das said:
Yes. Events. But the Arab burst, by then, was bound to happen anyway; which way exactly, however, and how strong depended. A weaker, and much less extensive (only "Syria") burst is well within the realms of possible, I believe.
But PROOF is needed for this; I have never a scrap of evidence that points to the siuation in arabia being ANY different hen it had been for 500 years previous
The Quyrash already did have control over that trade, for the most part...
youd be surprised what implies by "control" generally this is littl emore then "we're strong enough to impose a tax when you pass by", and not actual control; trade was still conducted the same as it had been since the first century BCE
The unification that was going on was more like Roman unification of Italy, from what I could discern. As for Hejjaz' unification being insignificant, not so. It could be used as a springboard for the conquest of Syria.
Syria is actually going to be the HARDEST area in the region to take; Plaestine, even Jeruslam, woudl be a peace of cake, but Syria, and the city of Anthioch? You talkign about a Prize the Byzantine woudl fight over as much of thie rhistory as they were able to, and surprisnglly, often enough, they were able to sieze the city, and keep it under thier control when it had been taken
No, it was more due to the growth of population that needed to be somehow supported outside of the desert. Mohammed gave them a cause. Tell me why some other person can't give them another cause?
I've never seen any evidence for a growth of Arab population, its plausible, but not probable, IMO
Maybe the only THREE reasons?
a) That's two reasons in one. But anyway. Religious fervour alone won't take you far, albeit it provided an ideology that could have been provided by a charismatic and ambitious ruler instead. And that unification of Arabia... can't say it was minimum-loss, but either way, I believe they could have unified much of it anyway. Not all sources agree on control being lost immediately, btw. But nevermind.
they go hand in hand; you can have one, and if you dont have th eother, you dont have success; the Christian curusades; the religiosu rpecdent was thier to luanch over 7 crusades to claim the holy land; however, they only had varying success, depeding on who the leader was; the third crusade, whiel ended in a compromize, was due to Arab strength, that the Crusaders under Richard had prooved to be able to over come
(but the huge resources of Arabia prevented Richard from takign Jerusalem, because if he did take it, and it waslikelly he could have, given a seige, he woudl have little way to defedn once he returned to England; so he just didnt bother conqeroring Jerusalem in the first place)
it sliek I said before; history is driven by a combination of popular movments, and certin characters, and personalities whom can help guide these movements; often enough, ingrainign themselves so deeplly, that they becoem the heart of that driving force, and so the movements becoems inseperable from them; this happens to different degrees, soemtimes not at all; but with religious movments, its a neccesity, and for the military expansion fo a religion, such as Islams, its an absolute; no muhammed, no arab expansion, that simple.
b) Yep. That overstretchment was incidentally still there, and likely to remain for some time.
all depends; if no arab conflict comes about, the Byzantien empire isnt over stretched; it can concentrate on defending its northern borderlands
c) A one that was not vindicated by any of his successors and likely to continue, and, as far as opressions go, become even worse...
no mention of it beyond the inactment has ever coem up in the histories I have read, and so i assume that no leader after Justianian thought much of it; likelly, it was only orthodox preists who goaded th elocal commanders into enforceing them, more then the local govenor, so if it woudl becoem worse is open for debate; I honestlyl think that over time it woudl probabley coem to a stop, but perhaps not.
Because he already, as the ruler of Mecca, have some more established religious authority? Because he controlled much of Arabian trade? Because he was the strongest regional power?
the sword
Because he, using the situation derived from these three reasons, already was enough of an authority for the nearby tribes at least to solve their tribal disputes?
the pen
Then what the hell, I might ask, was Mohammed doing before the whole prophesizing thing? There was trade in Hejjaz.
apperentlly, he was bust wandering the deserts as an exile, and sleeping in caves
Um... in other words, in Arabia personality can differ and is important, but in Persia it can be guessed (somehow) from the knowledge of its history? Btw, I still don't quite understand how you are supposed to do that.
the more orginized, and well educated the nation, the less the leaders actually matter for total leadership; this has its exceptions, but Persia was a beaten nation; they had lost, and had no choice, for the moment, to accept the rule of a Byzantine endorsed king
1) IMHO rejunivation doesn't have much to do with political status. I meant economy and army.
rejuvantion implies they are free from the bond to Byzantium; unless the Byzantien endorsed dynasty had been completelyl over thrown (which woudl require a civil war, paradoxically, keeping them from that rejuvation for quite a bit longer) they would not be "rejuvanated"; they woudl have to continue being a nominal lap dog for the Byzantines at worst, and at best they woudl be a free state, and Byzantine ally.
2) Did I say they weren't? Merely that even if one ruler was loyal to the Byzantines, the next one didn't have to be loyal to them.
if hes of the same dynasty, he's held by his famillies oath to the Byzantine empire.
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A 30-year dynasty? A one-ruler dynasty, probably, unless they got killed off at a fast rate. Either way, it doesn't imply a very stable Persia...[/quote]
long enough to halt the arabs, then they can die off, and Persia and Byzantium can continue thier infighting, if that makes you happy
Eh? Doesn't seem so from your argumentation. Honestly, I think you should give it a try, you seem to have something of a vision for an Islam-less world.
I dotn care about an Islam-less world, I'm just a firm beliver that "alternate histories" should be realistic, and not have "Dues ex Machina" strew all through them, creating perverse historicle situations; I'd prefer a well thought out, historical, and realistic alternat history to one that creates large empire arbitrarilly.