AHC: Buddhist Iran

First, make Alexander's conquests a failure and a flop; not hard, given the colossal size of the Achaemenid Empire. Secondly, have the Mauryan Empire survive longer so that the foreign policy focusing on a soft power system focusing on Buddhism, as started by Aśoka, continues and Buddhism spreads west via the Achaemenid Empire, not just primarily east into East and Southeastern Asia as in OTL.

Beyond that, I'm not exactly sure what would be necessary to unseat Zoroastrianism in the long run (perhaps a Perso-Mauryan Alliance against Rome?), but it would be quite feasible.
 

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First, make Alexander's conquests a failure and a flop; not hard, given the colossal size of the Achaemenid Empire. Secondly, have the Mauryan Empire survive longer so that the foreign policy focusing on a soft power system focusing on Buddhism, as started by Aśoka, continues and Buddhism spreads west via the Achaemenid Empire, not just primarily east into East and Southeastern Asia as in OTL.
Buddhism only really started taking on in the east a few centuries after the Mauryan collapsed and fell apart.
 
Thinking about an utter Persian screw-- you'd need a scenario where the White Huns possibly synchronistically with the ERE irreperably damaged the Sassanids and facilitating missionary activity by Buddhists from the Hephthalite domains on the Iranian plateau. I mean the Sassanids would have to be absolutely destroyed and no native Persian dynasties rising up for a protracted period of time and/or co-optation and conversion of native elites. Meaning a stable Hephthlite or related Central Asian state retaining long term control of Persia.
This is a very tall order.
To say the least.

OTL it took centuries for Islam to fully displace Zoroastrianism in Persia.
 
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What if Persia had a sustained religious fracturing from the 2nd or 3rd century with Christians, Manichaeans and doctrinally split Zoroastrians all being there in big numbers. Then, an invasion from Buddhist-dominated steppe tribe could end up spreading Buddhism through silk road cultural links after a conquest of Persia.
 
What if Persia had a sustained religious fracturing from the 2nd or 3rd century with Christians, Manichaeans and doctrinally split Zoroastrians all being there in big numbers. Then, an invasion from Buddhist-dominated steppe tribe could end up spreading Buddhism through silk road cultural links after a conquest of Persia.

There were no "Buddhist-dominated steppe tribes" in this time period. Closest you can get are the Kushans who had a partly Buddhist population after they gave up their nomadic ways and became at least semi-sedantary. Thing is, they became a trading empire not prone to imperial expansion against a major trading partner, Sassinid Persia.
 
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