Muslim conquests in

the Indian
subcontinent
Page issues

Muslim conquests in the Indian

subcontinent mainly took place from the
12th to the 16th centuries, though earlier
Muslim conquests made limited inroads
into modern Afghanistan and Pakistan as
early as the time of the Rajput kingdoms in
the 8th century. With the establishment of
the Delhi Sultanate, Islam spread across
large parts of the subcontinent. In 1204,
Bakhtiyar Khalji led the Muslim conquest
of Bengal, marking the eastern-most
expansion of Islam at the time.

Prior to the rise of the Maratha Empire,

which was followed by the conquest of
India by the British East India Company,
the Muslim Mughal Empire was able to
annex or subjugate most of India's kings.
However, it was never able to conquer the
kingdoms in the upper reaches of the
Himalayas, such as those of modern
Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim,
Nepal and Bhutan; the kingdoms of the
extreme south of India, such as
Travancore and Tamil Nadu; or the
kingdoms in the east, such as the Ahom
Kingdom in Assam.

Early Muslim presence

Islam in South Asia existed in
communities along the Arab coastal trade
routes in Sindh, Bengal, Gujarat, Kerala,
and Ceylon as soon as the religion
originated and had early gained
acceptance in the Arabian Peninsula,
though the first incursion by the new
Muslim successor states of the Arab
World occurred around 636 CE or 643 AD,
during the Rashidun Caliphate, long before
any Arab army reached the frontier of India
by land.

Arab naval expeditions

Uthman b. Abul As Al Sakifi, governor of

Bahrain and Oman, sent out ships to raid
Thane, near modern-day Mumbai, while his
brother Hakam sailed to Broach and a
third fleet sailed to Debal under his
younger brother Mughira either in 636 CE
or 643 AD. According to one source all
three expeditions were successful,[1]
however, another source states Mughira
was defeated and killed at Debal.[2] These
expeditions were sent without the Caliph
Umar's consent, and he rebuked Uthman,
saying that had the Arabs lost any men the
Caliph would have killed an equal number
of men from Utham's tribe in retaliation.[1]
The expeditions were sent to attack pirate
nests, to safeguard Arabian trade in the
Arabian Sea, and not to start the conquest
of India.[3][4][5]

Rashidun Caliphate and the

Indian frontier
Arab campaigns in the Indian Subcontinent. A generic
representation, not to exact scale.

The kingdoms of Kapisa-Gandhara in

modern-day Afghanistan, Zabulistan and
Sindh (which then held Makran) in modern-
day Pakistan, all of which were culturally
and politically part of India since ancient
times,[6] were known as "The Frontier of Al
Hind". The first clash between a ruler of an
Indian kingdom and the Arabs took place
in 643 AD, when Arab forces defeated
Rutbil, King of Zabulistan in Sistan.[7]
Arabs led by Suhail b. Abdi and Hakam al
Taghilbi defeated an Indian army in the
Battle of Rasil in 644 AD at the Indian
Ocean sea coast,[8] then reached the Indus
River. Caliph Umar ibn Al-Khattab denied
them permission to cross the river or
operate on Indian soil and the Arabs
returned home.[9]

Abdullah ibn Aamir led the invasion of

Khurasan in 650 AD, and his general Rabi
b. Ziyad Al Harithi attacked Sistan and
took Zaranj and surrounding areas in 651
AD[10] while Ahnaf ibn Qais conquered the
Hepthalites of Herat in 652 AD and
advanced up to Balkh by 653 AD. Arab
conquests now bordered the Kingdoms of
Kapisa, Zabul and Sindh in modern-day
Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Arabs
levied annual tributes on the newly
captured areas, and leaving 4,000 men
garrisons at Merv and Zaranj retired to Iraq
instead of pushing on against the frontier
of India.[11] Caliph Uthman b. Affan
sanctioned an attack against Makran in
652 AD, and sent a recon mission to Sindh
in 653 AD. The mission described Makran
as inhospitable, and Caliph Uthman,
probably assuming the country beyond
was much worse, forbade any further
incursions into India.[12][13]

This was the beginning of a prolonged

struggle between the rulers of Kabul and
Zabul against successive Arab governors
of Sistan, Khurasan and Makran in
modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The Kabul Shahi kings and their Zunbil
kinsmen blocked access to the Khyber
Pass and Gomal Pass routes into India
from 653 to 870 AD,[14] while modern
Balochistan, Pakistan, comprising the
areas of Kikan or Qiqanan, Nukan, Turan,
Buqan, Qufs, Mashkey and Makran, would
face several Arab expeditions between
661 - 711 AD.[15] The Arabs launched
several raids against these frontier lands,
but repeated rebellions in Sistan and
Khurasan between 653 - 691 AD diverted
much of their military resources in order to
subdue these provinces and away from
expansion into Al Hind. Muslim control of
these areas ebbed and flowed repeatedly
as a result until 870 AD. Arabs troops
disliked being stationed in Makran,[16] and
were reluctant to campaign in the Kabul
area and Zabulistan, the difficult terrain
and underestimation of Zunbil's power,[17]
Arab strategy to extract tribute instead of
systematic conquest, and the fierce
resistance of Zunbil and Turki Shah stalled
Arab progress repeatedly in the "Frontier
Zone".[18][19]

Umayyad expansion in Al
Hind
Muawiyah established Umayyad rule over
the Arabs after the first First Fitna in 661
AD, and resumed expansion of the Muslim
Empire. After 663/665 AD, the Arabs
launched an invasion against Kapisa,
Zabul and what is now Pakistani
Balochistan. Abdur Rahman b. Samurra
besieged Kabul in 663 AD, while Haris b
Marrah advanced against Kalat after
marching through Fannazabur and
Quandabil and moving through the Bolan
Pass. King Chach of Sindh sent an army
against the Arabs, the enemy blocked the
mountain passes, Haris was killed and his
army was annihilated. Al Muhallab ibn Abi
Suffrah took a detachment through the
Khyber pass towards Multan in Southern
Punjab in modern-day Pakistan in 664 AD,
then pushed south into Kikan, and may
have also raided Quandabil. Turki Shah
and Zunbil expelled Arabs from their
respective kingdoms by 670 AD, and
Zunbil began assisting in organizing
resistance in Makran.[8]

Battles in Makran and

Zabulistan

Arabs launched several campaigns in

eastern Balochistan between 661 - 681 AD,
four Arab commanders were killed during
the campaigns, but Sinan b. Salma
managed to conquer parts of Makran
including the Chagai area,[20] and establish
a permanent base of operations in 673
AD.[21] Rashid b. Amr, the next governor of
Makran, subdued Mashkey in 672 AD,[22]
Munzir b. Jarood Al Abadi managed to
garrison Kikan and conquer Buqan by 681
AD, while Ibn Harri Al Bahili, conducted
several campaigns to secure the Arab hold
on Kikan, Makran and Buqan by 683
AD.[23][24] Zunbil saw off Arab campaigns
in 668, 672 and 673 AD by paying tribute,
although Arabs occupied the areas south
of Helmand in 673 AD permanently[21][25]
Zunbil defeated Yazid b. Salm's army in
681 AD at Junzah, and Arabs had to pay
500,000 dirhams to ransom their
prisoners,[26] but the Arabs defeated and
killed Zunbil in Sistan in 685. The Arabs
were defeated in Zabul in next invaded
Zabul in 693 AD.[27]

Al Hajjaj and the East

Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf Al Thaqifi, who had
played a crucial role during the Second
Fitna for the Umayyad cause, was
appointed the governor of Iraq in 694 AD,
further extended to Khurasan and Sistan in
697 AD. Al-Hajjaj also sponsored Muslim
expansion in Makran, Sistan, Transoxiana
and Sindh.[28][29]

Campaigns in Makran and

Zabul

Arab hold on Makran had weakened when

Arab rebels seized the province, and Hajjaj
had to send three governors between 694 -
707 AD before Makran was partially
recovered by 694 AD.[18] Al Hajjaj also
fought Zunbil in 698 AD and 700 AD. The
20,000 strong army led by Ubaidullah ibn
Abu Bakra was trapped by the armies of
Zunbil and Turki Shah near Kabul, and lost
15,000 men to thirst and hunger, earning
this force the epithet of the "Doomed
Army".[30][31] Abd al-Rahman ibn
Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath led 20,000
troops each from Kufa and Basra[32] in a
cautions but successful campaign in 700
AD, but when he wanted to stop during
winter, Al-Hajjaj's insulting rebuke[33] led to
mutiny.[34] The mutiny put down by 704 Ad,
and Al-Hajjaj granted a 7-year truce to
Zunbil

Umayyad expansion in Sindh

Muhammad bin Qasim's Campaigns in Sindh. A
generic representation, not to exact scale.

Raja Dahir of Sindh had refused to return

Arab rebels from Sindh[2][35] and
furthermore, Meds and others.[36] Meds
shipping from their bases at Kutch, Debal
and Kathiawar.[36] in one of their raids had
kidnapped Muslim women travelling from
Sri Lanka to Arabia, thus providing a casus
belli[36][37] against Sindh Raja Dahir[38]
when Raja Dahir expressed his inability to
help retrieve the prisoners. After two
expeditions were defeated in
Sindh[39][40][40] Al Hajjaj equipped an army
built around 6,000 Syrian cavalry and
detachments of mawali from Iraq,[41] six
thousand camel riders, and a baggage
train of 3,000 camels under his Nephew
Muhammad bin Qasim to Sindh. His
Artillery of five catapults were sent to
Debal by sea[41] ("manjaniks").

Conquest of Sindh
Muhammad bin Qasim departed from
Shiraz in 710 CE, the army marched along
the coast to Tiaz in Makran, then to the
Kech valley. Muhammad re-subdued the
restive towns of Fannazbur and Armabil,
(Lasbela)[42] finally completing the
conquest of Makran then the army met up
with the reinforcements and catapults
sent by sea near Debal and took Debal
through assault.[41] From Debal the Arabs
moved north along the Indus, clearing the
region up to Budha, some towns like Nerun
and Sadusan (Sehwan) surrendered
peacefully[41] while tribes inhabiting Sisam
were defeated in battle. Muhammad bin
Qasim moved back to Nerun to resupply
and receive reinforcements sent by
Hajjaj.[41] The Arabs crossed the Indus
further South and defeated the army of
Dahir, who was killed.[43][44] The Arabs then
marched north along the east bank of the
Indus after the siege and capture of Rawer.
Brahmanabad, then Alor (Aror) and finally
Multan, were captured alongside other in-
between towns with only light Muslim
casualties.[41] Arabs marched up to the
foothills of Kashmir along the Jhelum in
713 AD,[45] and the stormed on Al-Kiraj
(probably the Kangra valley)[46]
Muhammad was deposed after the death
of Caliph Walid in 715 AD. Jai Singh, son
of Dahir captured Brahmanabad and Arab
rule was restricted to the Western shore of
Indus.[47] Sindh was briefly lost to the
caliph when the rebel Yazid b. Muhallab
took over Sindh briefly in 720 AD.[48][49]

Last Umayyad campaigns in

Al Hind

Early Arab conquest of what is now Pakistan by

Muhammad bin Qasim for Umayyad caliphate rule c.
711 CE.
Junaid b. Abd Al Rahman Al Marri became
the governor of Sindh in 723 AD. Secured
Debal, then defeat and killed Jai
Singh[48][50] secured Sindh and Southern
Punjaband stormed Al Kiraj (Kangra valley)
in 724 AD.[46][51] Junaid next attacked a
number of Hindu kingdoms in what is now
Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh
aiming at permanent conquest, but the
chronology and area of operation of the
campaigns during 725 - 743 AD is difficult
to follow because accurate, complete
information is lacking.[46] The Arabs
moved east from Sindh in several
detachments[1] and probably from
attacked from both the land and the sea,
occupying Mirmad (Marumada, in
Jaisalmer), Al-Mandal (perhaps
Okhamandal in Gujarat) or Marwar,[52] and
Dahnaj, not identified, al-Baylaman
(Bhilmal) and Jurz (Gurjara country—north
Gujarat and southern Rajasthan).[53] and
attacking Barwas (Broach), sacking
Vallabhi.[54] Gurjara king Siluka[55] repelled
Arabs from "Stravani and Valla", probably
the area North of Jaisalmer and Jodhpur,
and the invasion of Malwa but were
ultimately defeated by Bappa Rawal and
Nagabhata I in 725 AD near Ujjain.[56]
Arabs lost control over the newly
conquered territories and Sindh due to
Arab tribal infighting and Arab soldiers
deserting the newly conquered territory[57]
during in 731 AD.

Al Hakam b. Awana Al Kalbi recovered

Sindh, and in c733 AD, founded the
garrison city of Al Mahfuza ("The Well
Guarded") similar to Kufa, Basra and Wasit,
on the eastern side of a lake near
Brahmanabad.[46] Hakam next attempted
to reclaim the conquests of Junaid in Al
Hind. Arab records merely state that he
was successful, Indian records at
Navasari[58] details that Arab forces
defeated "Kacchella, Saindhava,
Saurashtra, Cavotaka, Maurya and Gurjara"
kings. The city of Al Mansura ("The
Victorious") was founded near Al Mahfuza
to commemorate pacification of Sindh by
Amr b. Muhammad in c738 AD.[46] Al
Hakam next invaded the Deccan in 739 AD
with the intention of permanent conquest,
but was decisively defeated at Navsari by
the viceroy Avanijanashraya Pulakeshin of
the Chalukya Empire serving Vikramaditya
II. Arab rule was restricted to the west of
Thar desert.

Last days of Caliphate control

When the Abbasid Revolution overthrew
the Umayyads in 750 AD after the Third
Fitna, Sindh became independent and was
captured by Musa b. K'ab al Tamimi in 752
AD.[59] Zunbil had defeated the Arabs in
728 AD, and saw off two Abbasid
invasions in 769 and 785 AD. Abbasids
attacked Kabul several times and collected
tribute between 787 Ad - 815 Ad and
extracted tribute after each campaign.
Abbasid Governor of Sindh, Hisham (7in
office 768 - 773 AD) raided Kashmir,
recaptured parts of Punjab from Karkota
control,[60] and launched naval raids
against ports of Gujarat in 758 and 770
AD,[61] which like other Abbasid Naval raids
launched of 776 and 779 AD, gained no
territory. Arabs occupied Sindian (Southern
Kutch) in 810 AD, only to lose it in 841
AD.[62] Civil war erupted in Sindh in 842 AD,
and the Habbari dynasty occupied
Mansurah, and by 871, five independent
principalities emerged, with the Banu
Habbari clan controlling in Mansurah,
Banu Munabbih occupying Multan, Banu
Madan ruling in Makran, with Makshey and
Turan falling to other rulers, all outside
direct Caliphate control.[63] Ismaili
missionaries found a receptive audience
among both the Sunni and non-Muslim
populations in Multan, which became a
center of the Ismaili sect of Islam. The
Saffarid Dynasty of Zaranj occupied Kabul
and the kingdom of Zunbil permanently in
871 AD. A new chapter of Muslim
conquests began when the Samanid
Dynasty took over the Saffarid Kingdom
and Sabuktigin seized Ghazni.

Later Muslim invasions

Muslim incursions resumed under later
Turkic and Central Asian Mongol dynasties
with more local capitals, who supplanted
the Caliphate and expanded their domains
both northwards and eastwards and led to
the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate.

Ghaznavid Period
Tomb of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni in 1848.

Under Sabuktigin, Ghazni found itself in

conflict with the Shahi Raja Jayapala.
When Sabuktigin died and his son
Mahmud ascended the throne in 998,
Ghazni was engaged in the North with the
Qarakhanids when the Shahi Raja renewed
hostilities.

In the early 11th century, Mahmud of

Ghazni launched seventeen expeditions
into South Asia. In 1001, Sultan Mahmud
of Ghazni defeated Raja Jayapala of the
Hindu Shahi Dynasty of Gandhara (in
modern Afghanistan), the Battle of
Peshawar and marched further into
Peshawar (in modern Pakistan) and, in
1005, made it the center for his forces.

The Ghaznavid conquests were initially

directed against the Ismaili Fatimids of
Multan, who were engaged in an ongoing
struggle with the Abbasid Caliphate in
conjunction with their compatriots of the
Fatimid Caliphate in North Africa and the
Middle East; Mahmud apparently hoped to
curry the favor of the Abbasids in this
fashion. However, once this aim was
accomplished, he moved onto the richness
of the loot of wealthy temples and
monasteries. By 1027, Mahmud had
captured parts of North India and obtained
formal recognition of Ghazni's sovereignty
from the Abbassid Caliph, al-Qadir Billah.

Ghaznavid rule in Northwestern India

(modern Afghanistan and Pakistan) lasted
over 175 years, from 1010 to 1187. It was
during this period that Lahore assumed
considerable importance apart from being
the second capital, and later the only
capital, of the Ghaznavid Empire.
At 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 Punjab. 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 Indian
dynasties. In 1030, Mahmud fell gravely ill
and died at age 59. As with the invaders of
three centuries ago, Mahmud's armies
looted temples in Varanasi, Mathura,
Ujjain, Maheshwar, Jwalamukhi, Somnath
and Dwarka.
Mu'izz al-Din

Map of the Ghurid dynasty at its greatest extent under

Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad.

Mu'izz al-Din better known as Shahāb-ud-

Din Muhammad Ghori was a 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 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
Ghaznavids, and in 1173 Muhammad Bin
Sām was made governor of Ghazni. He
raided eastwards into the remaining
Ghaznavid territory, and invaded Gujarat in
the 1180s but was defeated by the Indian
queen Naikidevi of Gujarat.[64][65] In 1186
and 1187 he conquered Lahore in alliance
with a local Hindu ruler, ending the
Ghaznavid empire and bringing the last of
Ghaznavid territory under his control, and
seemed to be the first Muslim ruler
seriously interested in expanding his
domain in the sub-continent, and like his
predecessor Mahmud initially started off
against the Ismaili kingdom of Multan that
had regained independence during the
Nizari conflicts, and then onto booty and
power.

In 1191, he invaded the territory of

Prithviraj III of Ajmer, who ruled much of
present-day Rajasthan and Punjab, but
was defeated at the First battle of
Tarain.[66] The following year, Mu'izz al-Din
assembled 120,000 horsemen and once
again invaded India. Mu'izz al-Din's army
met Prithviraj's army again at Tarain, and
this time Mu'izz al-Din won; Govindraj was
slain, Prithviraj executed[67] and Mu'izz al-
Din advanced onto Delhi. Within a year,
Mu'izz al-Din controlled Northern
Rajasthan and Northern Ganges-Yamuna
Doab. After these victories in India, and
Mu'izz al-Din's establishment of a capital
in Delhi, Multan was also incorporated into
his empire. Mu'izz al-Din then returned
east to Ghazni to deal with the threat on
his eastern frontiers from the Turks and
Mongols, whiles his armies continued to
advance through Northern India, raiding as
far east as Bengal.

Mu'izz al-Din returned to Lahore after

1200. In 1206, Mu'izz al-Din had to travel to
Lahore to crush a revolt. On his way back
to Ghazni, his caravan rested at Damik
near Sohawa (which is near the city of
Jhelum in the Punjab province of modern-
day Pakistan). He was assassinated on 15
March 1206, while offering his evening
prayers. The identity of Ghori's assassins
is disputed, with some claiming that he
was assassinated by local Hindu Gakhars
and others claiming he was assassinated
by Hindu Khokhars, both being different
tribes.

The Khokhars were killed in

large numbers, and the province
was pacified. After settling the
affairs in the Punjab. Mu'izz al-
 Din marched back to Ghazni.
While camping at Dhamayak in
1206 AD in the Jehlum district,
the sultan was murdered by the
Khokhars[68]

Some claim that Mu'izz al-Din was

assassinated by the Hashshashin, a
radical Ismaili Muslim sect.[69][70]

According to his wishes, Mu'izz al-Din was

buried where he fell, in Damik. Upon his
death his most capable general, Qutb-ud-
din Aybak, took control of Mu'izz al-Din's
Indian conquests and declared himself the
first Sultan of Delhi.

The Delhi Sultanate

Delhi Sultanate reached its zenith under the Turko-

Indian Tughlaq dynasty.[71]
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
the empire. Mamluk means "slave" and
referred to the Turkic slave soldiers who
became rulers. 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 (1206–
1290), the Khalji (1290–1320), the Tughlaq
(1320–1414), the Sayyid (1414–51), and
the Lodhi (1451–1526). During the time of
Delhi Sultanate, the Vijayanagara Empire
resisted successfully attempts of Delhi
Sultanate to establish dominion in the
Southern India, serving as a barrier against
invasion by the Muslims.[72] Certain
kingdoms remained independent of Delhi
such as the larger kingdoms of Punjab,
Rajasthan, parts of the Deccan, Gujarat,
Malwa (central India), and Bengal,
nevertheless all of the area in present-day
Pakistan came under the rule of Delhi.
The image, in the chapter on India in Hutchison's Story
of the Nations edited by James Meston, depicts the
Bakhtiyar Khilji's massacre of Buddhist monks in Bihar,
India. Khilji destroyed the Nalanda and Vikramshila

universities during his raids across North Indian plains,

massacring many Buddhist and Brahmin scholars.[73]

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 (poll tax). They
ruled from urban centres, while military
camps and trading posts provided the
nuclei for towns that sprang up in the
countryside.

Perhaps the most significant 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
capture of Afghanistan and western
Pakistan by the Mongols (see the
Ilkhanate Dynasty). Under the Sultanate,
"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 Delhi Sultanate period as a result of
the mingling of Sanskritic Hindi and the
Persian, Turkish, Arabic favoured by the
Muslim invaders of India.

The Sultanate suffered significantly from

the sacking of Delhi in 1398 by Timur, but
revived briefly under the Lodi Dynasty, the
final dynasty of the Sultanate before it was
conquered by Zahiruddin Babur in 1526,
who subsequently founded the Mughal
Dynasty that ruled from the 16th to the
18th centuries.

Timur

Tīmūr bin Taraghay Barlas, known in the

West as Tamerlane or "Timur the lame",
was a 14th-century warlord of Turco-
Mongol descent,[74][75][76][77] conqueror of
much of western and central Asia, and
founder of the Timurid Empire (1370–
1507) in Central Asia; the Timurid dynasty
survived until 1857 as the Mughal dynasty
of India.
Timur defeats the Sultan of Delhi, Nasir-u Din Mehmud,
in the winter of 1397–1398

Informed about civil war in South Asia,

Timur began a trek starting in 1398 to
invade the reigning Sultan Nasir-u Din
Mehmud of the Tughlaq Dynasty in the
north Indian city of Delhi.[78] His campaign
was politically pretexted that the Muslim
Delhi Sultanate was too tolerant toward its
"Hindu" subjects, but that could not mask
the real reason being to amass the wealth
of the Delhi Sultanate.[79]

Timur crossed the Indus River at Attock

(now Pakistan) on 24 September. In
Haryana, his soldiers each killed 50 to 100
Hindus.[80]

Timur's invasion did not go unopposed

and he did meet some resistance during
his march to Delhi, most notably with the
Sarv Khap coalition in northern India, and
the Governor of Meerut. Although
impressed and momentarily stalled by the
valour of Ilyaas Awan, Timur was able to
continue his relentless approach to Delhi,
arriving in 1398 to combat the armies of
Sultan Mehmud, already weakened by an
internal battle for ascension within the
royal family.

The Sultan's army was easily defeated on

17 December 1398. Timur entered Delhi
and the city was sacked, destroyed, and
left in ruins. Before the battle for Delhi,
Timur executed more than 100,000
"Hindu" captives.[74][78]

Timur himself recorded the invasions in

his memoirs, collectively known as Tuzk-i-
Timuri.[74][74][78][81][82] Timur's purported
autobiography, the Tuzk-e-Taimuri
("Memoirs of Temur") is a later fabrication,
although most of the historical facts are
accurate.[83]

Muslim historian Irfan Habib writes in

"Timur in the Political Tradition and
Historiography of Mughal India" that in the
14th century, the word "Hindu" (people of
"Al-Hind", "Hind" being "India") included
"both Hindus and Muslims" in religious
connotations.[84]

When Timur entered Delhi after

defeating Mahmud Toghloq's
forces, he granted an amnesty in
return for protection money
(mâl-e amâni). But on the fourth
day he ordered that all the
people of the city be enslaved;
and so they were. Thus reports
Yahya, who here inserts a pious
prayer in Arabic for the victims’
consolation ("To God we return,
and everything happens by His
will"). Yazdi, on the other hand,
does not have any sympathy to
waste on these wretches. He
records that Timur had granted
protection to the people of Delhi
on the 18th of December 1398,
and the collectors had begun
collecting the protection money.
But large groups of Timur's
soldiers began to enter the city
and, like birds of prey, attacked
its citizens. The "pagan Hindus"
(Henduân-e gabr) having had
the temerity to begin
immolating their women and
themselves, the three cities of
Delhi were put to sack by
Timur's soldiers. "Faithless
Hindus", he adds, had gathered
 in the Congregation Mosque of
Old Delhi and Timur's officers
put them ruthlessly to slaughter
there on the 29th of December.
Clearly, Yazdi's "Hindus"
included Muslims as well.[85]

However, that does not prove that the men

gathering at the mosque were Muslims as
it could have been Hindus who gathered at
the Mosque for protection.

The statement implying that Muslims were

targeted during the Dehli massacre was
contradicted by Timur's own words, during
the 15 day massacre of Dehli, Timur
himself stated that "Excepting the quarters
of the sayyids, the 'ulama and the other
Musalmans (Muslims), the whole city was
sacked", proving that Timur differentiated
between the two religious groups
(Muslims and Hindus).[86]

During the mass murder of Delhi, Timur's

soldiers massacred more than 150,000
Indians, and all inhabitants not killed were
captured and enslaved.[87]

Timur's memoirs on his invasion of India

describe in detail the massacre of
"Hindus", looting plundering and raping of
their women and the plunder of the wealth
of Hindustan (Greater India). It gives
details of how villages, towns and entire
cities were rid of their "Hindu" male
population through systematic mass
slaughters and genocide.

Timur left Delhi in approximately January

1399. In April he had returned to his own
capital beyond the Oxus (Amu Darya).
Immense quantities of spoils were taken
from India. According to Ruy Gonzáles de
Clavijo, 90 captured elephants were
employed merely to carry precious stones
looted from his conquest, so as to erect a
mosque at Samarkand — what historians
today believe is the enormous Bibi-
Khanym Mosque. Ironically, the mosque
was constructed too quickly and suffered
greatly from disrepair within a few
decades of its construction.

Regional sultanates

Kashmir was conquered by the Shah Mir

dynasty in the 14th century. Regional
kingdoms such as Bengal, Gujarat, Malwa,
Khandesh, Jaunpur, and Bahmanis
expanded at the expense of the Delhi
Sultanate.

The Mughal Empire

India in the 16th century presented a
fragmented picture of rulers who lacked
concern for their subjects and 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
Muslim 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.
The Mughal Emperor Akbar shoots the
Rajput warrior Jaimal during the Siege of
Chittorgarh in 1567.

Bullocks dragging siege-guns up hill during

Mughal Emperor Akbar's attack on
Ranthambhor Fort in 1568.
The Mughal Army commanded by Akbar
attack members of the Sannyasa during
the Battle of Thanesar.
Mughal Emperor Akbar attempts to
dissuade the young Hindu girl from
committing sati[88]
The Mughal Emperor Akbar fights
Pehlwani with his Hindu general Raja Man
Singh I.

Rajput women commit Jauhar during

Akbar's invasion.
 A War elephant executing the opponents
of the Mughal Emperor Akbar.

Babur
Babur and the Mughal Army at the Urvah valley in
Gwalior.

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 centralised 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 advocate of
more orthodox Islam.

Aurangzeb
In the year 1690 the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb's
realms spanned from in the west Kabul to Chittagong
in the east; from Leh in the north to Cape Comorin in
the south.[89]

While some rulers were zealous in their

spread of Islam, others were relatively
liberal. Moghul emperor Akbar was
relatively liberal and established a new
religion, Din E Elahi, which included beliefs
from different religions. He abolished the
jizya twice. In contrast, his great-grandson
Aurangazeb was a more religious and
orthodox ruler.

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.

Durrani Empire

Ahmad Shah Durrani and his coalition decisively defeat

the Maratha Confederacy, during the Third Battle of
Panipat and restored the Mughal Empire to Shah Alam
II.[90]

Ahmed Shah Abdali – a Pashtun –

embarked on a conquest in South Asia
starting in 1747.[91] In the short space of
just over a quarter of a century, he forged
one of the largest Muslim empires of the
18th century. The high point of his
conquests was his victory over the
powerful Marathas in the third Battle of
Panipat 1761. In the Indian subcontinent,
his empire stretched from the Indus at
Attock all the way to the outskirts of Delhi.
Uninterested in long-term of conquest or in
replacing the Mughal Empire, he became
increasingly pre occupied with revolts by
the Sikhs.[92] Sikh holocaust of 1762 took
place under the Muslim provincial
government based at Lahore to wipe out
the Sikhs, with 30,000 Sikhs being killed,
an offensive that had begun with the
Mughals, with the Sikh holocaust of
1746,[93] and lasted several decades under
its Muslim successor states. His empire
started to unravel not long after his death.

Decline of Muslim rule in

Indian subcontinent
Maratha Empire
Maratha Empire at its zenith in 1760 (yellow area)
stretching from the Deccan to present-day Pakistan.
The Marathas even discussed abolishing the Mughal
throne and placing Vishwasrao Peshwa on the Mughal
imperial throne in Delhi.[94]

There is no doubt that the single most

important power to emerge in the long
twilight of the Mughal dynasty was the
Maratha Confederacy (1674 CE - 1818
CE).[95] The Marathas are responsible, to a
large extent, for ending Mughal rule in
India.[96] The Maratha Empire ruled large
parts of India following the decline of the
Mughals. The long and futile war
bankrupted one of the most powerful
empires in the world. Mountstart
Elphinstone termed this a demoralizing
period for the Muslims as many of them
lost the will to fight against the Maratha
Empire.[97][98][99] Maratha empire at its
peak stretched from Tamil Nadu
(Trichinopoly) "present Tiruchirappalli" in
the south to the Afghan border in the
north.[100][101][102] In early 1771, Mahadji, a
notable Maratha general, recaptured Delhi
and installed Shah Alam II as the puppet
ruler on the Mughal throne. In north India,
the Marathas thus regained the territory
and the prestige lost as result of the
defeat at Panipath in 1761.[103] However
regions of Kashmir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
and Western Punjab, were captured by
Marathas between 1758 and 1759,
remained in Afghan rule before ascension
of Sikh power.[104] Mahadji ruled the
Punjab as it used to be a Mughal territory
and Sikh sardars and other Rajas of the
cis-Sutlej region paid tributes to him.[105] A
considerable portion of the Indian
subcontinent came under the sway of the
British Empire after the Third Anglo-
Maratha War, which ended the Maratha
Empire in 1818.

Sikh Empire
Sikh Empire, established by Ranjit Singh in North-west
India.

In northwest India, in the Punjab, Sikhs

developed themselves into a powerful
force under the authority of twelve Misls.
By 1801, Ranjit Singh captured Lahore and
threw off the Afghan yoke from North
West India.[106] In Afghanistan Zaman
Shah Durrani was defeated by powerful
Barakzai chief Fateh Khan who appointed
Mahmud Shah Durrani as the new ruler of
Afghanistan and appointed himself as
Wazir of Afghanistan.[107] Sikhs however
were now superior to the Afghans and
started to annex Afghan provinces. The
biggest victory of the Sikh Empire over the
Durrani Empire came in the Battle of
Attock fought in 1813 between Sikh and
Wazir of Afghanistan Fateh Khan and his
younger brother Dost Mohammad Khan.
The Afghans were routed by the Sikh army
and the Afghans lost over 9,000 soldiers in
this battle. Dost Mohammad was seriously
injured whereas his brother Wazir Fateh
Khan fled back to Kabul fearing that his
brother was dead.[108] In 1818 they
slaughtered Afghans and Muslims in
trading city of Multan killing Afghan
governor Nawab Muzzafar Khan and five
of his sons in the Siege of Multan.[109] In
1819 the last Indian Province of Kashmir
was conquered by Sikhs who registered
another crushing victory over weak Afghan
General Jabbar Khan.[110] The Koh-i-Noor
diamond was also taken by Maharaja
Ranjit Singh in 1814. In 1823 a Sikh Army
routed Dost Mohammad Khan the Sultan
of Afghanistan and his brother Azim Khan
at Naushera (Near Peshawar). By 1834 the
Sikh Empire extended up to the Khyber
Pass. Hari Singh Nalwa the Sikh general
remained the governor of Khyber Agency
till his death in 1837. He consolidated Sikh
hold in tribal provinces. The northernmost
Indian territories of Gilgit, Baltistan and
Ladakh was annexed between 1831-
1840.[111]

Impact on India, Islam and

Muslims in India
Will Durant, a famous historian, wrote
about medieval India, "The Islamic
conquest of India is probably the bloodiest
story in history. It is a discouraging tale, for
its evident moral is that civilization is a
precious good, whose delicate complex of
order and freedom, culture and peace, can
at any moment be overthrown by
barbarians invading from without or
multiplying within."[112]

Conversion theories

Considerable controversy exists both in

scholarly and public opinion as to how
conversion to Islam came about in Indian
subcontinent, typically represented by the
following schools of thought:[113]

1. Conversion was a combination, initially

by violence, threat or other pressure
against the person.[113]
2. As a socio-cultural process of diffusion
and integration over an extended period of
time into the sphere of the dominant
Muslim civilization and global polity at
large.[114]
3. That conversions occurred for non-
religious reasons of pragmatism and
patronage such as social mobility among
the Muslim ruling elite[113][114]
4. That the bulk of Muslims are
descendants of migrants from the Iranian
plateau or Arabs.[114]
5. Conversion was a result of the actions
of Sufi saints and involved a genuine
change of heart.[113]

Hindus who converted to Islam however

were not completely immune to
persecution due to the caste system
among Muslims in India established by
Ziauddin al-Barani in the Fatawa-i
Jahandari,[115] where they were regarded
as an "Ajlaf" caste and subjected to
discrimination by the "Ashraf" castes.[116]
Critics of the "religion of the sword theory"
point to the presence of the strong Muslim
communities found in Southern India,
modern day Bangladesh, Sri Lanka,
western Burma, Indonesia and the
Philippines coupled with the distinctive
lack of equivalent Muslim communities
around the heartland of historical Muslim
empires in South Asia as refutation to the
"conversion by the sword theory".[114] The
legacy of Muslim conquest of South Asia
is a hotly debated issue even today. Not all
Muslim invaders were simply raiders. Later
rulers fought on to win kingdoms and
stayed to create new ruling dynasties. The
practices of these new rulers and their
subsequent heirs (some of whom were
borne of Hindu wives of Muslim rulers)
varied considerably. While some were
uniformly hated, others developed a
popular following. According to the
memoirs of Ibn Battuta who traveled
through Delhi in the 14th century, one of
the previous sultans had been especially
brutal and was deeply hated by Delhi's
population. His memoirs also indicate that
Muslims from the Arab world, Persia and
Turkey were often favored with important
posts at the royal courts suggesting that
locals may have played a somewhat
subordinate role in the Delhi
administration. The term "Turk" was
commonly used to refer to their higher
social status. However S.A.A. Rizvi[117]
points to Muhammad bin Tughlaq as not
only encouraging locals but promoting
artisan groups such as cooks, barbers and
gardeners to high administrative posts. In
his reign, it is likely that conversions to
Islam took place as a means of seeking
greater social mobility and improved
social standing.[118]
Aurangzeb

Aurangzeb's Deccan campaign saw one of

the largest death tolls in South Asian
history, with an estimated 4.6 million
people killed during his reign, Muslims and
Hindus alike.[119] An estimated of 2.5
million of Aurangzeb's army were killed
during the Mughal–Maratha Wars
(100,000 annually during a quarter-
century), while 2 million civilians in war-
torn lands died due to drought, plague and
famine.[120][119]

Expansion of trade
Cheraman Juma Masjid in Kerala

Islam's impact was the most notable in the

expansion of trade. The first contact of
Muslims with India was the Arab attack on
a nest of pirates near modern-day Mumbai
to safeguard their trade in the Arabian Sea.
Around the same time many Arabs settled
at Indian ports, giving rise to small Muslim
communities. The growth of these
communities was not only due to
conversion but also the fact that many
Hindu kings of south India (such as those
from Cholas) hired Muslims as
mercenaries.[121]

A significant aspect of the Muslim period

in world history was the emergence of
Islamic Sharia courts capable of imposing
a common commercial and legal system
that extended from Morocco in the West to
Mongolia in the North East and Indonesia
in the South East. While southern India
was already in trade with Arabs/Muslims,
northern India found new opportunities. As
the Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms of Asia
were subjugated by Islam, and as Islam
spread through Africa – it became a highly
centralising force that facilitated in the
creation of a common legal system that
allowed letters of credit issued in say
Egypt or Tunisia to be honoured in India or
Indonesia (The Sharia has laws on the
transaction of business with both Muslims
and non-Muslims). In order to cement their
rule, Muslim rulers initially promoted a
system in which there was a revolving
door between the clergy, the administrative
nobility and the mercantile classes. The
travels of explorer Muhammad Ibn-
Abdullah Ibn-Batuta were eased because
of this system. He served as an Imam in
Delhi, as a judicial official in the Maldives,
and as an envoy and trader in the Malabar.
There was never a contradiction in any of
his positions because each of these roles
complemented the other. Islam created a
compact under which political power, law
and religion became fused in a manner so
as to safeguard the interests of the
mercantile class. This led world trade to
expand to the maximum extent possible in
the medieval world. Sher Shah Suri took
initiatives in improvement of trade by
abolishing all taxes which hindered
progress of free trade. He built large
networks of roads and constructed Grand
Trunk Road (1540–1544), which connects
Chittagong to Kabul. Parts of it are still in
use today. The geographic regions add to
the diversity of languages and politics.

Cultural influence

The divide and rule policies, two-nation

theory, and subsequent partition of India in
the wake of Independence from the British
Empire has polarised the sub-continental
psyche, making objective assessment
hard in comparison to the other settled
agricultural societies of India from the
North West. Muslim rule differed from
these others in the level of assimilation
and syncretism that occurred. They
retained their identity and introduced legal
and administrative systems that
superseded existing systems of social
conduct and ethics. While this was a
source of friction it resulted in a unique
experience the legacy of which is a
Muslim community strongly Islamic in
character while at the same time
distinctive and unique among its peers.

The impact of Islam on Indian culture has

been inestimable. It permanently
influenced the development of all areas of
human endeavour – language, dress,
cuisine, all the art forms, architecture and
urban design, and social customs and
values. Conversely, the languages of the
Muslim invaders were modified by contact
with local languages, to Urdu, which uses
the Arabic script. This language was also
known as Hindustani, an umbrella term
used for the vernacular terminology of
Hindi as well as Urdu, both major
languages in South Asia today derived
primarily from Sanskrit grammatical
structures and vocabulary.

Muslim rule saw a greater urbanisation of

India and the rise of many cities and their
urban cultures. The biggest impact was
upon trade resulting from a common
commercial and legal system extending
from Morocco to Indonesia. This change
of emphasis on mercantilism and trade
from the more strongly centralised
governance systems further clashed with
the agricultural based traditional economy
and also provided fuel for social and
political tensions.

A related development to the shifting

economic conditions was the
establishment of Karkhanas, or small
factories and the import and
dissemination of technology through India
and the rest of the world. The use of
ceramic tiles was adopted from
architectural traditions of Iraq, Iran, and
Central Asia. Rajasthan's blue pottery was
a local variation of imported Chinese
pottery. There is also the example of
Sultan Abidin (1420–70) sending Kashmiri
artisans to Samarqand to learn book-
binding and paper making. Khurja and
Siwan became renowned for pottery,
Moradabad for brass ware, Mirzapur for
carpets, Firozabad for glass wares,
Farrukhabad for printing, Sahranpur and
Nagina for wood-carving, Bidar and
Lucknow for bidriware, Srinagar for papier-
mache, Benaras for jewellery and textiles,
and so on. On the flip-side encouraging
such growth also resulted in higher taxes
on the peasantry.
Numerous Indian scientific and
mathematical advances and the Hindu
numerals were spread to the rest of the
world[4] and much of the scholarly work
and advances in the sciences of the age
under Muslim nations across the globe
were imported by the liberal patronage of
Arts and Sciences by the rulers. 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 Jama Masjid. At the
same time, Muslim rulers destroyed most
of the ancient Indian architectural marvels
and converted them into Islamic
structures, most notably at Varanasi,
Mathura, Ayodhya and the Kutub Complex
in New Delhi.

Iconoclasm
Iconoclasm under the Delhi
Sultanate

Iconoclasm under the Delhi Sultanate

Kakatiya Kala Thoranam (Warangal Gate) built by the
Kakatiya dynasty in ruins; one of the many temple
complexes destroyed by the Delhi Sultanate.[122]

Artistic rendition of the Kirtistambh at Rudra Mahalaya

Temple. The temple was destroyed by Alauddin Khalji.
 Rani ki vav is a stepwell, built by the Chaulukya
dynasty, located in Patan; the city was sacked by
Sultan of Delhi Qutb-ud-din Aybak between 1200 and
1210, and it was destroyed by the Allauddin Khilji in
1298.[122]

Pillar and ceiling carvings with a damaged madanakai

at Hoysaleswara Temple. The temple was twice
sacked and plundered by the Delhi Sultanate.[123]

Historian Richard Eaton has tabulated a

campaign of destruction of idols and
temples by Delhi Sultans, intermixed with
instances of years where the temples were
protected from desecration.[122][124][125] In
his paper, he has listed 37 instances of
Hindu temples being desecrated or
destroyed in India during the Delhi
Sultanate, from 1234 to 1518, for which
reasonable evidences are
available.[126][127][128] He notes that this
was not unusual in medieval India, as
there were numerous recorded instances
of temple desecration by Hindu and
Buddhist kings against rival Indian
kingdoms between 642 and 1520,
involving conflict between devotees of
different Hindu deities, as well as between
Hindus, Buddhists and Jains.[129][130][131]
He also noted there were also many
instances of Delhi sultans, who often had
Hindu ministers, ordering the protection,
maintenance and repairing of temples,
according to both Muslim and Hindu
sources. For example, a Sanskrit
inscription notes that Sultan Muhammad
bin Tughluq repaired a Siva temple in Bidar
after his Deccan conquest. There was
often a pattern of Delhi sultans plundering
or damaging temples during conquest, and
then patronizing or repairing temples after
conquest. This pattern came to an end
with the Mughal Empire, where Akbar the
Great's chief minister Abu'l-Fazl criticized
the excesses of earlier sultans such as
Mahmud of Ghazni.[126]
In many cases, the demolished remains,
rocks and broken statue pieces of temples
destroyed by Delhi sultans were reused to
build mosques and other buildings. For
example, the Qutb complex in Delhi was
built from stones of 27 demolished Hindu
and Jain temples by some accounts.[132]
Similarly, the Muslim mosque in Khanapur,
Maharashtra was built from the looted
parts and demolished remains of Hindu
temples.[133] Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar
Khalji destroyed Buddhist and Hindu
libraries and their manuscripts at Nalanda
and Odantapuri Universities in 1193 AD at
the beginning of the Delhi
Sultanate.[134][135]
The first historical record of a campaign of
destruction of temples and defacement of
faces or heads of Hindu idols lasted from
1193 through the early 13th century in
Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar
Pradesh under the command of Ghuri.
Under the Khaljis, the campaign of temple
desecration expanded to Bihar, Madhya
Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra, and
continued through the late 13th
century.[122] The campaign extended to
Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka
and Tamil Nadu under Malik Kafur and
Ulugh Khan in the 14th century, and by the
Bahmanis in 15th century.[134] Orissa
temples were destroyed in the 14th
century under the Tughlaqs.

Beyond destruction and desecration, the

sultans of the Delhi Sultanate in some
cases had forbidden reconstruction of
damaged Hindu, Jain and Buddhist
temples, and they prohibited repairs of old
temples or construction of any new
temples.[136][137] In certain cases, the
Sultanate would grant a permit for repairs
and construction of temples if the patron
or religious community paid jizya (fee, tax).
For example, a proposal by the Chinese to
repair Himalayan Buddhist temples
destroyed by the Sultanate army was
refused, on the grounds that such temple
repairs were only allowed if the Chinese
agreed to pay jizya tax to the treasury of
the Sultanate.[138][139] In his memoirs, Firoz
Shah Tughlaq describes how he destroyed
temples and built mosques instead and
killed those who dared build new
temples.[140] Other historical records from
wazirs, amirs and the court historians of
various Sultans of the Delhi Sultanate
describe the grandeur of idols and temples
they witnessed in their campaigns and
how these were destroyed and
desecrated.[141]

Nalanda
In 1193, the Nalanda University complex
was destroyed by Afghan Khalji-Ghilzai
Muslims under Bakhtiyar Khalji; this event
is seen as the final milestone in the
decline of Buddhism in India. He also
burned Nalanda's major Buddhist library
and Vikramshila University,[142] as well as
numerous Buddhist monasteries in India.
When the Tibetan translator, Chag
Lotsawa Dharmasvamin (Chag Lo-tsa-ba,
1197–1264), visited northern India in
1235, Nalanda was damaged, looted, and
largely deserted, but still standing and
functioning with seventy students.
Mahabodhi, Sompura, Vajrasan and other
important monasteries were found to be
untouched. The Ghuri ravages only
afflicted those monasteries that lay in the
direct of their advance and were fortified in
the manner of defensive forts.

By the end of the 12th century, following

the Muslim conquest of the Buddhist
stronghold in Bihar, Buddhism, having
already declined in the South, declined in
the North as well because survivors
retreated to Nepal, Sikkim and Tibet or
escaped to the South of the Indian sub-
continent.
Martand

Ruins of the Surya Temple at Martand, which was

destroyed due the iconoclastic policies of Sikandar
Butshikan, photo taken by John Burke in 1868.

The Martand Sun Temple was built by the

third ruler of the Karkota Dynasty,
Lalitaditya Muktapida, in the 8th century
CE.[143] The temple was completely
destroyed on the orders of the Muslim
ruler Sikandar Butshikan in the early 15th
century, with demolition lasting a year. He
ruled from 1389 to 1413 and is
remembered for his strenuous efforts to
convert the Hindus of Kashmir to Islam.
These efforts included the destruction of
numerous old temples, such as Martand,
prohibition of Hindu rites, rituals and
festivals and even the wearing of clothes
in the Hindu style. He is known as "Butcher
of Kashmir" and among the most hated
figures among Kashmiri Hindus.[144]

Vijayanagar

The city flourished between the 14th

century and 16th century, during the height
of the Vijayanagar Empire. During this
time, it was often in conflict with the
kingdoms which rose in the Northern
Deccan, and which are often collectively
termed the Deccan Sultanates. The
Vijaynagar Empire successfully resisted
Muslim invasions for centuries. But 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 razed, depopulated and
destroyed the city over several months.
The empire continued its slow decline, but
the original capital was not reoccupied or
rebuilt.
Somnath

Around 1024 CE, during the reign of Bhima

I, Mahmud of Ghazni raided Gujarat, and
plundered the Somnath temple. According
to an 1169 CE inscription, Bhima rebuilt
the temple. This inscription does not
mention any destruction caused by
Mahmud, and states that the temple had
"decayed due to time".[145] In 1299,
Alauddin Khalji's army under the
leadership of Ulugh Khan defeated
Karandev II of the Vaghela dynasty, and
sacked the Somnath temple.[145] The
temple was rebuilt by Mahipala Deva, the
Chudasama king of Saurashtra in 1308. It
was repeatedly attacked in the later
centuries, including by the Mughal
emperor Aurangzeb.[146] In 1665, the
temple, was once again ordered to be
destroyed by Mughal emperor
Aurangzeb.[147] In 1702, he ordered that if
Hindus had revived worship there, it
should be demolished completely.[148]

Ruins of Nalanda University

Sri Krishna Temple in Hampi

Somnath temple in ruins, 1869

Front view of the present Somnath Temple

The Somnath temple was first attacked by Muslim

Turkic invader Mahmud of Ghazni and repeatedly
rebuilt after being demolished by successive Muslim
destruction.
Ghazwa-e-Hind
Ghazwa-e-Hind or the final battle of India is
an Islamic term mentioned in some "good"
hadiths in particular[149] predicting a final
and last battle in India and as a result, a
conquest of the whole Indian subcontinent
by Muslim warriors. The term has recently
become a subject of vast criticism in
media for being used by militant groups to
justify their activities in the Indian
subcontinent.[150][151]

See also
Book: Muslim conquests
List of early Hindu Muslim military
conflicts in the Indian subcontinent
Islamic conquest of Afghanistan
List of Pashtun empires and dynasties
Islamic empires in India
Nader Shah's invasion of the Mughal
Empire
Tibetan Expedition of Islamic Bengal
History of Pakistan
History of Bangladesh
Delhi Sultanate
Mughal empire
Mughal era
Iconoclasm
 Persecution of Hindus
Persecution of Buddhists

Notes and references

Notes

1. al-Balādhurī 1924, p. 209: "'Uthmân ibn-

abu-l-'Âși ath-Thaķafi ... sent his brother, al-
Hakam, to al-Bahrain, and went himself to
'Umân, and sent an army across to Tânah.
When the army returned, he wrote to 'Umar,
informing him of this expedition. 'Umar
wrote to him in reply, ' ... By Allah, I swear
that if they had been smitten, I would exact
from thy tribe the equivalent.' Al-Hakam
sent an expedition against Barwaș [Broach]
also, and sent his brother, al-Mughîrah ibn-
abu-l-'Âsi, to the gulf of ad-Daibul, where he
met the enemy in battle and won a victory."
2. Fredunbeg, Mirza Kalichbeg, "The
Chachnama: An Ancient History of Sind",
pp57
3. Sen, Sailendra Nath, "Ancient Indian
History and Civilization 2nd Edition", pp346
4. Khushalani, Gobind, "Chachnama Retold
An Account of the Arab Conquests of
Sindh", pp221
5. Editors: El Harier, Idris, & M'Baye, Ravene,
"Spread of Islam Throughout the World ",
pp594
6. Mehta, Jaswant Lal, "Advanced Study in
The History of Medieval India Vol 1", pp31
7. Wink, Andre, " Al-Hind The Making of the
Indo-Islamic Worlds Vol 1", pp119
8. Wink, Andre, " Al-Hind The Making of the
Indo-Islamic Worlds Vol 1", pp201
9. Crawford, Peter, "The War of the Three
Gods: Romans, Persians and the Rise of
Islam", pp192
10. Shaban M. A., "The Abbasid Revolution
", pp22 - pp23
11. Editor = Daryaee, Touraj, "The Oxford
Handbook of Iranian History", pp215 -
pp216
12. Elliot, Henry, "Historians of India:
Appendix The Arabs in Sind, Vol III, Part 1",
pp9
13. Khushalani, Gobind, "Chachnama Retold
An Account of the Arab Conquests of
Sindh", pp72
14. al-Balādhurī 1924, pp. 141–151
15. Fredunbeg, Mirza Kalichbeg, "The
Chachnama: An Ancient History of Sind",
pp71 - pp79
16. Hoyland, Robert G., "In Gods Path: The
Arab Conquests and Creation of An Islamic
Empire", pp191
17. Wink, Andre, " Al-Hind The Making of the
Indo-Islamic Worlds Vol 2", pp113
18. Wink (2002), pg.129 - pp131
19. Kennedy, Hugh, "The Great Arab
Conquests", pp194 - pp196
20. Dashti, Naseer, "The Baloch and
Balochistan", pp65
21. al-Balādhurī 1924, p. 212
22. Dashti, Naseer, "The Baloch and
Balochistan", pp78
23. Khushalani, Gobind, "Chachnama Retold
An Account of the Arab Conquests of
Sindh", pp76
24. al-Balādhurī 1924, p. 213
25. Wink, Andre, " Al-Hind The Making of the
Indo-Islamic Worlds Vol 1", pp128 - pp129
26. al-Balādhurī 1924, p. 148: "Yazîd ibn-
Ziyâd proceeded against them [the people
of Kabul] and attacked them in Junzah, but
he and many of those with him were killed,
and the rest put to flight ... ransomed abu-
'Ubaidah for 500,000 dirhams."
27. al-Balādhurī 1924, p. 150
28. Hoyland, Robert G., "In Gods Path: The
Arab Conquests and Creation of An Islamic
Empire", pp150
29. Hitti, Philip, "History of The Arabs 10th
Edition", pp209
30. Kennedy, Hugh, "The Great Arab
Conquests", pp196
31. Hoyland, Robert G., "In Gods Path: The
Arab Conquests and Creation of An Islamic
Empire", pp152
32. Kennedy, Hugh, "The Armies of The
Caliph ", pp39
33. Kennedy, Hugh, "The Prophet and The
Age of The Caliphates", pp101
34. Kennedy, Hugh, "The Great Arab
Conquests", pp197 -pp198
35. Editors: El Harier, Idris, & M'Baye,
Ravene, "Spread of Islam Throughout the
World ", pp604 - pp605
36. Wink (2002), pg.164
37. Nicholas F. Gier, FROM MONGOLS TO
MUGHALS: RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE IN INDIA
9TH-18TH CENTURIES, Presented at the
Pacific Northwest Regional Meeting
American Academy of Religion, Gonzaga
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4. Gopal Mandir is devoted to the blue God
Krishna who is the divine herdsman, the
lover of milkmaids and the eighth
embodiment of Lord Vishnu, the preserver
of the Universe. The marble-curled around
structure is a superior example of Maratha
architecture. Lord Krishna's two feet tall
statue is carved in silver and is placed on a
marble-inlaid altar with silver-plated doors.
Mahmud of Ghazni had taken these doors
from the famous Somnath Temple in
Gujarat to Ghazni in Khorasan in 1026 AD.
The Afghan trespasser, Mahmud Shah
Abdali, later took the gates to Lahore, from
where Shrinath Madhavji Shinde today
popularly known as The Great Maratha
Mahadji Scindia reacquired them. The
Scindia ruler later established them in
Gopal Mandir, bringing to a halt the doors’
long journey. Bayajibai Shinde, Maharaja
Daulat Rao Scindia's queen, built the
temple in the 19th century. Its location in
the middle of the market area right in the
heart of the city adds to its popularity.
Mosque and Tomb of the Emperor Soolta
Mahmood of Ghuznee, publisher British
Library

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material from the Library of Congress
Country Studies website
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/ . – India ,
Pakistan

External links
Wikiquote has quotations related to:
Muslim conquests in the Indian
subcontinent

History of Islam in India by Neria Harish

Hebbar (article with several pages)
Library of modern Hindu history – The
Islamic Ages
A Response to Muslim Legacy in India
The Legacy of Jihad in India
Historical Interaction of Buddhism and
Islam (Including an e-book on the
various phases of Muslim Rulers
conquering India)
Story of Pakistan
History of Crafts, Manufacturing and
Trade in South Asia
Resources for the study of the Muslim
Period of India
Retrieved from
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title=Muslim_conquests_in_the_Indian_subcontine
nt&oldid=865218295"

Last edited 8 days ago by Gilliam

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