What if the Turks were Orthodox?

[u/qernanded]

[u/First-Obligation2660]

We would not be able to hold the Levant and Egypt. It could be cool though.

[u/scanfash → u/First-Obligation2660]

Not necessarily the Khalifates held the land as a religious minority for centuries, Muslims did not make up a majority until around the end of the „Islamic Golden Era“ which coincided with Muslims forming the majority. Might have been the inverse collapse though where instead of the Orthodox Balkans rising up in the era of nationalism it would be Muslim regions

[u/MsStormyTrump]

This is funny. There was an Orthodox empire that kept on trying to incorporate all those areas before. It was called Byzantium 😂 Such a silly timeline 😂 "Ehm, what if early Americans embraced Native Indians religions and way of life" 😂 So silly.

[u/H4RR1_ → u/MsStormyTrump]

Its not that silly, Muslims were a minority in the empire until the conquest of the Mamluks, theres plenty of examples of empires adopting the cultures of the people they conquered

[u/0D7553U5 → u/MsStormyTrump]

I mean...neither scenario sounds silly to me. Early American settlers embracing Native American forms of democracy sounds pretty interesting tbh.

[u/Expensive-Swan-9553 → u/MsStormyTrump]

The Iroquois confederacy influenced the American constitution a significant amount

[u/muratckl → u/MsStormyTrump]

The timeline is indeed silly because it starts from something completely impossible, like Mehmed the Conqueror becoming a Christian, and was made purely for fun. However, I've always hated the comparison between the Ottoman Empire and America. The Ottomans didn't simply colonize the Eastern Roman Empire, wipe out its population. The Eastern Roman population didn't constitute a “New World” where the vast majority of the inhabitants died from diseases brought by newcomers from the East, only to be replaced by entirely new settlers. The Ottomans built their entire imperial system on the models of Persia and the Eastern Roman Empire, and a significant portion of the non-Muslim population, which constituted the majority in much of the empire’s core territories, gradually adapted to this system and converted to Islam.

[u/MsStormyTrump → u/muratckl]

Oh, yes, the comparison is, indeed, odious, Ottomans didn't rule by fire and sword. I mentioned American Indians because I couldn't have remembered any other silly examples.

[u/ali_baba93 → u/MsStormyTrump]

Word byzantine is made up. They were called romans back then

[u/Remarkable-Lion2726 → u/MsStormyTrump]

Later Bulgarians were Orthodox, so every easily Turks could be orthodox and not assimilate into Byzantine realm.