You heard the title, the challenge is to make Zoroastrianism one of the major religions of the world. PoD must be set before 1000 AD. Go!
Maybe having some Zoroastrian military leaders invading parts of Northern India, and spreading their faith there ? It would give them some good power base for some later expension.
Do we get extra-double-triple bonus point if we suggest a scenario with a POD after the fall of the Sassanian Empire to Arab conquerors? If so, what about the Khazars? I've actually seen the idea suggested once or twice, though generally in the context of a scenario where Islam never arose, or at least where Persia was never conquered by Arabs.
Still, I think the OTL consensus is that the nobility of the Khazars converted to Judaism in order to deflect pressure from both Christian and Muslim powers to convert to their respective faiths. In principle, that role could be fulfilled by Zoroastrianism as well - maybe have some instability in Persia lead to some Zoroastrian leaders getting exiled, and then they spread their faith among the Khazars.
From there, just follow the template of any scenario that leads to a longer lasting/and or bigger Khazar Khaganate. Have their empire expand in the the Caucasus, the Pontic steppe, Central Asia, etc, and do at least a reasonably good job of converting the local populations to Zoroastrianism. This leads to a world where Zoroastrianism has at least tens of millions of followers by the present day despite Persia/Iran being majority Muslim.
One idea would be to have Alexander the great convert to Zoroastrianism and have that be state religion. If his empire survives it would spread the religion across the empire and avoid the period where the holy texts were lost after the collapse of the Persian empire, greatly strengthening the faith
I guess so, I just wanted to open up the possibility of something other than a Sassanid wank. That being said, what would the impact be if the works of Zoroaster survived Alexander's conquest?
Sorry, messed up some of the stuff I learned. Remembered it wrong, sorry about that. How about in Parthia?Zoroastrianism likely did not exist. From what we know, the Zoroastrianism that we know of the high priesthood and large fire temples derive from the early Sassanid period, under high priest Katir.
Sorry, messed up some of the stuff I learned. Remembered it wrong, sorry about that. How about in Parthia?
Sorry, messed up some of the stuff I learned. Remembered it wrong, sorry about that. How about in Parthia?