AHC: Large Persian Empire after rise of Islam

How can you get a large, legit Persian Empire after the rise of Islam?

Legit Persian meaning the ruling dynasty and ruling class have fully assimilated to Persian and have no traces of their origins--or even better, they were Persian in the first place.

Large meaning it has at least Persia, Mesopotamia, and either the Indus or the Levant.

Bonus points if it's Shi'a like OTL. More bonus points if it's Zoroastrian (far fetched, I know).

Bonus points if Mesopotamia becomes linguistically Persian.
 
Shah Abbas II of Persia doesn't catch illnes 1666. Abbas II was considered to be the last good Safavid Shah, his untimely death plus the bizarre trend of raising heirs in the harem is what led to the fall of the Safavids. If he lives for say twenty more years you would have an older and wiser heir succeeding him and maybe some expansion into the Indus valley.
Not to mention the fact that the battle of Vienna was coming up, if the Safavids had a more competent ruler they could easily capitilise on the Ottoman defeat and reconquer Mesopotomia. Even perhaps they could hold Mesopotomia long enough to Persianise it.

There, all objectives completed :D. (Well except the Zoroastrian bit).
 
Shah Abbas II of Persia doesn't catch illnes 1666. Abbas II was considered to be the last good Safavid Shah, his untimely death plus the bizarre trend of raising heirs in the harem is what led to the fall of the Safavids. If he lives for say twenty more years you would have an older and wiser heir succeeding him and maybe some expansion into the Indus valley.
Not to mention the fact that the battle of Vienna was coming up, if the Safavids had a more competent ruler they could easily capitilise on the Ottoman defeat and reconquer Mesopotomia. Even perhaps they could hold Mesopotomia long enough to Persianise it.

There, all objectives completed :D. (Well except the Zoroastrian bit).

Odd question: how did the Persians persianize?

In other words, what were their policies towards non-Persian areas? The Romans had explicit policies in place to make conquered areas Roman in culture and practice, even if these policies weren't always applied equally or at all. The Arabs, Chinese, and Cholas all had similar policies. What did the Persians do? Would they require the elite to speak Farsi?

Cheers,
Ganesha
 
Odd question: how did the Persians persianize?

In other words, what were their policies towards non-Persian areas? The Romans had explicit policies in place to make conquered areas Roman in culture and practice, even if these policies weren't always applied equally or at all. The Arabs, Chinese, and Cholas all had similar policies. What did the Persians do? Would they require the elite to speak Farsi?

Cheers,
Ganesha

Even in Nations such as the Mughals and the Ottomans, even though rivals of Persia itself, there elite spoke Persian . Does that show you the prestige of Persian in this era?
I don't really know the details as such, but Persia's culture really did absorb anything it touched. The Safavids used Shi'ite Islam to bring their conquered people closer to the elite, but even in Iran now ethnic groups like the Azeris and Kurds have distinct identities. They didn't really try to Persianise their people (Shown by the fact that Baluchi, Azerbaijani and Kurdish are still spoken in modern day Iran), but Shi'ite Islam did bring them de facto closer to being Persian.
 
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