This is an idea I'd been working towards in my last TL but haven't been able to really put much more thought into it for a number of reasons, foremost among them being the lack of sources on the Scythians I've been able to find. There simply doesn't seem to be a lot of good detailed info about Scythians on the English-speaking parts of the internet. So I've decided to ask about variations of this idea here. So for starters, in case some of you don't know the Scythians covered a great expanse of the steppes in antiquity, though the ones I'm talking here resided in Central Asia and are often referred to as the Saka to distinguish them from the western nomads. What I'm not sure about is which groups were Saka and which were not, and how different and distinguished all the various Scythian groups were. I've been given the impression it was a very broad and expansive term covering many peoples but I'm not sure how broad.
But let's get to the actual questions here. What are some feasible methods to have a reasonably unified Saka empire in the eastern reaches of Iran and beyond? IOTL the Saka did conquer much of northern India, but at the same time they were on an exodus away from the invading Yuezhi, who were in turn moving from the wake of the Xiongu. What I'm after is a longer-lasting recognizably Scythian culture in the area, not a short-lived migration. If this hypothetical Scythian empire, whatever its origins, can conquer Persia then all the better, just so long as they last longer than IOTL. Ideally if you can come up with a way for them to survive the Turkic incursions then that's even better. And what would result from such an early nomadic empire?
But let's get to the actual questions here. What are some feasible methods to have a reasonably unified Saka empire in the eastern reaches of Iran and beyond? IOTL the Saka did conquer much of northern India, but at the same time they were on an exodus away from the invading Yuezhi, who were in turn moving from the wake of the Xiongu. What I'm after is a longer-lasting recognizably Scythian culture in the area, not a short-lived migration. If this hypothetical Scythian empire, whatever its origins, can conquer Persia then all the better, just so long as they last longer than IOTL. Ideally if you can come up with a way for them to survive the Turkic incursions then that's even better. And what would result from such an early nomadic empire?