A proselyting, less regional Zoroastarianism?

Zioneer

Banned
So I've been interested in Zoroastrianism for a while, and I've always thought that part of why it was supplanted by Islam is because Islam is a "missionary" religion, while Zoroastrianism was more of a regional religion. There's other factors of course, but isn't it true that Islam's ability to adapt to other regions than it's religious capital helped it thrive?

So I would like to see a PoD making Zoroastrians into proselytes, and have them expand their religion past Persia. How would this be arranged?
 
Well, if i remember correctly there was nothing in Zoroastrianism itself that forebade conversion. However, the religion was so well associated with the state that, by the Sassanid period that it was seen as the religion of the Irianian people and government. When the Muslims came, their converions basically forced Zoroastrianism into the position of the minority religion, and the community which followed it became very isolated and isolationistic as well.
Just speaking off of the cuff here, but maybe we could have Nestorian Christianity or, even better, Manicheanism grow stronger in Persia prior to the Muslim conquest. The Zoroastrianist Church is forced to expend effort to reconvert people and, as a result, gets some experience in it. From there on, its just a matter of a small hop-skip-and-a-jump to think about spreading the religion beyond the Empire's borders.
Where would it spread, however, becomes a bit of a problem. India is pretty set in its own beliefs by this point, and most likely associated the religion with Imperial Perisa. Likewise, there is no way it will be allowed to spread into the Byzantine Empire. So, where does that leave us? Into the Northern Steppe? The Scythians were an Iranian speaking people and might be an availalbe outlet to conversion. Likewise, up into Afganistan, if it isn't already there. I could also see missions to China, following the same routes as the Manicheans and Nestorians.
 
The Uyghers converted to Zoroastrianism. The problem with the Institution is as Dan put it, it turned itself into a political entity. Furthermore, the large number of Iraqi Christians made them turn most of their efforts to converting them instead of looking outwards.

The problem with converting Afghanistan is that its entrenched in Buddhism and nothing will do except maybe a Zoroastrian conquest and then genocide.
 
Robert Ballou calls Zoroastrianism "The Religion that Might Have Been Ours" because of its similarities to Christianity (and the influence Zoroastrianism had on the Jews during the Babylonian Exile). He suggests that if the Persians destroyed the Greeks at Salamis, the Persian Empire would have expanded into the Balkans and spread Zoroastrianism into Europe. As said, Zoroastrianism became associated with the Persian state, but I don't think it's that inconceivable for Zoroastrianism and whatever is left of Athenian philosophy to merge so that when Persia finally retreats from southern Europe, Zoroastrian temples are left behind and later expands into Western Europe and across the Atlantic.
 
Wasn't instead Manicheism the one religion - based on Zoroastrism? - that was closer?because it may have influenced Christianism, no?
 
Wasn't instead Manicheism the one religion - based on Zoroastrism? - that was closer?because it may have influenced Christianism, no?

Manichaeism is a fusion of Judeo-Christian beliefs and Zoroastrianism beliefs. It was its own religion, and I do believe it wasn't exactly very tolerated under the Sassanids.
 
Wasn't instead Manicheism the one religion - based on Zoroastrism? - that was closer?because it may have influenced Christianism, no?

Manicheanism was an odd mixture of Gnostic Christian, Zoroastarian and Buddhist belief, from what I understand. For instance, much like Zoroastarianism, it believed in a God of Light and a God of Darkness. The world was created, initially, when the God of Darkness sensed the Light and attempted to claim it as his own. In the struggle, the world was created which held aspects of both the Light (spirit) and Darkness (matter). As a result, if one was to understand their true nature, they must understand the influence of the dark matter upon their being, and associate more with the light and spirit.
 
Mithraism is also a Greco-Roman modification of certain elements of Zoroastrianism. Ahura Mazda was sublimated into cult of Perseus. In turn Mithras displayed many of the characteristics of Perseus (such as clothing, posture, etc.) Mithraism is at best a third or fourth derivative of Zoroastrianism. Nevertheless, it's interesting to note that Zoroastrian ideas penetrated the Western Roman empire through the soldiers' travels. Hence, Zoroastrianism had quite a reach throughout antiquity, even in an attenuated sense.
 
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