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  • Over one thousand years ago

  • in the Eighth Century,

  • the most powerful empire

  • in the world

  • was the Arab Caliphate,

  • ruled by the Umayyad Dynasty.

  • It was the largest empire

  • the world had ever seen

  • up to that point,

  • and in the year 720,

  • the empire stretched all the way

  • from the Atlantic Ocean in the west

  • to India in the east.

  • It was, without a doubt,

  • the most powerful empire

  • in the world, but

  • gradually, over the centuries,

  • receeded into history.

  • That then begs the question:

  • What if this old empire

  • was reunited today

  • in the modern world

  • with the exact same borders

  • that it had in the year 720?

  • Despite how utterly impossible this is,

  • let's just assume that the Caliphate

  • suddenly just appeared back into existence

  • instantly with its exact borders.

  • Thirty six different modern countries

  • would lose all or some of

  • their territory to the Caliphate,

  • including places as

  • far away from each other as

  • Portugal and India.

  • 11.1 million square kilometers

  • of territory

  • would belong to the empire,

  • which would make it the second largest

  • country in the world, behind only Russia.

  • It would be home to a population of

  • 665,217,000 people,

  • which would place it as the third

  • most populous country in the world,

  • behind both India and China.

  • Compared to the recreated Roman Empire,

  • (that I did in another video)

  • the Caliphate would have a similar

  • but slightly smaller

  • population.

  • Something interesting that I discovered

  • while doing the research for this video

  • was that despite the empire

  • being called the 'Arab Caliphate,'

  • Arabs themselves

  • would only form a plurality

  • within the country at forty six percent

  • of the population.

  • It's easy to see why,

  • since the empire covers an extremely

  • diverse amount of land,

  • with Spaniards and Portuguese over here,

  • Turks here,

  • Kurds here,

  • Persians here,

  • and Pakistanis and Indians over here, in the east.

  • Arabic would be the official language

  • spoken by a majority of the population,

  • but Arabic itself

  • is quite different from place to place.

  • Arabic speakers in some parts

  • of North Africa, for example,

  • are completely incomprehensible to

  • many Arabic speakers

  • from Syria or Iraq for a variety of reasons.

  • Perhaps every variety of the language would

  • be considered as 'official,'

  • but over all,

  • Arabic would remain the most

  • well understood

  • language within the borders of

  • the empire.

  • Of course, from the title of this video,

  • and the area of the world that we're talking about,

  • you probably were safe to assume that

  • Islam would be the dominant religion

  • within this empire.

  • Islam would be represented by

  • eighty five percent of

  • the Caliphate's modern population,

  • divided between sixty four percent

  • being Sunni,

  • and twenty one percent

  • being Shi'a.

  • The Caliphate would also have a very

  • large Christian minority,

  • represented by nine percent of the population.

  • Jews would make up

  • one percent of the population,

  • Hindus, Zoroastrians, and other faiths

  • would make up a following

  • three percent,

  • and the final two percent

  • would be made up of Atheists

  • or non-religious persons.

  • Also, interestingly,

  • the largest city in the Caliphate,

  • Karachi, would be located in Pakistan,

  • outside of the main Arab core.

  • Karachi has almost as many people

  • living in it than all of Afghanistan

  • combined, for example.

  • And the other biggest cities in the Caliphate

  • would be Cairo,

  • Tehran,

  • Baghdad,

  • and Riyadh.

  • However, I would expect that Damascus

  • would likely become

  • the reunited empire's capital city,

  • since it was the capital of the Caliphate

  • back at the year 720

  • at the empire's territorial height.

  • And now, we need to move on

  • to every empire's

  • favourite subject:

  • Money.

  • The reunited Arab Caliphate

  • would have a nominal G.D.P of

  • 5.34 trillion U.S. dollars,

  • which would mean it would be the

  • third largest economy in the world,

  • overtaking both Germany and Japan,

  • but remaining behind China and the United States.

  • But that's actually a pretty high-valued economy

  • compared to other empires that I've overed in the past,

  • like the Soviet Union,

  • and the United African Continent, for example.

  • However, the Caliphate's

  • nominal G.D.P per capita

  • would be down to

  • just 8,027 dollars a person,

  • which means that the average living conditions for

  • the average citizen

  • would be roughly the same as it is

  • for the average citizen in China today.

  • Of course, since the Caliphate

  • would absorb entire countries

  • like Saudi Arabia,

  • Iran,

  • Kuwait,

  • and Qatar,

  • it would instantly become

  • by far

  • the world's largest producer of

  • oil.

  • In fact, nearly thirty percent

  • of all the Earth's oil

  • production would be controlled by

  • the Caliphate, which would give it an enormous

  • leverage on the world stage.

  • The other tool

  • that the empire could use as leverage

  • would be its massive military,

  • which would become the largest in the world with

  • 4,214,000 active duty troops.

  • That's more active duty soldiers than

  • China and the United States combined,

  • and in addition, the Caliphate

  • would find itself in possession

  • of an additional 4,216,000 troops placed in reserves.

  • If called upon, the Caliphate

  • by far, the largest military force in the world.

  • The only two empires

  • that I've covered before who'd have larger militaries

  • would be both the Mongol,

  • and British empires.

  • With all things being considered,

  • the reunited modern Arab Caliphate

  • would almost certainly be a potential

  • world superpower.

  • Governing from its capital of Damascus,

  • the Caliphate would be the

  • second largest country in the world,

  • have the third highest population in the world,

  • have the third largest global economy,

  • it would be in possession of the world's

  • largest military,

  • and also control

  • thirty percent of

  • the entire world's oil production,

  • vastly more than

  • any other individual country.

  • It would probably be similar in world power projection to

  • modern day China,

  • but it could struggle with

  • the vast ethnic diversities

  • such a large empire would bring,

  • its relatively low

  • living conditions on average,

  • and the large divide between

  • Sunni and Shi'a Muslims within the country.

  • Internal pressures and problems

  • is what tore the historical Caliphate apart

  • before it finally succumbed

  • to the Mongol invasions in 1258.

  • So it would be interesting to see

  • how, or if,

  • the modern version of it could

  • overcome these similar problems.

  • Leave your thoughts and comments below

  • about your theories

  • on how this modern empire

  • would handle itself in

  • our modern world.

  • How long it may last for, or

  • anything else that I missed

  • talking about in this video.

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  • for another new video next Friday.

Over one thousand years ago

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