Neighbours of the the Tibetan plateau, the steppes of Asia, the peninsula of Arabia, and the Ottoman Empire, lands of invasions or shelters : Persia and North India have seen the Indo-europeans, the Greeks, the Huns, the Arabs, the Turks, and the Mongols.
Let's follow Alexander the Great or Gengis Khan, the arabian, afghan or russian conquerors, from Ispahan to Samarkand, looking for silk, spices and precious stones...