Where Will All Those Virgins Come From?

[Minimalist]

The entire issue of Syrian Xtianity in the region cannot be dismissed.  The Jacobite and Nestorian churches, after being pushed out of the Eastern Empire after they were declared heretics by the Greek-speaking Byzantines at Chalcedon in 451 moved east and thrived under Persian rule.  They were there in the fringe areas that the Byzantines could no longer control.  Their monophysite ideas - god's nature is divine only - seems to be reflected in the later developments of islamic doctrine where allah is god and mohammed serves as his human mouthpiece.  This evolution in the absence of the Imperial power of Byzantium which had to withdraw from the southern regions to protect the capital makes sense.