Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c17.s2: Kashmir
Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c17.s2
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Kashmir
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Kashmir's conversion to Islam on a large scale also dates from the beginning of the fifteenth century. Mahmud of Ghazni had made some stray efforts at proselytization. Later on arrived in Kashmir one Shah Mirza in saintly robes from Swat in 1315. He entered the service of Sinha Deva, the ruling prince. Shah Mirza helped to oust the Hindu dynasty, and finally he himself ascended the throne in 1346.¹⁷ Thus there were Muslim kings in the Kashmir Valley from the middle of the fourteenth century. However, it was during the reign of Sikandar Butshikan (1394-1417), that the wind of Muslim proselytization blew the hardest. Under him the Kashmiris were offered the choice between Islam and exile. Some Kashmiri Brahmans committed suicide, many left the land, others embraced Islam, and a few began to live under Taqīya, that is, they professed Islam only outwardly.¹⁸ It is said that the fierce intolerance of Sikandar had left in Kashmir no more than eleven families of Brahmans.¹⁹ Thus it is due to his zeal that today in the Kashmir Valley "there are no more than 524 Hindus in every 10,000 of the population." The Raja of Jammu had been converted to Islam by Timur,²¹ but the Jammu region remained mostly Hindu.
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¹⁷ Ferishtah, *op. cit.* (II, n. 6), II, p. 337.
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¹⁸ *Ibid.*, II, p. 341.
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¹⁹ C.H.I., III, *op. cit.*, (II, n 25) p. 281. Zain-ul-Abidin (1420-1470), the Akbar of Kashmir, recalled the exiles, assuaged the fears of the Hindus, and abolished the Jiziyah, but the converts continued to remain Musalman.
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²¹ *Zafar Nama*, *op cit.* (n. 1), II, pp. 168-69. Lal, *Twilight*, *op. cit.* (VI, n 5), p. 39.