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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