Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent

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The Islamic conquest of South Asia took place during the Rajput supremacy in north India, which lasted from the seventh to the twelfth centuries. The first effort toward invasion was made in 664 CE during the Umayyad caliphate, when Muslim forces led by Mohalib began launching numerous raids from Persia. Among the cities struck was Multan in the southern Punjab region in what is today Pakistan. Mohalib penetrated as far as the ancient capital of the Maili and returned with many prisoners of war. However, the Muslims didn't come to conquer at this time, seeming only to make exploratory raids.

It took several centuries for Islam to spread to parts of India. Hindus were converted to Islam by laws favoring Muslims, by force, by marriage, or voluntarily. Some of the ruling families and warrior castes of various Hindu kingdoms were forced to convert.

Historian Will Durant wrote in The Story of Civilization (1972) that the Muslim conquest of India was "probably the bloodiest story in history." The number of people killed is estimated based on the Muslim chronicles and demographic calculations. K.S. Lal estimated in his book The Growth of Muslim Population in India that between 1000 CE and 1500 CE, the population of Hindus decreased by 80 million. The legacy of Islamic conquest of South Asia is a hotly debated issue even today.

Muhammad bin Qasim

In 711, the Umayyad caliph in Damascus sent an expedition to Baluchistan (an arid region on the Iranian Plateau in Southwest Asia, presently split between Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan) and Sindh (presently a province of Pakistan bordering on Baluchistan, Punjab, and Rajasthan, India). The expedition was led by a 20-year-old Syrian Muslim chieftain named Muhammad bin Qasim (for whom Karachi's second port is named). The expedition went as far north as Multan, then called the "city of gold," that contained the extremely large Hindu temple Sun Mandir housing over six thousand people. Bin Qasim invaded South Asia on the orders of Al-Hajjaj bin Yousef, the governor of Iraq. Qasim's armies defeated Raja Dahir at what is now Hyderabad in Sindh and established Islamic rule. Conquering the area in 712 and supplanting its Hindu rulers, Qasim extended Muslim rule to the Indus Valley. He traveled and subdued from Karachi to Multan, yet managed this feat with a small force of only six thousand Syrian tribesmen.

But these conquests could not be sustained by the Muslim Arabs for very long. Umayyad rule stretched too far, and any further conquests without consolidation proved futile. From Lisbon in Portugal to Lahore in Punjab were the apogee of this vast empire. Qasim was recalled to Baghdad, and Muslim rule in South Asia shrank to Sindh and southern Punjab.

Still, coastal trade and the presence of a Muslim colony in Sindh permitted significant cultural exchange and the introduction of Islamic teachers into the subcontinent. Consolidation took place and conversion was widespread, especially amongst the Buddhist majority. Multan became a center of the Ismaili sect of Islam, which still has many adherents in Sindh today.

But in many regions north of Multan, several non-Muslim groups (largely Buddhists and Hindus, as well as followers of folk religions further north) remained numerous. From this period through the year 1000, the conquered area was divided into two parts: the northern region comprising the Punjab remained under the control of Hindu rajas, while the southern area came under Muslim control and comprised Baluchistan, Sindh, and Multan—until a new invader appeared on the scene and reconquered all of what is today Pakistan.

Qasim demolished many temples, shattered "idolatorous" artwork and killed many people in his battles. After the violence, he attempted to establish law and order in the newly-conquered territory through the imposition of Islamic Shariah laws. He also sought control through systematic persecution of Hindus. He wrote an account of such experiences:

O my cousin; I received your life inspiring letter. I was much pleased and overjoyed when it reached me. The events were recounted in an excellent and beautiful style, and I learnt that the ways and rules you follow are conformable to the Law. Except that you give protection to all, great and small alike, and make no difference between enemy and friend. God says, 'Give no quarter to Infidels, but cut their throats." "Then know that this is the command of the great God. You should not be too ready to grant protection, because it will prolong your work. After this, give no quarter to any enemy except to those who are of rank. This is a worthy resolve, and want of dignity will not be imputed to you. Peace be with you. ^[1]

Native populations of conquered territories under Qasim underwent a great deal of hardship and struggle for their refusal to convert to Islam. Heavy taxes known as Jizya were imposed upon non-Muslims, and the conversion of conquered populations occurred on a large scale.

Ghaznavid Period

In the early 11th century Mahmud of Ghazni launched 17 invasions of the Hindu parts of India and set up several early forms of government. In 1001, Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi defeated King Jeebal of Kabulistan and marched further into Peshawar and in 1005 made it the center for his forces. From this strategic location, Mahmud was able to capture the Punjab in 1007. The city Mahmud of Ghazni attacked Multan twice, destroying the Sun Mandir, but he didn't stay. Tanseer fell in 1014, Kashmir was captured in 1015, and Qanoch fell in 1017. By 1027, Mahmud had captured most of northern India.

In 1010, Mahmud captured what is today the Ghowr Province (Ghor) and by 1011 annexed Baluchistan. Mahmud had already had relationships with the leadership in Balkh through marriage, and its local emir, Abu Nasr Mohammad, offered his services to the sultan and his daughter to Mahmud's son, Muhammad. After Nasr’s death Mahmud brought Balkh under his leadership. This alliance greatly helped him during his expeditions into northern India.

In 1030, Mahmud fell gravely ill and died at age 59. He had been a gifted military commander, eloquent speaker, and a patron of poetry, astronomy, and mathematics. During his rule, universities were founded to study various subjects such as mathematics, religion, the humanities, and medicine—but only within the laws of the Sharia. Islam was the main religion of his kingdom and the Perso-Afghan dialect Dari was made the official language.

Ghaznavid rule in Pakistan lasted over 175 years, from 1010 to 1187. It was during this period that Lahore assumed considerable importance as the eastern-most bastion of Muslim power and an outpost for further advance toward the riches of the east. Apart from being the second capital, and later the only capital, of the Ghaznavid kingdom, Lahore had great military and strategic significance: whoever controlled it could look forward to sweeping the whole of East Punjab to Panipat and Delhi.

By the end of his reign, Mahmud's empire extended from Kurdistan in the west to Samarkand in the northeast, and from the Caspian Sea to the Yamuna. Although his raids carried his forces across northern and western India, only Punjab came under his permanent rule; Kashmir, the Doab, Rajasthan, and Gujarat remained under the control of the local Hindu Rajput dynasties. The wealth brought back to Ghazni was enormous. Contemporary historians (e.g. Abolfazl Beyhaghi and Ferdowsi) give glowing descriptions of the magnificence of the capital and the conqueror's munificent support of literature.

Often reviled as a persecutor of Hindus—because in many cases Hindu temples were looted and destroyed—much of Mahmud's army was made up of Hindus. Indeed, some of his army commanders were of Hindu origin. For example, Sonday Rai was the commander of Mahmud's crack regiment and took part in several important campaigns with him. The coins struck during Mahmud's reign bore his own image on one side and the figure of a Hindu god on the other.

Mahmud was also a great patron of learning. His court was full of scholars including giants like the poet Ferdowsi, the historian Abolfazl Beyhaghi (whose work on the Ghanavid Empire is perhaps the most substantive primary source of the period), and Al-Biruni, the versatile scholar who wrote the Ta'rikh al-Hind ("Chronicles of India"). It was said that Mahmud spent over 400000 golden dinars on scholars. He invited them from all over the world and was thus known as an abductor of scholars. During his rule, Lahore also became a great center of learning and culture. It was called "Small Ghazni," since Ghazni received far more attention during Mahmud's reign. Saad Salman, a poet of those times, wrote about the academic and cultural life of Muslim Lahore and its growing importance.

Mahmud's armies destroyed Hindu temples in Varanasi, Mathura, Ujjain, Maheshwar, Jwalamukhi, and Dwarka. He had vowed to chastise idolaters every year of his life. He did not set up any permanent government in India, but he certainly left his legacy.

Muhammed Ghuri

Muhammad Ghori was a Turkic-Afghan conqueror from the region of Ghor in Afghanistan. Before 1160, the Ghaznavid Empire covered an area running from central Afghanistan east to the Punjab, with capitals at Ghazni, a city on the banks of Ghazni river in present-day Afghanistan, and at Lahore in present-day Pakistan. In 1160, the Ghorids conquered Ghazni from the Ghaznevids, and in 1173 Muhammad was made governor of Ghazni. He raided eastwards into the remaining Ghaznevid territory, and invaded Gujarat in the 1180's but was rebuffed by Gujarat's Solanki rulers. In 1186 and 1187 he conquered Lahore, ending the Ghaznevid empire and bringing the last of Ghaznevid territory under his control.

In 1191, he invaded the territory of Prithviraj III of Ajmer, who ruled much of present-day Rajasthan and Haryana, but was defeated at Tarain by Govinda-raja of Delhi, Prithviraj's vassal. The following year, Muhammad assembled 120,000 horsemen and once again invaded the Kingdom of Ajmer. Muhammad's army met Prithviraj's army again at Tarain, and this time Muhammad won; Govinda-raja was slain, Prithviraj captured, and Muhammad advanced on Delhi, soon capturing it. Within a year, Muhammad controlled northern Rajasthan and northern Ganges-Yamuna Doab. After these victories in India, and Muhammad's establishment of a capital in Delhi, Multan in the Punjab was made a part of his empire. Muhammad then returned east to Ghazni to deal with the threat to his eastern frontiers from the Turks and Mongols, but his armies, mostly under Turkish generals, continued to advance through northern India, raiding as far east as Bengal.

Muhammad returned to Lahore after 1200 to deal with a revolt of the Ghakkar tribe in the Punjab. He suppressed the revolt, but was killed during a Ghakkar raid on his camp on the Jhelum River in 1206. Upon his death his most capable general, Qutb-ud-din Aybak, took control of Muhammad's Indian conquests and declared himself the first Sultan of Delhi.

The Delhi Sultanate

Muhammad's successors established the first dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, while the Mamluk Dynasty in 1211 (however, the Delhi Sultanate is traditionally held to have been founded in 1206) seized the reins of empire. Mamluk means "slave" and referred to the Turkic slave soldiers who became rulers throughout the Islamic world. The territory under control of the Muslim rulers in Delhi expanded rapidly. By mid-century, Bengal and much of central India was under the Delhi Sultanate. Several Turko-Afghan dynasties ruled from Delhi: the Mamluk (1211–1290), the Khalji (1290–1320), the Tughlaq (1320–1413), the Sayyid (1414–51), and the Lodhi (1451–1526). As Muslims extended their rule into southern India, only the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar remained immune, until it too fell in 1565. Although some kingdoms remained independent of Delhi in the Deccan and in Gujarat, Malwa (central India), and Bengal, almost all of the area in present-day Pakistan came under the rule of Delhi.

The sultans of Delhi enjoyed cordial, if superficial, relations with Muslim rulers in the Near East but owed them no allegiance. They based their laws on the Quran and the sharia and permitted non-Muslim subjects to practice their religion only if they paid the jizya (head tax). They ruled from urban centers, while military camps and trading posts provided the nuclei for towns that sprang up in the countryside.

Perhaps the greatest contribution of the sultanate was its temporary success in insulating the subcontinent from the potential devastation of the Mongol invasion from Central Asia in the 13th century, which nonetheless led to the loss of Afghanistan and western Pakistan to the Mongols (see the Ilkhanate Dynasty). The sultanate ushered in a period of Indian cultural renaissance resulting from the stimulation of Islam by Hinduism. The resulting "Indo-Muslim" fusion left lasting monuments in architecture, music, literature, and religion. In addition it is surmised that the language of Urdu (literally meaning "horde" or "camp" in various Turkic dialects) was born during the Dehli Sultanate period as a result of the mingling of Sanskritic Hindi and the Persian, Turkish, Arabic favored by the Muslim invaders of India.

The sultanate suffered from the sacking of Delhi in 1398 by Timur (Tamerlane) but revived briefly under the Lodhis before it was conquered by the Mughals in 1526, who ruled from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries.

Alauddin Khilji

Other invasions from Central Asia followed his on a regular basis, such as that of Muhammad Khilji, who burned Nalanda's a major Buddhist library. The rulers of these territories became known as the Mughals and their empire that covered a large portion of India is known as the Mughal Empire.

The Khilji Dynasty is not affiliated politically with the Mughal Dynasty, which started in the 1500s under Babur.

The Mughal Empire

Main article: Mughal Empire

India in the 16th century presented a fragmented picture of rulers, both Muslim and Hindu, who lacked concern for their subjects and who failed to create a common body of laws or institutions. Outside developments also played a role in shaping events. The circumnavigation of Africa by the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in 1498 allowed Europeans to challenge Arab control of the trading routes between Europe and Asia. In Central Asia and Afghanistan, shifts in power pushed Babur of Ferghana (in present-day Uzbekistan) southward, first to Kabul and then to India. The dynasty he founded endured for more than three centuries.

Babur

Claiming descent from both Genghis Khan and Timur, Babur combined strength and courage with a love of beauty, and military ability with cultivation. He concentrated on gaining control of northwestern India, doing so in 1526 by defeating the last Lodhi sultan at the First battle of Panipat, a town north of Delhi. Babur then turned to the tasks of persuading his Central Asian followers to stay on in India and of overcoming other contenders for power, mainly the Rajputs and the Afghans. He succeeded in both tasks but died shortly thereafter in 1530. The Mughal Empire was one of the largest centralized states in premodern history and was the precursor to the British Indian Empire.

Babur was followed by his great-grandson, Shah Jahan (r. 1628–58), builder of the Taj Mahal and other magnificent buildings. Two other towering figures of the Mughal era were Akbar (r. 1556–1605) and Aurangzeb (r. 1658–1707). Both rulers expanded the empire greatly and were able administrators. However, Akbar was known for his religious tolerance and administrative genius while Aurangzeb was a pious Muslim and fierce protector of orthodox Islam in an alien and heterodox environment.

Ahmad Shah Abdali

Aurangzeb

While some rulers were zealous in their spread of Islam, others were relatively liberal. The Moghul emperor Akbar was one who was relatively liberal and established a new religion, Din E Elahi, which included beliefs from different religions. He abolished the jizya for some time. In contrast, Aurangazeb was more zealous and, generally, during his term non-Muslims suffered. He reimposed the jizya, which his great grandfather Akbar had removed. It is a matter of historical record that under the rule of Aurangzeb a large number of natives were put to death.

In the century and a half that followed the death of Aurangzeb, effective Muslim control weakened. Succession to imperial and even provincial power, which had often become hereditary, was subject to intrigue and force. The mansabdari system gave way to the zamindari system, in which high-ranking officials took on the appearance of hereditary landed aristocracy with powers of collecting rents. As Delhi's control waned, other contenders for power emerged and clashed, thus preparing the way for the eventual British takeover.

Iconoclasm

Nalanda

In 1193, the Nalanda University complex was destroyed by Turkish Muslim invaders under Bakhtiyar Khalji; this event is seen as the final milestone in the decline and near extinction of Buddhism in India. He also burned Nalanda's a major Buddhist library. Vikramshila University, also a major center of Buddhist learning, was destroyed as well, along with the rest of the Buddhist monasteries in India. By the end of the 12th century, following the Islamic conquest of the Budhist stronghold in Bihar, Budhists ceased to be a significant presence in India. The survivors retreated into Nepal and Tibet, or escaped to the south of the Subcontinent. The remnants of their culture lingered on even as far west as Turkestan. In March 2001, two giant statues of Buddha, the Buddhas of Bamiyan, were destroyed by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Vijayanagara

The city flourished between the 14th century and 16th century, during the height of the power of the Vijayanagar empire. During this time, it was often in conflict with the Muslim kingdoms which had become established in the northern Deccan, and which are often collectively termed the Deccan sultanates. In 1565, the empire's armies suffered a massive and catastrophic defeat at the hands of an alliance of the sultanates, and the capital was taken. The victorious armies then proceeded to raze, depopulate, and destroy the city over a period of several months. Despite the empire continuing to exist thereafter during a slow decline, the original capital was not reoccupied or rebuilt. It has not been occupied since.

Somnath

The first temple of Somnath is said to have existed before the beginning of the Christian era. The second temple, built by the Maitraka kings of Vallabhi in Gujarat, replaced the first one on the same site around 649. In 725 Junayad, the Arab governor of Sind, sent his armies to destroy the second temple. The Pratihara king Nagabhata II constructed the third temple in 815, a large structure of red sandstone. Mahmud of Ghazni attacked this temple in 1026, and looted it of gems and precious stones. He then massacred the worshippers and had the temple burnt. It was then that the famous Shivalinga of the temple was entirely destroyed. The fourth temple was built by the Paramara King Bhoj of Malwa and the Solanki king Bhima of Gujarat (Anhilwara) between 1026 and 1042. The temple was razed in 1297 when the Sultanate of Delhi conquered Gujarat, and again in 1394. The Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb destroyed the temple again in 1706.

Historical Views

In his book Histoire de l'Inde the French historian Alain Danielou writes:

From the moment when the Muslims arrive in India, the history of India does not have any more great interest. It is long and monotonous series of murder, massacres, spoilations, destruction.

In his book The Story of Civilization the historian Will Durant said:

The Mohammadan conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precarious thing, whose delicate complex of order and liberty, culture and peace may at any time be overthrown by barbarians invading from without or multiplying within.

Hindu sage Padmanabha described in his KanhaDade Prabandha in 1456 AD the story of the Islamic invasion of Gujarat of the year 1298 AD:

The conquering army burnt villages, devastated the land, plundered people’s wealth, took Brahmins and children and women of all classes captive, flogged with thongs of raw hide, carried a moving prison with it, and converted the prisoners into obsequious slaves.

Tarikh-i-Yamini of Utbi the sultan's secretary wrote in the 11th century:

The blood of the infidels flowed so copiously at Thanesar that the stream was discoloured, notwithstanding its purity, and people were unable to drink it. The Sultan returned with plunder which is impossible to count.

Cultural influence

Islamic traditions blended with language, dress, cuisine, architecture, social customs and values of the natives to give rise to much of present day Indian culture. Numerous Indian scientific and mathematical advances and the Hindu-Arabic numerals were spread to the rest of the world ^[2]. The languages brought by Islam were modified by contact with local languages leading to the creation of several new languages, such as Urdu, which uses the modified Arabic script, but with more Persian words. The influences of these languages exist in several dialects in India today. Islamic and Mughal architecture and art is widely noticeable in India, examples being the Taj Mahal and Qutub Minar.

References

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- India, Pakistan

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^ "History of India syllabus". December 5. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)

External links

History of Islam in India By Neria Harish Hebbar (Article with several pages)
Article on Islamic invasions
Library of modern Hindu history - The Islamic Ages
A Response to Muslim Legacy in India
History of India Indian site.
Islamization and the Arab conquest of India
The Legacy of Jihad in India