The Rashtrakutas and their Times c20.42

c20.42

The Muslims on the western coast were using Indian dress and language,(34) but a little enquiry would have shown that they were completely Persianised in Sindh, where they were under the complete sway of Persian costume, language and customs. The political alliance of the Rāṣṭrakūṭas with the Arabs was not solely responsible for this toleration, for it continued under the Cālukyas of Gujarat also. Muḥmud ‘Ufi narrates a story of Rai Jaysing of Aṇahilapaṭṭaṇa, who personally investigated into the complaints of the Muslims of Cambay regarding the damage done to their property and mosques in a riot, punished the Parsi and Hindu ringleaders, and gave a lakh of balotras for the reerection of the mosques.(35) So neither the horrors of the conquest of Sindh nor the vandalism and rapine of the 20 and odd invasions of Mahmud of Ghazni could change the tolerant attitude of the Hindus towards the followers of Islam. Religious retaliation was out of question; Ibn Batuta describes how at the door of the Cathedral mosque in Delhi, enormous idols of brass were kept prostrate on the ground in order to make every visitor tread on them.(36) Hinduism of our period was in a position to inflict similar indignities, both in the south and the north, on the Muslim inhabitants of the Hindu states, but did not resort to such conduct.