Instead, once-subversive popular religious movements were catapulted into the status of dominant institutions. Slavery declined or disappeared, as did the overall level of violence. As trade picked up, so did the pace of technological innovation; greater peace brought greater possibilities not only for the movement of silks and spices, but also of people and ideas. The fact that monks in medieval China could devote themselves to translating ancient treatises in Sanskrit, and that students in madrasas in medieval Indonesia could debate legal terms in Arabic, is testimony to the profound
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