The Rashtrakutas and their Times c24.6

c24.6

A superficial reader of the Muslim chroniclers is likely to get the impresion that the Rāṣṭrakūṭas were following an anti-national policy by siding with the Muslims and fighting against the Gurjara-Pratihāras. It has been, however, shown already¹ that the statements of these writers, that the Rāṣṭrakūṭas were partial to the Muslims, and that none but the Muslims ruled over the Muslims in their dominions, only show that the Muslim Kazis were allowed to look after the religious and judicial affairs of the foreign colony. The friendly policy followed towards the Muslim traders was, in a great measure, necessitated by the dependence on Arabia for the supply of horses to the army. Merchant Sulaiman, who was acquainted with the state of affairs only in the Deccan, observes that none among the natives of India or China had embraced the Muslim faith or could speak the Arabic language.² It is, therefore, clear that the Muslim traders, settled in the Rāṣṭrakūṭa ports, had initiated no activities injurious to the interest of the Rāṣṭrakūṭas or their subjects. There is no evidence whatsoever to show that the Rāṣṭrakūṭas had made any political alliance with the Muslim rulers of Sindh in their wars with the Gurjara-Pratihāras.