Indian Muslims: Who Are They c6.s7.21

c6.s7.21

Khan Bahadur Dewan Fazle Rabbi of Murshidabad wrote a book in Urdu entitled *Haqiqat-i-Musalman-i-Bangala*⁹¹ to prove that Bengal Muslims were mainly of foreign extraction. This was done probably to controvert the statement of Beverley in the Census Report of 1872 that the existence of Muhammadans is due not so much to the introduction of the Moghal blood into the country, as to the conversion of the former inhabitants. Mr. Abu Ghaznavi of Mymensingh, who prepared an excellent account of the Muhammadans of his district, probably in connection with the 1901 census, also supported the foreign origin theory, but he admitted that local converts bulked largely in the total. In Muhammadan histories no mention is made of any large-scale Muhammadan immigration from Upper India, and in Akbars time the climate of Bengal was considered so uncongenial that an order to proceed there was considered a punishment. Muslims came to Bihar first, but there their number has remained small. Foreign Muslims would not have chosen to settle in the swampy regions of Noakhali, Bogra and Backergunje.