AHC: Revived Kushan Empire

Your challenge if you choose to accept it, is to revive a Kushanshah-like empire in the region of Sogdia, Ferghana, Bactria, Kashmir, etc... The trick is, the revived Kushan like empire, must arise during the period prior to the fall of Zabul to the Abbasids yet after the rise of Islam.

POD: 800 AD

Stipulations:

-Must be Indo-European speaking, preferably Iranic, Saka or Tocharian.

-Cannot be Sunni Muslim

-Must occupy 3 different cities as a must, Khotan, Peshawar and Kabul.
 
Pritviraj Chauhan manages to decisively defeat Muhammad of Ghor in the 1190's, and the Rajput Confederation he created expands to include eastern Afghanistan. A future campaign against Gandhara and Khotan might be in the cards, but, without pulling some strings and manipulating some Turks, the Rajputs might not be able to conquer the region decisively.
 
Pritviraj Chauhan manages to decisively defeat Muhammad of Ghor in the 1190's, and the Rajput Confederation he created expands to include eastern Afghanistan. A future campaign against Gandhara and Khotan might be in the cards, but, without pulling some strings and manipulating some Turks, the Rajputs might not be able to conquer the region decisively.

The Rajputs are also somewhat difficult to conjoin into United political entities, no? However, Rajput powers could possibly reach Khotan through expansion into Kashmir. However, the option of ruling Sogdia is made easier by existing central Asian rulings, than expansion out from Hindustan.

On another point, the Rajput confederation is somewhat after my target period. The fall of Zabul was around 855-860. After this point, any regime in the area must subdue Islamic populaces.
 
With a PoD around 800 it sounds too difficult unless there's a major Tajik migration.
It would work better with a Chinese victory at Talas/Talos (750) that allows the Tang to form an anti-muslim coalition and launch an invasion of Afghanistan later (Perhaps seeking for indigenous help they might even ally with the Tajiks and invite them to settle in the newly conquered lands), but I highly doubt such an invasion could work.

Having a surviving House of Sasan that participates as Tang's vassals and mediators with the locals may help a lot, but this would require a definitely too early PoD for the challenge (710's.).
 
With a PoD around 800 it sounds too difficult unless there's a major Tajik migration.
It would work better with a Chinese victory at Talas/Talos (750) that allows the Tang to form an anti-muslim coalition and launch an invasion of Afghanistan later (Perhaps seeking for indigenous help they might even ally with the Tajiks and invite them to settle in the newly conquered lands), but I highly doubt such an invasion could work.

Having a surviving House of Sasan that participates as Tang's vassals and mediators with the locals may help a lot, but this would require a definitely too early PoD for the challenge (710's.).

Hmm, what would be your opinion on a Khotan want? Or using Tibet to form this alliance as opposed to the Tang?
 
Hmm, what would be your opinion on a Khotan want? Or using Tibet to form this alliance as opposed to the Tang?
AFAIK Khotan was conquered by Tibetans very close to 800. If they survive and recover (Or better resolve their troubles with diplomacy before they have to fight.) they do have a chance of becoming the Abbasid's most determined enemy in the area.
If they manage to keep a love-hate relationship with Tibet they may start a conquest of Afghanistan, but I'm afraid it would take a time longer than the required for the challenge.
Also I'm skeptical about them getting Peshawar if they ally with Tibet (The others would likely take it before.).
By the way, Khotan definitely has more chances than China around 800, so I'll bet on them. Thanks for the advice.
 
Godammit John it was pretty good till I saw Khotan. You aren’t making this an easy one.

Your best bet would be for Kanishka’s forces to set up a rotation system of service in the Tarim based on the Chinese style. This would keep the merchant cities more loyal to the Kushans with a knife hanging over their heads but with the promise of self-determination as opposed to the Eastern Han’s wishes to annex them into the Western Protectorate.

This isn’t unprecedented by the way. Aśvaghosa, our favourite Sanskrit dramaturge and Buddhist scholar as well as close confidant of the Emperor, writes of how Kanishka had adopted the practices of Cina and he alongside his son Huvishka only tamed the Yaudheya confederacy in the Mathura region by employing his forces in a manner where they ‘ensured the cooperation of the twelve princes with an arrow aimed at their heart but with a crown still on their head’.

After this sources get less detailed but we do know that Vasudeva I, The last of the Great Kushans was able to push far enough into the Indian subcontinent that he was ruling Mathura and Pataliputra at the same time. Now say that after the fall of the Kushan empire rather than China reverting to control of the Tarim a new Kushan state unites it. On the sub-continent itself the imperial framework of the Kushans (which the Guptas are known to have utilised OTL) is even further adapted by the Guptas. Let time continue with a hypothetical butterfly net that doesn’t change too many important personages.

The Hepthalites will come, the Guptas will collapse, the Vardhanas will rise and fall all the way till the tripartite struggle for Kannauj in the 9th century. Once the Pratiharas rise they will rise with a Kushan veneer around themselves. From there it’s a matter of simply taking over the Shahis and working their way up to the Tarim.
 
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