AHC: Shia Islam dominant in Central Asia

Looking at a map of religious demographics in the middle east and central Asia, we see that Sunni Islam is the dominant branch of Islam in these regions, with the exceptions of Iran and Iraq. Now looking at the map, you see the Middle East and North Africa dominated by Sunni Muslims, then you have the Shia in Iraq and Iran, and then you see the Sunni dominant in central Asia.

My knowledge of the History of Islam and its expansion is unfortunately lacking, but just looking at the map it doesn't make sense geographically that Sunni Islam is dominant in central Asia rather than Shia. So if someone could explain to me how that happened, it would be greatly appreciated.

So what I am wondering is how could we get Shia Islam to be dominant in Central Asia? What effects might this have on... well, history.
 
Looking at a map of religious demographics in the middle east and central Asia, we see that Sunni Islam is the dominant branch of Islam in these regions, with the exceptions of Iran and Iraq. Now looking at the map, you see the Middle East and North Africa dominated by Sunni Muslims, then you have the Shia in Iraq and Iran, and then you see the Sunni dominant in central Asia.

My knowledge of the History of Islam and its expansion is unfortunately lacking, but just looking at the map it doesn't make sense geographically that Sunni Islam is dominant in central Asia rather than Shia. So if someone could explain to me how that happened, it would be greatly appreciated.

So what I am wondering is how could we get Shia Islam to be dominant in Central Asia? What effects might this have on... well, history.

Basically, most of Iran became thoroughly Shii in relatively recent times, namely after the establishment of the Safavid Empire immediately after 1500. In a sense, it has been somewhat a fluke.
Of course, Iran had been long receptive to Shii ideas, but it was largely a minority thing, although widespread in some places (Qom, Kashan and Mashhad are the first examples).
But without the Safavids, Iran and a good part of Iraq could have remained majority Sunni.
Even the Safavids, with all their effort to reach deep into the masses with a mix of state-sponsored propaganda and persecution (as opposed to most other Shia ruling groups, who didn't care much for mass proselytism in most cases), never managed to get Shiism entrenched everywhere they ruled: in most of Kurdistan and in most of the Eastern reaches of their domain, it never worked that well.
Iran has pretty noticeable Sunni minorities to this day, while most of the surrounding countries, with the remarkable exceptions of Iraq, Bahrayn, Azerbaijan and Armenia, are replete with significant Shia minorities but are dominated by Sunnis. In Bahrayn, you have Sunni domination with Shia majority (which I believe predates the ones in both Iran and Iraq). That used to be the case in Iraq most of the time too. Armenia is overwhelmingly majority Christian, but I guess most of its Muslim minority is Shia. Azerbaijan is formally a secular state, majority Shia, but I gather that sectarian divides are less important there.
 
As for your challenge, you'll need any of the "Turkic" (in a very broad sense) groups who ruled Central Asia and Eastern Iran in the Middle Ages and were instrumental for islamization of those areas to adopt Shiism and to opt for a proselytizing, militant for of it, spreading the sect northeast from its Iranian or Iraqi strongholds. This is likely to be tricky as most people are Sunni anyway; maybe the Mongols could do the trick, as their opponents are Sunni too. But could be complicated.
 
Persia didn't become a nearly purely Shia state until the time of the Safavids. This was done to counterbalance the Sunni Ottomans, who themselves were more heterodox until they took Mecca and felt it incumbent on them to act in a more orthodox manner. Prior to that time there were large Sunni communities in Persia. The Turks had become Muslims centuries before that.

In my opinion, I'd say that the Turks would convert to the more globally acceptable (and thus more powerful/useful) version of Islam since Persia was not especially Shi'ite at the time. Perhaps if you have Shia Islam displace Sunni Islam (that is, Ali survives longer and his successor militarily crushes the Umayyads). But even there I think the root of surviving Shia Islam is the need for the Persians to differentiate themselves from the Arab version of Islam.
 
Have the Safavid Empire or some dynasty after them conquer and hold parts of Central Asia for along while and enforce and encourage Shi'a on the region would be the easiest way IMO.
 
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