidnappen and executed, his confederation collapse, simply and purely, because it was based on his leadership. At best, some his followers tries to pull a prophet, fighting each other for that.
 
According to islamic sources, the small force sent to capture him converted to islam, and along with the commander of the persian occupation army in yemen and most of the persian troops.
They were supplying the bulk of the army that invaded egypt a few years later under amr ibn al as, especially the siege equipment as the arabs had none.
 
but, uh, what if a "Miracle" happened.

Muhammad is dragged in front of Khosrau, but his piety moved Khosrau's heart and he suddenly convert to Islam? :D Not saying this was possible of course, but hey, many Religion OTL has a literal Real Life ASB factor to help them grew... :D
 
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