Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c14: VIII. Muslim Population Pre-1000 Position
Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c14
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VIII. Muslim Population Pre-1000 Position
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The difficulties confronted in the demographic survey of medieval India are a little reduced while fixing the proportion of Muslims in the overall population of India between A.D. 1000 and 1800. Although no contemporary account exists to say how Islam spread in India, Muslim chroniclers very graphically describe the achievements of Muslim monarchs, provincial governors, rulers of independent Muslim kingdoms, and even officials, in effecting conversions. Muslim hagiological works, some reliable others not so reliable, too report on addition to Muslim population through conversions. But the actual numbers who embraced Islam year after year and decade after decade are not known. Some Muslims no doubt came from abroad as conquerors and soldiers. Some scholars and religious men also arrived either in the train of conquerors or at the invitation of Indian sultans or as refugees. Arabs, Abyssinians, Egyptians, Persians, Transoxionians and Afghans, all find mention as having come to India to seek refuge or fortune. But the majority of Muslims were converts from Hinduism. One has, therefore, to collect facts and figures contained in stray references of medieval writers, especially Persian chroniclers, from A.D. 1000 to 1800 to make a conversion cum immigration survey to be able to estimate the growth of Muslim population in medieval India.
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A few known facts, however, provide dependable guide lines for reconstructing a fairly satisfactory story of the rise of Muslim numbers. One important fact is that as against the zigzag pattern of rise and fall of the overall population in the medieval period, Muslim population shows only a constant rise. Another is that in spite of centuries of exertion in the field of proselytization, India has been converted only but partially. This proves that in contrast to the quick conversion of some West Asian countries, Islam received a definite check in India. This check provided provocation and enthusiasm to some Muslim conquerors and rulers to take to the task of proselytization with great zeal and earnestness. Their exertions and achievements find repeated mention in official and non-official chronicles and similar other works. Sometimes, besides broad facts, actual data and figures in this regard are also available. All this information is very helpful in estimating Muslim numbers as they grew from almost a cipher.
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By the year 1000 A.D., the extreme north-western parts of India, in the trans-Indus region, had become introduced to Islam. As early as A.D. 664, consequent upon an invasion of Kabul and its environs (which then formed part of India), by Abdur Rahman, a few thousand inhabitants are reported to have been converted to Islam.¹ Subuktagin also fought against the Hindus and converted some of them. But all these events took place in the trans-Indus region, and we may, therefore, agree with Lanepoole in saying that in A.D. 1000 there were no Muslims in northern India east of the Indus.²
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¹ Ferishtah, *op. cit.* (II, n.6). I, p. 16.
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² Stanley Lane-Poole, *Medieval India under Muhammadan Rule* (London, 1926), p. 1.
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However, there were some small settlements of Muslims in Sind, Gujarat and the Malabar Coast. Parts of Sind were conquered by Muhammad bin Qasim Sakifi in A.D. 712. Whichever towns he took, like Alor, Nirun, Debul and Multan, in them he established mosques, appointed Muslim governors, and propagated the Muhammadan religion.³ In Debul, for instance, he enslaved and converted some women and children, and left a contigent of 4,000 Muhammadans to garrison the place.⁴ In Multan about 6,000 persons were made to accept Islam. Al Biladuri's narrative indicates that the people of Sawandari, Basmad, Kiraj, and Alor were converted in large numbers.⁵ The reports of Muhammad bin Qasim Sakifi to Hajjaj also point to large number of conversions.⁶ Caliph Umar wrote to some Indian rulers in A.D. 717 inviting them and their people in Sind and Hind to become Musalmans. It is said that in response to his appeal many people, 'turned Musalmans and took Arab names'.⁷
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³ *Chachnama*, trs. E and D, I, p. 207.
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⁴ Al Biladuri, *Futuh-ul-Buldan*, trs. E and D, I, p. 120.
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⁵ *Ibid.*, pp. 122-14.
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⁶ *Chachnama, op. cit.* (n. 3), pp. 163-64. Also pp. 205-07, 208.
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⁷ Biladuri, pp. 124-25. Also cf. *Chachnama*, pp. 207-08. Also see C. H. I., III, *op. cit.* (II, n. 25), p. 3.
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Muhammad bin Qasim remained in Sind for a little more than three years.⁸ After his recall not only the Arab power in Sind declined rapidly, but also most of the neo-converts also returned to their former faith. Al Biladuri informs that 'in the days of Tamim, the Musalmans (had) retired from several parts of India... nor have they up to the present time (he wrote in the middle of the ninth century) advanced so far as in days gone by'. When Hakim succeeded Tamim, "*the people of India had returned to idolatory excepting those of Kassa, and the Musalmans had no place of security in which they could take refuge*".⁹ Sir Dension Ross also says that 'after the recall of Muhammad bin Qasim, the Muslims retained some foothold on the west bank of the river Indus, but they were in such small numbers that they gradually merged into Hindu population. In Mansura (the Muslim capital of Sind) they actually adopted Hinduism.'¹⁰
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⁸ Elliot's Appendix in E and D, I, p. 439
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⁹ Biladuri, *op. cit.* (n. 4), p. 126, Also cf. Idrisi, *op. cit.* (III, n. 20), p. 89.
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¹⁰ Denison Ross, *Islam*, p. 18.
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In brief, because of the efforts of Muhammad bin Qasim and Caliph Umar II (A.D. 717-24) some Hindus in Sind had been converted to Islam, but by the time of Caliph Hashim (724-43), when Timum was the governor of Sind, many of these Sindhi converts had returned to Hinduism. Those who continued to retain the new faith remained confined mostly to cities, particularly Multan. After Mahmud of Ghazni's attack on Multan their number seems to have gone up for, writing in the twelfth century, Al Idrisi says: 'The greater part of the population (of Multan) is Musalman; so also the judicial authority and civil administration'’¹¹ However, up to A D. 1000 there were very few Muslims in Sind.¹²
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¹¹ Al Idrisi, *op. cit.* (III, n. 20), p. 83.
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¹² See also Elliot's Appendix, E and D, I, p. 459.
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Similar was the situation in Gujarat. A military expedition was sent out in A.D. 636 from Uman to pillage the coasts of India. It proceeded as far as Thana (near Bombay).¹³ About the same time expeditions were sent to Broach and Debul, but because of Caliph Umar's opposition to hazardous voyages, the policy of armed interference by sea remained in abeyance. Meanwhile commerce by sea continued. In the eighth century, Arab fleets attacked Broach and port towns on the Kathiawar coast.¹⁴ Thus because of armed attacks, but more so through the channel of trade, foreign Muslims and indigenous converts began to be seen in the coastal towns of Gujarat. Ibn Hauqal (A.D 968) observes that ‘from Kambaya to Saimur is the land of Balhara...It is a land of infidels, but there are Muslims in its cities’.¹⁵ Masudi, who visited India in 916, found Muslims of Siraf, Oman, Baghdad and Basra at Saimur (modern Chaul) besides others who were children of Arabs born there. There were Jama Masjids at Famhal, Sindan, Saimur (Chaul) and Kambaya.¹⁶ All these facts indicate the presence of some Muslims in Gujarat. But their number was not large. This finds confirmation in the fact that in an attack on Cambay's Muslims, in the middle of the eleventh century, when there was almost a general massacre, only eighty persons had been killed.¹⁷ Besides, the population of traders is by nature and profession migratory, and the number of the Muslims in Gujarat does not seem to have been large.
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¹³ Biladuri, *op. cit.* (n. 4), pp. 115-16. Also p. 415.
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¹⁴ Tara Chand, *Influence of Islam on Indian Culture* (Allahabad, 1946) pp. 31-33.
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¹⁵ Ibn Hauqal, *op. cit.* (II, n. 36), p. 34. Also p. 457. See also Istakhri, *op. cit.* (V, n. 33) p, 27.
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¹⁶ Ibn Hauqal, *op. cit.* (II, n. 36), p. 38.
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¹⁷ Muhammad Ufi, *Jami-ul-Hikayat*, E and D, II, pp. 162-64. Also S. C. Misra, *Muslim Communities in Gujarat* (Bombay, 1964), p. 5.
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Arab Muslims first settled on the Malabar coast about the end of the seventh century. ‘These Arab traders who settled down on India’s coast between the seventh and the ninth centuries were treated with tolerance by the Hindus', and so they grew in numbers. In the early part of the eighth century, Hajjaj bin Yusuf (who sent Muhammad bin Qasim to Sind), drove out some persons of the house of Hasham, and they left their homeland to settle in Konkan and the Cape Camorin area. Refugees or traders, Muslims were welcome in India, and 'apparently, facilities were given to them to settle and acquire lands and openly practice their religion...'.¹⁸ In course of time mosques were erected at eleven places on the Malabar coast.¹⁹ But till the end of the tenth century their settlements were only too small. The Muslim Arab historio-geographers, while describing the achievements of Muslims on the Malabar coast, exaggerate their numbers and influence for Sulaiman, who visited India in the ninth century, states that he did not find any Muslims or Arabic-speaking people on the western coast.²⁰
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¹⁸ Tara Chand, *op. cit.*, (n. 14), p. 33. Also Aziz Ahmad, *Studies in Islamic Culture in the India-Environment* (Oxford, 1964), p. 77.
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¹⁹ Tara Chand, *Ibid.*, p. 34.
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²⁰ Sulaiman Saudagar *op. cit.*, (III, n. 31), p. 84.
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In short, while there can be no doubt about the presence of some Muslims in Sind, Gujarat and on the western coast of India, their number till the end of the tenth century was almost microscopic. In Hindustan proper, east of the river Indus, there were hardly any Musalmans in A.D. 1000.