Editing Silk Road (section)

=== Sogdian–Türkic tribes (4th–8th centuries) ===
[[File:Caravane sur la Route de la soie - Atlas catalan.jpg|thumb|[[Marco Polo]]'s caravan on the Silk Road, 1380]]

The Silk Road represents an early phenomenon of political and cultural integration due to inter-regional trade. In its heyday, it sustained an international culture that strung together groups as diverse as the [[Magyars]], [[Armenians]], and Chinese. The Silk Road reached its peak in the west during the time of the [[Byzantine Empire]]; in the Nile-[[Oxus]] section, from the [[Sassanid Empire]] period to the [[Il Khanate]] period; and in the [[sinitic]] zone from the [[Three Kingdoms]] period to the [[Yuan dynasty]] period. Trade between East and West also developed across the [[Indian Ocean]], between Alexandria in Egypt and [[Guangzhou]] in China. Persian Sassanid coins emerged as a means of currency, just as valuable as silk yarn and textiles.{{sfn|Liu|2010|p=68}}

Under its strong integrating dynamics on the one hand and the impacts of change it transmitted on the other, tribal societies previously living in isolation along the Silk Road, and pastoralists who were of barbarian cultural development, were drawn to the riches and opportunities of the civilisations connected by the routes, taking on the trades of marauders or mercenaries.{{citation needed|date=October 2014}} "Many barbarian tribes became skilled warriors able to conquer rich cities and fertile lands and to forge strong military empires."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Simpson |first=Ray |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0CGQBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA184 |title=Aidan of Lindisfarne: Irish Flame Warms a New World |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-62564-762-7 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180227164624/https://books.google.com/books?id=0CGQBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA184 |archive-date=27 February 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Radhanites2.png|thumb|upright=1.15|right|Map of Eurasia and Africa showing trade networks, c. 870]]

The [[Sogdiana|Sogdians]] dominated the east–west trade after the 4th century up to the 8th century. They were the main caravan merchants of Central Asia.<ref name="Iranica" /> A.V. Dybo noted that "according to historians, the main driving force of the Great Silk Road were not just Sogdians, but the carriers of a mixed Sogdian-Türkic culture that often came from mixed families."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dybo |first=Anna Vladimirovna |year=2007 |script-title=ru:Хронология Тюркских Языков И Лингвистические Контакты Ранних Тюрков |trans-title=Chronology of Türkic languages and linguistic contacts of early Türks |url=http://altaica.narod.ru/LIBRARY/xronol_tu.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050311224856/http://altaica.narod.ru/LIBRARY/xronol_tu.pdf |archive-date=11 March 2005 |access-date=12 June 2017 |page=786 |language=ru}}</ref>

The Silk Road gave rise to the clusters of military states of nomadic origins in North China, ushered the [[Nestorian Church|Nestorian]], [[Manichaeism|Manichaean]], [[Buddhism|Buddhist]], and later [[Islam]]ic religions into Central Asia and China.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}