21 - The House of Afrasiyab

The mass conversion of the Turks to Islam begins as the rise of the Samanid Emirate and its great Jihad transforms Central Asia.   On the steppe, the sophisticated Karakhanid Khanate emerges - the first Muslim Turkish state in history, with a state based on Islamic, Turkish and Chinese models of government.  Meanwhile, the Samanid Emirate starts falling apart, dismantled by its own Turkish slave generals from within and conquered by the Karakhanids from without.  And as Central Asia is remade, a certain minor and obscure Oghuz clan begins moving south...