WI: Seljuk Empire goes east

(This is my first post on the forum by the way, though I've been reading posts on here long before; hope I'm not breaking any rules, sorry if I am)

The Byzantine-Seljuk Wars, the Seljuk invasion of Anatolia, and the Battle of Manzikert were all major points in the downfall of the Byzantine Empire and the Turkish migration into Anatolia. Pretty much the point of this thread is: What if, instead of setting its sights on the west, the Seljuks conquer and establish themselves in India, thus avoiding the invasion of Anatolia?

How much longer would this keep the Byzantine Empire alive? Would Anatolia end up falling to the Caliphate and be populated with Mashriqi Arabs? What knock-on effects would it have on Europe? What effects would a Seljuk Empire on the Indo-Gangetic plain have on India? How long could Seljuk rule of India last, and how successful would it be (coming even close to the OTL Mughals)?
 
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(This is my first post on the forum by the way, though I've been reading posts on here long before; hope I'm not breaking any rules, sorry if I am)

The Byzantine-Seljuk Wars, the Seljuk invasion of Anatolia, and the Battle of Manzikert were all major points in the downfall of the Byzantine Empire and the Turkish migration into Anatolia. Pretty much the point of this thread is: What if, instead of setting its sights on the west, the Seljuks conquer and establish themselves in India, thus avoiding the invasion of Anatolia?

How much longer would this keep the Byzantine Empire alive? Would Anatolia end up falling to the Caliphate and be populated with Mashriqi Arabs? What knock-on effects would it have on Europe? What effects would a Seljuk Empire on the Indo-Gangetic plain have on India? How long could Seljuk rule of India last, and how successful would it be (coming even close to the OTL Mughals)?


One the point of Manzikert, it was basically an IRL version of when you capture a monarch in CK2 when in a Crusade/Jihad, the likelihood of the series of events was probably very small.

But on Survival of the Byzantines, that is essentially impossible to say, without factoring later events, such as Tamerlane. However on the point of Seljuk rule in India I would say not super long, as Northern India is one of those places that isn't suited to long term empires, similar Iraq, the geography makes it relatively easy to conquer, and it is hard for it to conquer its neighbours.
 
(This is my first post on the forum by the way, though I've been reading posts on here long before; hope I'm not breaking any rules, sorry if I am)

The Byzantine-Seljuk Wars, the Seljuk invasion of Anatolia, and the Battle of Manzikert were all major points in the downfall of the Byzantine Empire and the Turkish migration into Anatolia. Pretty much the point of this thread is: What if, instead of setting its sights on the west, the Seljuks conquer and establish themselves in India, thus avoiding the invasion of Anatolia?

How much longer would this keep the Byzantine Empire alive? Would Anatolia end up falling to the Caliphate and be populated with Mashriqi Arabs? What knock-on effects would it have on Europe? What effects would a Seljuk Empire on the Indo-Gangetic plain have on India? How long could Seljuk rule of India last, and how successful would it be (coming even close to the OTL Mughals)?

Well, it is difficult to say for sure, as this would create a lot of butterflies both in the west and the east, gradually spreading in different directions. Most likely it would prolong the life of the Byzantine Empire and it could butterfly the Crusades, as this was strongly connected with the Seljuk expansion into Anatolia. An interesting question would be how this would influence the waves of expansions from Central Asia, which would probably not be butterflied as they were influenced by demographic factors which most likely would not be too different from OTL, but the expansions might take other directions, influenced by different circumstances in Asia and Europe and by the fact that different leaders would be in charge also among the Mongols compared to OTL.
 
(This is my first post on the forum by the way, though I've been reading posts on here long before; hope I'm not breaking any rules, sorry if I am)

The Byzantine-Seljuk Wars, the Seljuk invasion of Anatolia, and the Battle of Manzikert were all major points in the downfall of the Byzantine Empire and the Turkish migration into Anatolia. Pretty much the point of this thread is: What if, instead of setting its sights on the west, the Seljuks conquer and establish themselves in India, thus avoiding the invasion of Anatolia?

How much longer would this keep the Byzantine Empire alive? Would Anatolia end up falling to the Caliphate and be populated with Mashriqi Arabs? What knock-on effects would it have on Europe? What effects would a Seljuk Empire on the Indo-Gangetic plain have on India? How long could Seljuk rule of India last, and how successful would it be (coming even close to the OTL Mughals)?

First of all, the Seljuks going West was actually aimed for Egypt. Egypt was in the handa of the Shi'ite Fatimids. That was onr factor to go there. If Egypt is ruled by a Sunni dynasty, there is less desire to conquer and oust the dynasty ruling it. After all, they're Sunni.

Does this mean the Caliphate attacks Anatolia? Assuming there is no Fatimid Caliphate which in turn makes the Seljuks go East. No. Then there is the Abbasids. The Abbasids were no threat to the East Roman Empire since the second half of the 10th century. They lost the Levant and so the main reason of war with the East Romans. So no Caliphate to attack, let alone conquer Anatolia. Nor would they populate Anatolia with Arabs. They didn't do it most of the time.

Attacking Northern India
There might be great chance to succeed in such invasion. The Ghaznavids and Ghurids succeed partly. But there is no 100% succes in staying alive. The Seljuk state imploded after the death of Malik Shah. In such events in a densly populated Northern India the Seljuk state(s) might not even survive to the 12th century.
 
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