AHC: Make Zorastrianism a dominant world religion

samcster94

Banned
Zoroastrianism has a shot of being a successful religion and it was until Christianity, and later Islam came along. What can be done to make it one of the top 3 religions in the world??? Bonus points if Christians exist, double bonus if Muslims exist.
 

Kaze

Banned
One of the theories of the Three Magi were Zoroastrian. With some ASB you could have Jesus himself as Zoroastrian.
 
Zoroastrianism has a shot of being a successful religion and it was until Christianity, and later Islam came along. What can be done to make it one of the top 3 religions in the world??? Bonus points if Christians exist, double bonus if Muslims exist.
First and foremost it needs to be a proselytizing religion (and fortunately it seems that there was a proselytizing school of Zoroastrianism during the Sassanian era) because Iran proper getting a population in the high hundreds of millions is ASB.

Next the Arab Conquest needs to be avoided. The continued existence of a powerful Zoroastrian state can aid proselytization with its hard and soft power. This also means Zoroastrianism will remain competitive in central Asia.

Finally conquer the Indian Subcontinent, the fact that 34.6% of all Muslims live there should give you an idea of how demographically substantial Indian converts can be, even if there's no hope of replacing Hinduism as the religion of the majority.
 
For the double points option, the OTL Arab Conquests need to splutter to a halt rather than take over all of Persia and most of the ERE. Or, at the very least, somehow not conquer Iran, but still manage to push westwards.
 
Zoroastrianism has a shot of being a successful religion and it was until Christianity, and later Islam came along. What can be done to make it one of the top 3 religions in the world??? Bonus points if Christians exist, double bonus if Muslims exist.
The Rashidun Caliphate fails to conquer the Sasanian Empire. If that happens, Persia is not Islamized and state Zoroastrianism is spread eastward and northward as part of Persianization. Christianity and Islam are still around and Zoroastrianism continues. Then, all that is needed is for Zoroastrianism to become a proselytizing religion separate from the specific state structure of the Persianized empires - perhaps by spreading into India or being adopted by the Mongols.
 

samcster94

Banned
First and foremost it needs to be a proselytizing religion (and fortunately it seems that there was a proselytizing school of Zoroastrianism during the Sassanian era) because Iran proper getting a population in the high hundreds of millions is ASB.

Next the Arab Conquest needs to be avoided. The continued existence of a powerful Zoroastrian state can aid proselytization with its hard and soft power. This also means Zoroastrianism will remain competitive in central Asia.

Finally conquer the Indian Subcontinent, the fact that 34.6% of all Muslims live there should give you an idea of how demographically substantial Indian converts can be, even if there's no hope of replacing Hinduism as the religion of the majority.
I always pictured it going down a road more like Islam than Christianity regarding other religions(where the former had them be second class citizens) if it did expand eastward.
 
Would a proselytizing Zoroastrianism be able to curb the trend of Central Asia gradually embracing Hinduism as was the case prior to the Islamic invasions in OTL?

Also as a result of Zoroastrian groups conquering the Indian Subcontinent, how would Hinduism evolve compared to OTL and is a non-ethnic monotheistic dharmic analogue to Sikhism possible?
 
Alternately, the Arab Conquests still happen, but without Islam as a unifying ideology. Therfore, when the tribes turn on one another and so on, they would assimilate the culture of their areas, including religion. This could mean Zoroastrianism spreading from Iran and Arabia all the way through Africa, especially if Iran takes more interesting in trading through boats, potentiall even headed east toward the Pacific islands.
 
First and foremost it needs to be a proselytizing religion (and fortunately it seems that there was a proselytizing school of Zoroastrianism during the Sassanian era) because Iran proper getting a population in the high hundreds of millions is ASB.

Next the Arab Conquest needs to be avoided. The continued existence of a powerful Zoroastrian state can aid proselytization with its hard and soft power. This also means Zoroastrianism will remain competitive in central Asia.

Finally conquer the Indian Subcontinent, the fact that 34.6% of all Muslims live there should give you an idea of how demographically substantial Indian converts can be, even if there's no hope of replacing Hinduism as the religion of the majority.

For the double points option, the OTL Arab Conquests need to splutter to a halt rather than take over all of Persia and most of the ERE. Or, at the very least, somehow not conquer Iran, but still manage to push westwards.

Alternately, the Arab Conquests still happen, but without Islam as a unifying ideology. Therfore, when the tribes turn on one another and so on, they would assimilate the culture of their areas, including religion. This could mean Zoroastrianism spreading from Iran and Arabia all the way through Africa, especially if Iran takes more interesting in trading through boats, potentiall even headed east toward the Pacific islands.
Yes, this is what I was thinking. Have the Arabs converted to Zoroastrianism, so their OTL expansion spreads it through the Middle East.
 

Philip

Donor
Yes, this is what I was thinking. Have the Arabs converted to Zoroastrianism, so their OTL expansion spreads it through the Middle East.

The Sassanians had a presence in what is now Yemen. If their influence is stronger perhaps we could see the Arab expansion led by Zoroastrian tribes.
 
May be a bit out there, but have Judaism merge with Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrianism was basically founded just as Judaism was solidifying as a religion in the Babylonian exile. I could easily see the two monotheistic religions becoming one, which would also most likely butterfly out Christianity and Islam.
Honestly, that may be an interesting timeline all together, especially with how that may effect Persian-Roman relations.
 
May be a bit out there, but have Judaism merge with Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrianism was basically founded just as Judaism was solidifying as a religion in the Babylonian exile. I could easily see the two monotheistic religions becoming one, which would also most likely butterfly out Christianity and Islam.
Honestly, that may be an interesting timeline all together, especially with how that may effect Persian-Roman relations.

This is most certainly not proven. Most evidences that I can imagine regarding the rise of Zoroastrianism in our modern sense, are Sassanid period in origin. Or at least, Parthian period.
 
@John7755 يوحنا

I disagree, I think that Zoroastrianism was a widely popular or at least an influential religion during the Achaemenid period. It is during the Sassanid and Parthian periods were Zoroastrianism began to decline as both a popular and influential religion as it progressively more exclusively tied to Eran and Eranian culture.
 
I disagree, I think that Zoroastrianism was a widely popular or at least an influential religion during the Achaemenid period. It is during the Sassanid and Parthian periods were Zoroastrianism began to decline as both a popular and influential religion as it progressively more exclusively tied to Eran and Eranian culture.
Achaemenid Zoroastrianism wasn’t really the codified religion we recognize today from Sassanian and Islamic days. It’s better thought of as just a sort of “Ahura Mazda worship,” in the same vein as Egyptian Amun worship or Babylonian Ishtar worship.
 
@John7755 يوحنا

I disagree, I think that Zoroastrianism was a widely popular or at least an influential religion during the Achaemenid period. It is during the Sassanid and Parthian periods were Zoroastrianism began to decline as both a popular and influential religion as it progressively more exclusively tied to Eran and Eranian culture.

Do you mean the codified Zoroastrianism of Kartir and his generation? There of course was a sort of syncretic polytheistic Iranian faith that included Zoroastrian concepts and could be termed wider Mazdaism, however, this was not the same as the strict, rigid and well defined state mandated Zoroastrianism of the Sassanid period.
 

samcster94

Banned
@Intransigent Southerner @John7755 يوحنا

My point is that Zoroastrianism of the Achaemenids, despite not being Zoroastrianism as we understand it, was more popular as a religion than it was during the Sassanids. It may have been codified during the Sassanid era, but that does not discount the popularity and influence of Zoroastrianism during the Achaemenids.
My definition was it just has to be Zoroastrianism in any form(given its quasi-Monotheism, and not being Christianity or Islam:given those are dominant OTL and lack the same weaknesses).
 
The Rashidun Caliphate fails to conquer the Sasanian Empire. If that happens, Persia is not Islamized and state Zoroastrianism is spread eastward and northward as part of Persianization. Christianity and Islam are still around and Zoroastrianism continues. Then, all that is needed is for Zoroastrianism to become a proselytizing religion separate from the specific state structure of the Persianized empires - perhaps by spreading into India or being adopted by the Mongols.

Turks adopt Zoroastrianism, and centuries later one group of them still manages to conquer Constantinople.

Zoroastrian Ottoman Empire.
 
Simple - keep Islam from rising. In its absence, I think it's not unlikely that Central Asia becomes at least partially Zoroastrian. In this scenario, Christianity would be the top religion, then Hinduism, with both religions being considerably larger than OTL. Assuming that Hinduism is able to beat out or absorb Buddhism in Southeast Asia (possible) that Buddhism is kept from having too strong of a hold on China, and that Persia doesn't face the demographic stagnation it faced from the Mongol invasion onwards, the result is that Zoroastrianism might eke out Buddhism.

A much easier way, of course, is that Muhammad founds a Zoroastrian sect after seeing a different vision from OTL, proclaims himself Shahanshah, and his successors found an empire as vast the OTL Caliphate - with the exception that it's Zoroastrian.
 
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