Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-4923787-20131005001125/@comment-4923787-20131012164933

So would it be as simple as a Sharif declaring that he's the new Caliph? Could a civil war break out in Arabia, but be put down?

Could Armania work? Sounds kinda weird, though. It would be cool to have Transylvania, but I'm planning on having it a part of Hungary, and if the Habsburgs come to power, Austria. Unless Austria conquers Hungary and forms a client Transylvania under their dynasty.

Back to the Byzantines, how would Constantinople look? For the Old City, could Byzantium 1200 be used as a source? Would the Hippodrome be around today, or was it decaying by 1200? Today, how much of Istanbul is actually within Istanbul Province? I've seen maps showing it being the full size of the metropolitan area, and others showing it only slightly larger than Fatih. Which is right?

Also, I know I've mentioned this before, plausibility aside, but say at some point the HRE or Italian successor and the Byzantines present their claims as the true Roman Empire to the International Community. The International Community uses a team of scholars, historians, and lawyers to address the issue, and support that the HRE/Italy isn't because the HRE was founded indirectly nearly four centuries after Rome passed under Germanic control, and the Byzantines are not recognized either because between the 500s-1500s, the Byzantine Empire no longer resembled the Roman Empire. They are found, under the eyes of the International Community, to be successors, and are forced to acknowledge the fact if they wanted to remain in whatever organization is recognized as the IC, either a UN or LoN type.

What would the Byzantines be known as in such a scenario? Byzantines, Hellenes, Greeks, Romanians?

A more original idea-the Crusade goes as OTL, but the Ottomans are defeated when they attempt to invade Europe. The Empire falls around 1453, and is succeeded by a variety of Greek states, and a Patriarchate of Constantinople underneath Bulgarian protection.