What if the Arab raids on Rome in 846 were more successful?

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

According to Absolute Monarchs by John Julius Norwich, there was an attack on Rome in 846 by Arab raiders that was driven off by Pope Leo IV. If Leo had failed, or if someone less competent was in power, could there have been an Islamic Rome? It seems possible if the raiders were allied with Sicily and the Muslim-ruled parts of the southern peninsula. What effect would a conquest of Rome have on Catholic Europe and the Islamic world?


The attack on Rome in our history resulted in a "sack" after sailing "up the Tiber", and the raiders managed to "strip the silver plate from the doors of St. Peters". (Absolute Monarchs, Page 78, Kindle version).

 

[Lady Visenya]

>believing anything by norwich
lel

 

[Nivek]

What effect would a conquest of Rome have on Catholic Europe and the Islamic world?

If long term... Would split Catholicism far earlier than otl

 

[Nikoloz]

The Arab raiders were just that: raiders. Their goal was not to actually occupy the city, which would have involved a protracted siege of the Aurelian Walls, but rather to pillage the exposed outskirts, which is all they really did in the end. (At the time what is now the Vatican City was not surrounded by a protective wall.) As it was the raiders were attacked and driven off by a Lombard army.

If they had somehow succeeded in quickly breaking into Rome, and then decided to stay in it, they would have immediately found themselves cut off and besieged within its wall. At this point they would not only have to fend off local Lombard forces but also those of the (by this point) infuriated Emperor Louis. Defeat would be all but inevitable.

A different POD that might achieve a 'Muslim Rome' would be the Emirate of Bari being taken over by a brilliant general. The road ahead would be difficult, but at least theoretically manageable.