The Rashtrakutas and their Times c20.37

c20.37

The spirit of toleration was not confined to the religions of the land, but was extended to Mahomedanism as well. There were several Mahomedans in the western ports come for the purpose of commerce; they were allowed to practise their religion openly. Jumma masjids were permitted to be built for their use.³⁰ This permission to build mosques may be contrasted with the reply given by Mahmad Tughlagh to the request of the Chinese emperor to permit the rebuilding of some Buddhist temples sacked by the Muslims. The Sultan received the valuable gifts brought by the Chinese embassy, but wrote saying that the request could not be granted under the Islamic law as permission to build a temple in the territories of the Muslims could be given only to those who paid the Jizia tax. 'If thou wilt pay the Jizia, we shall empower thee to build a temple.'³¹ Muslim officers were appointed to administer their personal law³² to the Muslim inhabitants. This toleration is indeed surprising when one remembers the brutal treatment of the Hindus by the Muslim conquerors of Sindh, who gave no quarter to the Hindus in the warfare, demolished their temples, imposed the Jizia tax upon them, and enslaved thousands of Hindu women and sold them in the streets of Baghdad.³³ This policy of doing a good turn for an evil one may be indeed admired from the point of view of universal toleration: and but it shows clearly that the Hinduism of our period was too blind or shortsighted to see the danger that was awaiting it from the religion it was tolerating so liberally.