After the conversion of many Middle Eastern merchants to Islam under the Abbasids, the religion spread through their caravans. For 10 points each:
[10e] Islam was spread throughout the steppes largely by followers of this mystical tradition who often accompanied those merchant caravans.
ANSWER: Sufism [or Sufis]
[10h] Islam and Persian culture spread into central Asia under this dynasty of the 9th and 10th centuries. This dynasty sponsored Ferdowsi, whose Shanameh was finished after this dynasty was conquered by the Ghaznavids.
ANSWER: Samanid Empire [or Samanian Empire; or Samanids]
[10m] Baha’ al-Din Naqshband, the namesake of Naqshbandi Sufism, was from this city where the Samanids had been based. A much later emirate named for this city was conquered by the Russians in the 1860s and controlled most of modern Uzbekistan.
ANSWER: Bukhara [accept Emirate of Bukhara]
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