AHC: MegaPersia

Your challenge is to create a Persia/Iran that has survived to modern days (whether Republic or Empire or whatnot) and is a minimum twice the current size of Iran
 
How late POD may be?

There few ideas:

Persians win Persian Wars.
Alexander the Great fails conquering of Persia.
Muslims don't get Persia.
More Muslims convert to Shias.
Surviving Il-Khanate.
 

scholar

Banned
add Baluchistan, Iraq, some of Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan. Some of that is easier than it sounds - have Iran play a more active part in the fall of the Ottoman Empire, have Iran manage to procure or later absorb an indepedent Baluchistan, or win it from Pakistan/India/Raj.

An inevitable side effect is that Shia may lose its dominance in the state and thus make it unstable.
 
Not necessarily. Azerbaijan is mostly Shi'a, and so is the south of Iraq. Also, the part of Saudi Arabia immediately adjacent to the Gulf has a big Shi'a minority, if I'm right.
 
Hmm so we have so far

West - extension into Mesopotamia and Gulf Coast
East - Balochistan
North - "Turkish Central Asia"

Would any part of Afghanistan be doable?

Anyone got a rough map handy?
I'm thinking 1800s POD
 
Would any part of Afghanistan be doable?

Western Afghanistan (and all of Tajikistan) would be doable, yes, especially since the two predominant languages in Afghanistan are Dari (the local name for the Persian language, Farsi) and Pashto (a separate Iranic language).
 
Western Afghanistan (and all of Tajikistan) would be doable, yes, especially since the two predominant languages in Afghanistan are Dari (the local name for the Persian language, Farsi) and Pashto (a separate Iranic language).

Yes and parts of Afghanistan were part of Persian empires for long periods.
 

Deleted member 67076

Possible idea: The Timurids don't get kicked out of Persia (lasting for far longer) but still expand into India. The next dynasty manages to smothly integrate those areas. Today's Iran still has them.
 

katchen

Banned
Mongke Khan lasts long enough for Hulagu Khan to complete the conquest of the Abuyyids and take Cairo, then consolidate power by taking the Arabian Peninsula and the Seljuqs. When the Ilkhans convert to Islam later, it is to Shia Islam that they convert. The greater extent of the Ilkhan rule gives the Shia more space. And while it may not mean that the Nejd will go Shia, it can give the Kharijites more space to flourish in Asir, the Ismailis more space in Egypt and Palestine and Syria, the Alawites more space in Northern Syria and Kordestan and Twelver Shia more space in Iraq. And it can give Iranians an opportunity to expand westward into Iraq, settling there in large numbers after the Mongol massacres of the Caliphate.
Who says Mesopotamia even must remain Arabic speaking if it's population has been lowered by manmade calamity?
 
Possible idea: The Timurids don't get kicked out of Persia (lasting for far longer) but still expand into India. The next dynasty manages to smothly integrate those areas. Today's Iran still has them.

To some extent it'd be possible, including all of Balochistan and Sind, however they could'nt really take a huge chunk since India has throughout Human history been one of the two areas that house most of the Human population, and taking to many in would result in either an Indian Empire with Iranian territory, or major rebellions leading to its loss.
 
Was it possible for the Sassanids to maintain their empire against Islamic invasions? If they could have survived the Islamic onslaught and expanded their borders to the Achaemenid standards, a MegaPersia was possible. But how long and could they last till modern times, they are all points to be considered.
 
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