WI: Nestorian Seljuk

Seljuk was a an officer in the Khazar army and possibly a Jew or a Nestorian Christian. It's supported by the fact his children had names like Mikail and Israel and there were many Jews among the Khazars and also some Christians. I was considering this TL for some time. Say he had a dream like Constantine the Great or "vision" whatever or maybe he accidentally met a Nestorian priest and became a real Christian. Maybe he had a Christian concubine who convinced him? :D

A lot of Turks of the time were still pagans so if he was baptized his tribe would have to do the same probably. Could he get more Turks to convert? Could his invasion south, to areas like Khorasan and other places be successful? He would be able to proclaim a holy war against muslims if neccessary. I know his heirs wouldn't be as successful in Persia as OTL, but is a Christian Nestorian kingdom in Central Asia plausible? He could atleast do some damage to the Buyids and maybe some other Persians until Khwarezmids or Ghaznavids or someone else decides to end them. And if his people get to Persia and lose, they could migrate west towards the Byzantine Empire. I think they would arrive a decade or two later, but still, at around 1080-1100, without Manzikert and the Komnenos probably not getting the crown, Byzantine Empire would be weaker and needing an ally against someone else, as always, and especially in Anatolia, where they could settle to repopulate the region, of course, under Byzantine rule.

The Chalcedonians declared Nestorians as heretics, but there is the option of converting to Orthodox, which the Greeks would probably require (unless they were in some dire situation and urgently needed help), and I personally think it's unplausible. The other option is them staying nestorian but the Emperor and the Patriarch accepting them, after some synod maybe? OTL the Miaphysite Armenians were in good relations with the greeks and IIRC Miaphysitism is more different from Orthodoxy than Nestorianism.

Turks could settle in Asia Minor, they would serve in the imperial army, have their own traders, judges, churches etc. with the Greeks still remaining as rulers and administrators of the regions and having a decent percentage in the overall population. Marriages between Turks and Greeks could be possible, either by one of the spouses converting or by the synod declaring a union like the Brest Union of 1596 (Roman Catholics and Greek Catholics can marry without any obstacles). Such marriages could be seen as favorable by the Turks allowing them to get better positions and could help connecting the two completely different nations. However they would never assimilate one another.

Some wars and rebellions could be possible but nothing like the invasions all the way to Vienna like OTL, with Greeks eventually keeping western Asia Minor and Constantinople (which itself could have a significant Turkish minority), and stop Islam form ever spreading in Asia Minor, let alone Europe. That would result in completely different Balkans.

Such an alliance could be useful for both as Anatolia was quite depopulated at the time and there was less and less hope in defence against Islam. Especially if someone like Saladin comes :rolleyes:

So, is any of this plausible? How would it affect for example, the Crusades, the Caliph, The rest of Europe etc, other consequences? I know there are dozens of Middle Ages, Byzantine and Turk experts here so please heeelp? :)

And sorry for the long post
 
Bump!

It doesn't necessarily have to be Seljuk...maybe a different Manzikert or something to result in a Christian (Nestorian, Orthodox, whatever) Turkish Anatolia?

I know there were other discussions about this but i found no answers yet so please help?
 
Hmmm... A possible combination of no Islam and secret penetration of Nestorianism among (Middle) Persian-speaking lower class in the homeland PODs domain could work, but I admit that my knowledge about it is cloudy beyond what I read from Mr. Comptons.
 
Hmmm... A possible combination of no Islam and secret penetration of Nestorianism among (Middle) Persian-speaking lower class in the homeland PODs domain could work, but I admit that my knowledge about it is cloudy beyond what I read from Mr. Comptons.

No Islam would almost without doubt butterfly the Seljuks away and the Turkic peoples' history would ultimately be very different too.
 
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