It is commonly known that the "Silk Road," which ran between China and the Near East via Inner Asia, was a major conduit for international commerce in premodern times. However, scholarship describing the specifics of this trade is scarce, especially as we go further back in history. Fortunately, Chinese language documents that have been discovered in the twentieth century at Turfan and Dunhuang in northwestern China provide precious information about this commerce in the seventh and eighth centuries. The documents demonstrate that Sogdian merchants—who were Iranian oasis dwellers originally from West Turkestan—dominated trade in East Turkestan during the seventh and eighth centuries. A diaspora of Sogdians settled permanently at Turfan, Dunhuang, and other cities. The settlers engaged in commerce, farming, and handicrafts. Sogdian merchants interacted with others in the diaspora as they travelled from town to town in East Turkestan, buying and selling goods. Short-haul traders supplied local markets with non-luxuries such as livestock. Other merchants dealing in luxuries engaged in long distance trade or operated on shorter routes within the wider commercial network. Thus, in this period most goods moving between east and west passed through the hands of various merchants in the Sogdian diaspora.