AHC: Sassanid descendants becoming ruling dynasty of China

More anti Zoroastrian propaganda. It doesn't pass the smell test. Imagine if this was remotely true, the entire Iranian population would collapse in 3 to 5 generations due to lack of any viable offspring.
Perhaps it was a tradition amongst the noble houses? I assumed it was similar in nature and prevalence to courtly love in medieval Europe.
 
Perhaps it was a tradition amongst the noble houses? I assumed it was similar in nature and prevalence to courtly love in medieval Europe.

I still don't buy it. Parent-Child or sibling incest is the most likely to produce genetic diseases. The Sassanids were around for several centuries. Even if it was limited to the aristocracy, it would just take a couple of generations for these practices to make the dynasty collapse.
 
I still don't buy it. Parent-Child or sibling incest is the most likely to produce genetic diseases. The Sassanids were around for several centuries. Even if it was limited to the aristocracy, it would just take a couple of generations for these practices to make the dynasty collapse.
Just because it was seen as a good thing,it does not mean it was practical in many cases.It could be that they still need to marry other families for properties and alliances.
 
More anti Zoroastrian propaganda. It doesn't pass the smell test. Imagine if this was remotely true, the entire Iranian population would collapse in 3 to 5 generations due to lack of any viable offspring.

If it's quoting primary sources from historic Zoroastrian texts from their golden age, then by definition its as anti-Zoroastrian propaganda as early Islamic hadith/Koran commentaries are anti-Islamic propaganda. Now, that article covers the basics, I suspect it does not cover all the nuances of the practice and doesn't hit every angle of it either, and then considering the relative lack of Zoroastrian scholarship and theology after the fall of the Sassanids, obviously can't give much info as to its potential evolution given the different path Zoroastrianism would go in an ATL like this topic discusses (in any PoD where the Persians do better against the Arabs). As I suggested above, Sassanid Zoroastrianism could have as much to do with later Chinese Zoroastrianism as 7th century Islam does the practices of Hui Chinese Muslims in the past few centuries.

Also... harems.

The Ancient Persians basically invented the harem, although it wasn't called that at that point.
 

Albert.Nik

Banned
It would also be worth noting that Ancient Pagan faiths before becoming rigid were quite open about Sexuality. Zoroastrnism comes on the border of Paganism so I guess it would be comparitively more open to these sexuality related things.
 
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