No Islam, what religion does central Asia take?

If this trend continues, whether or not the Sasanians survive, Iranian cultural influence will be lessened. They're basically giving China free reign over Central Asia. Nestorianism I don't think could achieve lasting dominance without a Nestorian Persia, and I think any Nestorian Persia is going to be more interested in Mesopotamia and Syria than the Iranian plateau.

But who's to say the next major Persian dynasty won't reverse the focus on Mesopotamia and the near east and focus on Central Asia or India again? The odds of the Sassanids lasting forever don't seem very high, and at some point Persia will get united again (or at least a large chunk of it will fall under the control of a new dynasty).

Since we know Nestorianism was in the region, it doesn't seem totally impossible that one society converts in large numbers. But I do agree that a totally Nestorian Central Asia is probably impossible without a Nestorian Persia.

"Zunist?"

As far as we know the Zunbil dynasty were just followers of either a sun god or a local variant of Shiva. I don't think we really know anything concrete about them let alone enough to hypothesize that they had an organized religion with a lot of devotees.

However you raise a good point that a synthesis of multiple religious traditions with a lot of local inspiration sounds pretty likely for the future of Afghanistan.

I thought the Zunist religion was related to that of the aforementioned Kalash/Nuristanis, as simply another expression of Indo-European ancestral religion most closely related to Zoroastrianism and Hinduism. Considering the Zunbils and their descendents converted pretty early on compared to Nuristan or the Kalash, that probably suggests they would end up practicing Buddhism at some point, and if not Buddhism, whatever religion Persia ends up with.
 
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