Think about Iraq, Mongols being Nestorians would have a local support. How big was the Nestorian community at the time?(I would think 35%+)I don't think they would have maintained their rule as effectively as they did tbh. Even in the time of Temujin, he was famous for launching an islamic critique of the previous rulers of a city when he would usurp their established order. Often, muslim leaders would then be appointed to rule just as buddhist rulers were brought into china etc.
A Mongol empire with less secularism just opens the way for a much greater disunity. Kahns can establish their own empires by appeasing to their populations in religious rebellion against the greater horde.
Im not saying that they couldn't have success, and in some ways I could see them having greater success with the Rus, as awell as limited success elsewhere.Think about Iraq, Mongols being Nestorians would have a local support. How big was the Nestorian community at the time?(I would think 35%+)
Yeah I also think only the territories that were converted to Islam by them or were Tengrist would be Nestorian now. But those are big changes because Christianity in the East is very strong.Im not saying that they couldn't have success, and in some ways I could see them having greater success with the Rus, as awell as limited success elsewhere.
For example, the Yuan dynasty were Buddhist, but their later rather strong embracing of specifically Tibetan Buddhism alienated a lot of the pre-Yuan beauracracy and this minor difference was enough for propoganda efforts that would help topple their empire.
It would certainly be interesting, but we can't expect the same degree of success in most corners of the earth that they had. I think the major change would be a Nestorian golden horde could reasonably have a lot of staying power if it manages to make nestorian christianity the common christianity amongst the Rus, ora t the very least there would be more of an effort for future Rus related empires to be seen as Mongol.
Very well, religiosity in Mongol society was top down. So long as the top was tolerant, its followers experimented. The moment they converted, tolerance ended within a generation and the body converted or were expelled. There was only one exception, and that resulted in a tiered religiosity pyramid with clear superiority and inferiority.If alternate Mongols were perhaps 60% Nestorian at the beginning of their conquests, and all the leaders of the Golden Horde, Ilkhanate, Chagatai, Yuan Dynasty, and other hordes were Christian, how well could they spread the religion during the few centuries that Mongols ruled?
If alternate Mongols were perhaps 60% Nestorian at the beginning of their conquests, and all the leaders of the Golden Horde, Ilkhanate, Chagatai, Yuan Dynasty, and other hordes were Christian, how well could they spread the religion during the few centuries that Mongols ruled?
Mongol, Oirat, Kazakh and the Golden Horde would be Nestorian IMO, not sure about Ilkhanate given they could be both.I don't know... the hardest part for me seems to visualize the majority of the Mongols being the "true" Nestorian Christians, and Nestorian Christianity to be kind of the state religion.
Which is contrary to OTL; even a few Nestorian Christians among the Mongols don't change that much as it was usually one of the religions (and shamanistic beliefs) which this particular Mongol played with.
But the rest seems easy to reconstruct:
- we have one nation with Abrahamic prozylitizing religion, conquering other peoples with other religions
- during the initial imperial expansion phase it is highly advisable to tolerate other religions, but then... but you already know the drill...
The most important part of the population - the Turkic nomadic peoples - were not totally Muslim at the time of the Mongol expansion, so they might have been converted first quite easily.
I cannot imagine the whole of the Mongol controlled area becoming Nestorian, but some chunks of the territories and some peoples might have converted though if adequate pressure applied and there were some incentives.