The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c20.34

c20.34

Proselytization seems to have little interested the rulers. They were preoccupied with great problems of security and large scale conversions effected by official force would have resulted in an unwelcome falling off of the revenues. Even in the propagandist writings of the early chroniclers who exultingly describe the great number of "infidels sent to hell and "the purgation of idolatory," not a single reference is found to forced conversions². Ferishta mentions the conversion of the Khokar tribe brought about by Muizzuddin's promise of preferential treatment; but this cannot be substantiated, for the tribe is invariably described by the contemporary writers as "infidels" to even as late as 1246³. Firoz Tughluq stands almost alone in utilising the state's authority for the propagation of orthodox Islam, for the spread of the faith has a different story and did not always receive state co-operation. It is the story of the missionary saints who relied on their own efforts and scorned the king's sanction in presenting Islam to the *zimmi* in its most acceptable form¹. They worked single-handed and against stiff opposition from the Brahmins and other higher classes of the Hindu society; even when they lived in Muslim administered areas they commanded little of the state's sanction. In Narnaul, in the Patiala state, a missionary named Muhammad was murdered by the local Hindus who rose in a body and massacred all the Mussalmans of the place². Of the method of these preachers Amir Hasan's anecdotes relating to Nizamuddin Budauni seems to give us an idea. A Mussulman one day brought a certain Hindu to the saint and introduced him as his brother. On being asked whether the Hindu was inclined towards Islam, the Mussalman replied that he hoped the august look of the saint might have the desired effect on him. Nizamuddin remarked "this people will hardly yield to force or persuasion; only a sympathetic intercourse might incline them to Islam"³.