What if Byzantium Had Never Fallen?

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2017

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode is third in our Alternate History Week series, where I look at famous books of alternate history and discuss why I think their alternate timelines aren't plausible. Today's book is Harry Turtledove's wonderful book Agent of Byzantium. In this book, Turtledove imagines that the Prophet Muhammed, instead of developing Islam, converted to Christianity and became a celebrated prelate and saint. Without the Muslim conquests, the Eastern Roman Empire remained the pre-eminent power in the Mediterranean and remains locked in a centuries-long cold war with Zoroastrian Persia to the East. I don't think Persia would have remained Zoroastrian that long. I explain why in this episode. TO HELP OUT THE SHOW Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one. Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher

Transcript

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0:00.0	The History of North America podcast is a sweeping historical saga of the United States,
0:09.4	Canada, and Mexico from their deep origins to our present epoch.
0:13.9	Join me, Mark Vinet, on this exciting, fascinating epic journey through time, focusing on the compelling,
0:20.7	wonderful, and tragic stories of North America's inhabitants, heroes, villains, leaders,
0:27.1	environment, and geography.
0:29.5	I invite you to come along for the ride!
0:59.5	Welcome to the History Unplugged Podcast, the unscripted show that celebrates unsung heroes,
1:14.6	Mythbust's historical lies, and rediscover the forgotten stories that changed our world.
1:21.3	I'm your host, Scott Rank.
1:29.8	Hi everyone, welcome to one of those in-between episodes where I answer any question you have about history.
1:34.8	We're continuing a five-part series in this podcast, and that is Alternate History Week.
1:40.6	I look at famous books of Alternate History, and I talk about while while I think they're entertaining,
1:45.2	I don't agree with the fundamental premise, and here's why I don't.
1:48.8	Today I'm going to talk about a book, Agent of Byzantium.
1:53.0	This is a collection of short stories by Harry Turdleduff, who is perhaps one of the best known Alternate
1:58.6	History sci-fi writers. He's reading about all sorts of things. A lot of them centered on,
2:03.7	what would happen if the Confederacy had won the Civil War? What if America had not gained independence,
2:08.8	and the trans-Atlantic states of America and Great Britain were still part of the British Empire?
2:15.0	And he has a lot of other scenarios that are fascinating to read.
2:18.3	Well, Harry Turdleduff is a Byzantineist by a study, that means he studied the Byzantine Empire,
2:24.2	the Eastern Roman Empire, centered in Constantinople. Here is the idea in his book, and I think it's
2:30.9	fascinating. The idea is what if Muhammad, instead of being the founder of the religion of Islam,
	...

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