WI: No Genghis Khan

An alternative PoD -- in 1201, at the battle of thirteen sides, the arrow shot by Zurgadai (otl retitled Jebe) that hit Genghis in the neck proves to be fatal.
 
There is a nonzero chance Song Dynasty China shows up in Russia with maxim guns halfway through the 1400/1500's. Very unlikely but I would argue not ASB.
 
No Ghengis Khan or him being stopped early means a lot of people around the world, including 1 in 200 men won't be alive today since he never rose to his true potential. Or another man may take his place in history, we'll never know.
 
Has there been a POD thread about Genghis Khan dying during the invasion of Persia? That'd be interesting to speculate about.
 
India has much less strong Islam - many refugees fleeing the Mongols from Central Asia, Persia, and Afghanistan fled to India, where they, according to Muslim Civilization in India by SM Ikram, they "provided the human resources needed for the consolidation of Muslim rule and the firm planting of Islamic religion in the subcontinent". Prior to their arrival, Islam was merely the religion of the Turkic overlords of India, known as Turaka Dharma, or Turkic Dharma, in Hindu sources.

But, with the Mongol invasion, refugees came and set up Islam as a solid entity in North India, allowing Muslims to later invade the Rajputs and South India. Without the Mongols, Islam will have only penetrated a thin veneer of Indian society, and as the Delhi Sultanate breaks up, earlier than OTL without the refugees to support it, Hindu kingdoms are reestablished. Persian is forgotten by most Indians many centuries earlier than OTL, and Braj Bhasha, a much less Persian-influenced language than OTL Hindustani, is established as the liturgical language of India.

In terms of Bhakti, the early arrival of the Chaitanya-style movement that liked to distinguish itself from Islam may rise earlier, but it's also possible that the movements of people like Kabir and Dadu, who pushed an anti-caste message, are watered down and integrated further in Hindu thought.
 
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*Byzantium falls in the early to mid 1300s
*Islam is probably a lot more tolerant and pro-education
*Baghdad might lead the Industrial Revolution
*Europe might not come to prominence for centuries after OTL if at all
*Trans-Atlantic contact/exploration might be markedly delayed of no economic incentive to avoid hardline Muslim nations controlling overland routes
*China likely to try expansion North and West if sufficiently stable
 
Why would China expand north though? China never really tried to conquer its northern neighbors for a reason, namely that there's pretty much nothing of value in Siberia for a medieval empire. Too much trouble, too little reward. West might happen though, but again, China's previous attempts at conquering central asia didn't go well in OTL.
 
Why would China expand north though? China never really tried to conquer its northern neighbors for a reason, namely that there's pretty much nothing of value in Siberia for a medieval empire. Too much trouble, too little reward. West might happen though, but again, China's previous attempts at conquering central asia didn't go well in OTL.

The Liao dynasty of Khitan stock already ruled an Empire going roughly from just south of Kharbarovsk to North-Central Asia - the Jin might decide there was enough to expand into if the Song and XiXia were sufficiently strong to avoid conquest.
 
Still plenty of capable generals on the Mongols side, so I see Jamukha still falling.

I see the sons and generals looking to Chagatai as the heir, instead of Jochi.

Jebe might be a dead man walking though.

I see the Mongol campaigns still happening though.
 
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