Turks

State · 666–756 CE · at its largest around 674 CE

Turkic steppe peoples of Inner Asia; in this era the Second Turkic Khaganate revived Ashina rule in Mongolia, recorded in the Old Turkic Orkhon inscriptions.

On its lands while it lasted

Sogdians (c. 500 BCE – c. 900 CE): Iranian people of the Zeravshan valley around Samarkand and Bukhara whose merchants dominated trade along the Silk Roads, especially between the 4th and 8th centuries.
Silk Road (c. 130 BCE – c. 1450 CE): A network of overland caravan routes linking China with Central Asia, Persia and the Mediterranean, along which silk, spices, horses, religions, technologies and diseases travelled for more than 1,500 years.
Suyab (c. 555–749 CE): Capital of Göktürk Khaganate (555–586), Türgesh (704–749).
Muslim conquest of Transoxiana (673–751 CE): Arab campaigns that brought Bukhara, Samarkand and the lands beyond the Oxus under Umayyad and then Abbasid rule.
Battle of Talas (751 CE): Abbasid forces defeated a Tang Chinese army near the Talas River, ending Tang expansion westward into Central Asia.