AHC: Make Zoroastrianism a mainstream religion

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.
 
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.

They invaded Roman Empire. If they win and hold what they won - how would the Christian Lombards and Franks get along with the Zoroastrian Empire?
And how about the heathen Avars and Slavs?
 
The Sassanid empire wank is a more obvious answer, so I will try and go for something slightly different.

Where Peroz son of Yazdagerd (iirc, probably got the names wrong), otl fled to China, instead he flees with his court to the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines use Peroz and his line with the intent of establishing a puppet Persian regime in the middle east (which is unlikely to succeed). Propoganda points to the notion of the 3 wise men being Zoroastrian magi and a false perspective that Christ was their messiah.

This diaspora community encourages migration from the middle east into Europe untill there is a sizeable Zoroastrian community in Europe.
Bonus wacky point, an ERE that is freindly to Zoroastrianism also makes the conversion of certain nations to the faith more possible. Perhaps the Kievan Rus bevome freindly with Ahura Mazda instead ;)

Totally, this is all unlikely due to a long standing animosity between the Sassanids and the Byzantines, but it would make for a fun TL.
 
Here's an interesting approach to the idea!

Maybe the Sassanids and Byzantines manage to avoid their long war or maybe the brand new Caliphate gets screwed over by a sudden plague. Regardless, Arabia becomes divided between the two powers. However, the majority of the Muslims end up over in the West, in the Byzantine sphere. With some form of peace, the Sassanians reform and pick themselves back up and with the Byzantines focused on the West, they could focus on the East and beyond.

Islam becomes a minority faith in the Eastern Roman Empire though it could be possible for the faith to supercede Christianity if enough people converted. Maybe the Muslims would travel to the various Gothic and Germanic empires and convert them, though the faith would probably be pretty different than OTL (the Byzantine and later Gothic influences would make the faith more appealing.) Alternately, maybe Eastern Roman ends up becoming Muslim and with Arab help, begin unifying more of Europe and the Christians either convert or maybe sent to North Africa.

While that would be happening, perhaps the Sassanians, either under new leaders or taking advantage of new routes, would begin spreading Zoroastrian doctrine north and south. As such Zoroastiran coulc end up reaching down over to Eastern Africa and up north, beyodn Central Asia and even hilariously the Russians and other northern people (In my mind's eye, I can see many interesting Slavic peoples being drawn by the fire temples).

And there you'd have it. You'd have Zoroastrian as a prominent faith in Iran, eastern Africa (at least below Ethiopia), possibly southern Arabia, likely Central Asia or part of it and maybe even further up north if through the Caucasus they can preach to the Slavic peoples.
 
There are multiple PODs that could be an opening to this.

As others said, Sassanid Empire Wank is one.

You could also have PODs in the Parthian, Achaemenianid and Early Iranian PODs.

Probably even the Indo-Greeks adopting aspects of Zoroastrianism too, could help.
 
Honestly, butterflying Islam is all you'd really need. There are what, 80m people in Iran otl? That plus Persian and Persianised elites in Mesopotamia, Central Asia, whatever bits of India various Persian empires rule, should be enough to elevate Zoroastrian to the level of one the major world religions, on the level of Shinto or Sikhism. Without Islam, there would be less pressure on the Christian world, which would probably remain as fractuous and schism-prone as it was prior, which may limit the efforts to convert Northern Europe by the sword (since killing heretics is always a higher priority than killing heathens), which means there'd be a lower bar to clear to be a mainstream religion.
 
We can have Zoroastrian demographics booming by (A) higher birthrates and/or (B) higher conversionrates.
I think the major problem is actually B, not 'cause it would be difficult to make Zoroastrianism attractive, but 'cause I don't know how Zoroastrians (In particular mobeds & friends.) would react to this.
As far as I know in general Zoroastrian """clergy""" isn't really pro-proselytism today. What was the common view before Islamic expansion?
 
You would need to defend the Sassanids styled Zoroastrianism against any sort of changes and returns to polytheism, Mithraism, Iranic faiths, Manichaeism, Nestorianism, Buddhism, etc. Ultimately, the Sassanids cannot last forever as they are, a new dynasty will seek different allies or make changes. Even in otl, the Sassanid monarchy was shifting its loyalty.
 
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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
 
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

We do not know the extent to which Zoroastrianism existed at this time period. Regardless, the religions within Iraq were assuredly not Zoroastrianism, neither was Egypt or others. Even Iran was still using a plethora of different gods for their worship.
 
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?

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. ‘Zoroastrianism’ during the Arsacid period was one of heavy polytheistic practice and worship of gods such as Mithra, Ahura Mazda, Hellenic cults, Messianic faiths, etc...
 
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?
 
Limit the spread of Islam to Arabia (rather than just being rid of it like people are so want to do) and strength Sassanian Persia, if you desire to go further back, Achaemenid Persia had outright proselytistic practices in their version of Zoroastrianism that was later not found in Sassanian.
 
Sorry, messed up some of the stuff I learned. Remembered it wrong, sorry about that. How about in Parthia?

The Arsacids, were later castigated by their Sassanid successors as heterodox, polytheistic and too-tolerant, they may not be the best choices. An Arsacid religious wank, essentially is a wank of Pre-Zoroastrian religions, Helleno-Iranic religions, Manichaeism, Messianic-like faiths and steppe Dahae folk beliefs. Unfortunately for you, the Zoroastrian state, is the Sassanids and with all of their patriotic and bold baggage. Their reign, was extremely long, one of the greatest dynasties to ever exist in human history and one of the most enduring powers in history, certainly surpassing in longevity any of its successors (the Umayyad, Abbasid, Saljuq, etc...).
 
Are the Arsacids a mix of Greeks and Persians? I am asking this doubt because their rule just follows the Seleucid rule.

And along with this, they weren't orthodox Zoroastrians like the Sassanids and were overthrown by the Sassanids.
 
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