Buddhist Sassanids

[Faeelin]

Well, probably not Sassanids, since their founder was descended from a line of priests in Fars, but hey.

In its heighday, the city of Merv was a thriving center for Buddhism, dispatching missionaries to China. It was also located in the easternmost part of the Parthian Empire, in what's now Turkmenistan.

So, can we replace the Sassanid takeover of the Parthian Empire with one by a ruler from Merv?

And, what if, instead of state-sponsored Zoroastrianism, we see state-sponsored Buddhism In the region?

[Epimethius]

well marv or merv was in the Kushan empire about the time of the parthians or sassanids (cant remember which) and they were buddhist (actually culturally speaking they were iranian with elements of Hellenic culture, having been the ones to wipe out the last of the Hellenic Bactrian kingdoms).

[Faeelin]

Some thoughts:

OTL, there were few, if any converts to Zoroastrianism in the Sassanid Era. This will not be the case with the *Sassanids. You may also see more of the older poltytheistic faiths survive, although in time they may be incorporated into Buddhism. It's too late to convert the Roman Empire, I think, but maybe Buddhism finds fertile ground in Arabia?