WI Mohamed coverts to Zoroastrianism?

What are the immediate effects?

Can he repeat his OTL success in the name of zorastriaism?

If not how does this effect the middle east?

Can Byzantium survive in its complete form?

What happens to persia?
 
(1) At the same time as he began preaching Islam IOTL, very few.

(2) Probably not.

(3) No Islam.

(4) For the next couple of centuries almost definitely, after that who knows.

(5) Major upheaval most likely ending with a new dynasty on the throne. The Sassanids' days were numbered, but Rome was in no position to capitalize in any significant way, so things probably return to status quo soon enough.
 
Well it is said that after the defeat of the Mazdakites many of them connected to noble families were sent to Arabia to fight the Axumites in Yemen....
 
It depends how far he goes. I would love to see a zoroastrian inspired religion rather than an abrahamic one units the Arabs.
 
Did Zoroastrianism spread to western Arabia? I am no expert on this, but it seems to me that it would be much less likely than if he converted to Judaism or some branch of Christianity.
 
Last edited:
Wasn't Zoroastrianism declining even before the advent of Islam? IIRC Mesopotamia was already converting en masse to Nestorianism.

That was mostly the Assyrians. Not the Iranians.

Among Zoroastrians It was just generally a feeling of being fed up with the state Church. The Sassanids kind of quashed all the different Zoroastrian sects then all their gradual state corruption started to stagnate. Around the time of the collapse you had all these different sects and cults popping up, just like Christanity did, with their own Religious views and continued right on for a few centuries after the Arab conquest. A few even started combining Islam into them.

Did Zoroastrianism spread to eastern Arabia? I am no expert on this, but it seems to me that it would be much less likely than if he converted to Judaism or some branch of Christianity.

A few writers have said that after the failed Mazdak revolt the Shanashah made up most of the invasion forth with Mazdak leaning nobility who MAY have influenced Mohammad.
 
Didn't Turtledove write something along these lines?

If you're referring to “Agent of Byzantium”, that was the Prophet converting to Christianity, not Zoroastrianism. But a Zoroastrian Persia still led by the Sassanids did provide a backdrop to a greater and still-ongoing conflict against the Byzantine Empire.
 
Top