It was! Buddhism spread into China along the Silk Roads, for example, as did Islam. Ideas change and adapt as they move so it’s not as easy as saying, “oh, look! Porcelain in France in 1200! That came from China!” But if you consider an idea as malleable knowledge that is adapted, changed, transformed, etc., then they absolutely did move along with trade and luxury goods.

Peter Frankopan’s history The Silk Roads is a really interesting examination of world history that decenters Europe and looks at how goods and ideas and and empires were in contact, traded, influenced, fought, conquered, rejected, etc, over two thousand years along the central Asian corridor and beyond. It’s a thick volume but easy to read.