Buddhism in the Iranian World

The “Iranian World,” defined as the Iranian plateau and adjacent regions historically
inhabited by Iranian-speaking peoples or influenced by their culture, played
an important role in the development and transmission of Buddhism especially
during the early centuries. Like other world religions, Buddhism spread via trade routes and absorbed local influences along the way.2 A Pali legend suggests that the first individuals to spread the Buddha’s teaching outside of India were a pair of traveling businessmen from Balkh, Tapassu and Bhallika, who were present at the Buddha’s famous sermon at the deer park near Benaras; as natives of the east Iranian province of Bactria these men would likely have been ethnic Iranians. Whether or not this particular legend has any historical validity, the region in question (now Afghanistan) became one of the main centres of Buddhism and remained so up to the Islamic conquests in the 7th century. The process of Islamization took several centuries, and since the population of eastern Iran was mostly Buddhist, this meant that converts to Islam brought with them a Buddhist cultural background.