The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.2

v3.c20.2

THE Arabs never carried the standards of Islam far beyond the Indus, and though the doctrines of the new faith were accepted by many and familiar to all of the inhabitants of Sind, and Muhammadan dynasties were ruling at Mansūra until A.D. 976 and at Multān until a later date, India in general remained untouched by Islam until the beginning of the eleventh century, by which time the faith had lost its political unity and the control of its destinies had passed from the hands of the Arabian successors of Muhammad into those of independent dynasties acknowledging the Caliph at Baghdād merely as a spiritual head.