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Where did zoroastrianism spread?
The founding date and location of Zoroastrianism are hotly debated. The likely location is somewhere to the north of Iran, with Azerbaijan and Afghanistan both being commo…nly suggested. The religion is assumed to have spread quickly through the Iranic peoples of this region, however this left little archaeological evidence. After the Persian conquest of Babylon, Zoroastrianism spread into Mesopotamia. However, the Persians were never interested in supplanting other religions, and while their religion never came to dominate the remainder of the Near East, there came to be populations practicing Zoroastrianism west into Anatolia. These populations were used as excuses for Sassanian expansion, and oppressed by the Christian Byzantines after the Roman-Persian wars took on religious aspects. The Iranic peoples to the north of Persia, the Sogdians, had spread Zoroastrianism and a mixed Zoroastrianism-Buddhism along the Silk Road. This moved into China and apparently took root in the north, but suffered massively under the Tang dynasty's huge repression effort against foreign religions lead by Emperor Wuzong. It's undecided when exactly Zoroastrianism died out in China after this, some claim it lasted in some form until the Song dynasty. After the Muslim conversion of Central Asia, Zoroastrianism shrank from the region until many religious buildings in for instance Uzbekistan were left abandoned after around the 1300s-1400s. During the Achaemenid Persian empire Zoroastrianism made some movements in Pakistan towards India, however this quickly became a multi-religious region balancing Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. This balance finally fell under the Greek successor states Greek Bactria and Greek India, which became massive promoters of Buddhism and created the mixed form Buddhist art that is now so familiar. After the Muslim conquest of Persia, many Persians migrated to Pakistan and India, to escape persecution. The Zoroastrians of Pakistan and India are known as Parsis, with newer migrants known as Iranis. A small Zoroastrian community remains in Iran, and there is a world-wide diaspora. (MORE)
