Revival of a Zoroastrian Persian Empire AFTER the Muslim Conquest.

By the 10th Century, Zoroastrians were still a majority in Persia proper, apparently, and Fire Temples were found in almost every province still. As late as 930, Mardavij, a known anti-Muslim warlord, explicitly attempted to reconquer and recreate the Persian Empires of old. What if he succeeded? Or what if someone else around the same time succeeded?
 
Almost ASB. Zoroastrianism was heavily marginalized over time until the Sassanids. Even then they still dealt with numerous other religious sects in the empire. Plus, most surviving Zoroastrians OTL tended to be Zurvanites, which were considered heretics for being fatalist and equating Ahriman's powers with Ohrmazd's and introducing the neutral father god Zurvan.

You'd need a ruler willing to force Zoroastrianism to be practiced, and centuries to deal with such attempts at mass conversion since the Muslims aren't going to just sit around.

However if Mardavij is successful in reclaiming Iran, than I'd say he'd be the candidate most likely for success.
 

Zlorfik

Banned
Babak Khorramdin (early 9th c.) is our man. His revolt was probably the closest OTL came to seeing a restored zoroastrian persia.
He won an impressive streak of victories, but the arabs could well afford their losses. What needs to happen is another large-scale conflict that'd divert the caliph's attention.

As luck would have it, the fourth fitna was ongoing (but winding down) at around the time Babak was prancing around persia.
Have that last longer enough, and inflict more severe consequences on the abbassids, and you might just see him grab and hold on to a decent chunk of persia
 
Last edited:
Top