Editing Asia (section)

=== Medieval era ===
[[File:Mongol dominions1.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The [[Mongol Empire]] at its greatest extent. The gray area is the later [[Timurid Empire]].]]The Islamic [[Caliphate]]'s defeats of the [[Byzantine]] and Persian empires led to West Asia and southern parts of [[Central Asia]] and [[Northwestern South Asia|western parts of South Asia]] under its control during [[Early Muslim conquests|its conquests]] of the 7th century; Islam also [[Spread of Islam|spread]] over centuries to the southern regions of India and Southeast Asia through trade along the [[Maritime Silk Road]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=How Islam Spread Throughout the World |url=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/how-islam-spread-throughout-the-world |access-date=8 August 2024 |website=Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Did you know?: The Spread of Islam in Southeast Asia through the Trade Routes |url=https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/content/did-you-know-spread-islam-southeast-asia-through-trade-routes |access-date=8 August 2024 |website=en.unesco.org}}</ref> The [[Mongol Empire]] conquered a large part of Asia in the 13th century, an area extending from China to Europe. Before the Mongol invasion, [[Song dynasty]] reportedly had approximately 120 million citizens; the 1300 census which followed the invasion reported roughly 60 million people.<ref>Ping-ti Ho. "An Estimate of the Total Population of Sung-Chin China", in ''Études Song'', Series 1, No. 1, (1970). pp. 33–53.</ref>

The [[Black Death]], one of the most devastating [[pandemic]]s in human history, is thought to have originated in the arid plains of central Asia, where it then travelled along the [[Silk Road]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/middle_ages/blackdisease_01.shtml |title=Black Death |publisher=BBC |date=17 February 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120605000815/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/middle_ages/blackdisease_01.shtml |archive-date=5 June 2012}}</ref>