AH Challenge: Empire of Prester John (kinda)

[B_Munro]

Was looking online at "The Travels of Sir John Mandeville", so here's a challenge it inspired.

With a POD after 800 AD, create a large, powerful Christian state anywhere [1] in the area shown in red on the map below, which is around continously between 1165 (the letter supposedly from Prester John shows up) and 1371 (Mandeville's book) and is led by a monach who is also head of the local church.

Provisos:

It can be any sort of Christian (Nestorian, or something weirder, is fine)

No excessive Islam-bashing (areas south and west of the red area are not to be converted to Christianity with Fire and the Sword - at least, not until AFTER 1371).

Extra points if it survives until 1900.

Bruce

[1] The geography of John's realm was always a bit vague.

 

[AmericanCaesar]

Simple, Genghis Khan is baptized at some point in his childhood and later mentored and consulted by a pious ascetic monk *bingo* Christian Mongol Empire!

 

[jmberry]

Very well. 50 or so years after Talas, the Tang Chinese return to Turkestan and drive the Caliphate's forces completely out. Leaving the region as a vassal, the region converts to Nestorian Christianity by 850 and becomes Transoxiana. After the Tang collapse, Transoxiana becomes an important gobetween for the Abbasids, Khazars, Indians, and Chinese, and grows wealthy off trade. In the 11th century, an expasionist Turkic dynasty takes over and invades Persia and India. This marks the height of the Transoxianan kingdom, and legends in Europe grow of a powerful Christian state that strikes fear into the infidels (The fact that Transoxiana is a heretical state is quietly forgotten). By the 13th century, Transoxiana is destroyed by Mongol invaders, though a Nestorian khanate based in Central Asia rises after the Mongol Empire disintegrates. Because of Transoxiana's influence, sizeable Nestorian minorities exist in Greater Iran to the present day, and Islam never gains a hold in Afghanistan or India (The Mughal analogues are Buddhist). Obviously, with no Seljuk Turks, the Byzantine Empire survives to the present day, and the Crusades are never called. Nestorianism remains a viable denomination of Christianity to the present day, even if *Russia conquers Turkestan as OTL.

How's that?

 

[B_Munro]

Simple, Genghis Khan is baptized at some point in his childhood and later mentored and consulted by a pious ascetic monk *bingo* Christian Mongol Empire!

Close, but no cigar.

Has to be well established in 1165 and the big G. was still a wee lad at the time...

Bruce

 

[B_Munro]

Very well. 50 or so years after Talas, the Tang Chinese return to Turkestan and drive the Caliphate's forces completely out. Leaving the region as a vassal, the region converts to Nestorian Christianity by 850 and becomes Transoxiana. After the Tang collapse, Transoxiana becomes an important gobetween for the Abbasids, Khazars, Indians, and Chinese, and grows wealthy off trade. In the 11th century, an expasionist Turkic dynasty takes over and invades Persia and India. This marks the height of the Transoxianan kingdom, and legends in Europe grow of a powerful Christian state that strikes fear into the infidels (The fact that Transoxiana is a heretical state is quietly forgotten). By the 13th century, Transoxiana is destroyed by Mongol invaders, though a Nestorian khanate based in Central Asia rises after the Mongol Empire disintegrates. Because of Transoxiana's influence, sizeable Nestorian minorities exist in Greater Iran to the present day, and Islam never gains a hold in Afghanistan or India (The Mughal analogues are Buddhist). Obviously, with no Seljuk Turks, the Byzantine Empire survives to the present day, and the Crusades are never called. Nestorianism remains a viable denomination of Christianity to the present day, even if *Russia conquers Turkestan as OTL.

How's that?

Not bad, but we need to at least butterfly away the Mongols: it still needs to be around in the 14th century.

(And if there are Mongols, they might just sack the heck out of a Byzantine state much larger and wealthier than it was OTL post-4th crusade... )

Bruce

 

[jmberry]

Not bad, but we need to at least butterfly away the Mongols: it still needs to be around in the 14th century.

(And if there are Mongols, they might just sack the heck out of a Byzantine state much larger and wealthier than it was OTL post-4th crusade... )

Bruce

Sorry, forgot about the 1371 limit, but one could argue that Mandeville wouldn't know the Khanate was a different nation.

Okay, how about this:

Same as before, except butterflies make the Mongol invasions sporadic migrations, rather than a massive invasion. In 1271 Transoxiana is permanently connected to Prester John by an Italian merchant, and the same time it declines from power. Persia goes to a native Shia dynasty, while Afghanistan goes to a Buddhist family. By 1371, Transoxiana is a declining nation, surviving only because it's too remote for other kingdoms to bother with, but it remains a legend in Western Europe and spawns a number of succesor states in the Turan by 1400. After that, everything is as I wrote previously.