The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c6.s7.7

c6.s7.7

Muslim law in its ultimate form was thus available to the conquerors and Sultans who established their rule in India in the thirteenth century. True, there were no printed editions of these works. But beautiful hand written copies were always available at least to distinguished conquerors and kings and their counsellors. Muslim law is definite, clear and universal. This law was the actual sovereign in Muslim lands: no one was above it and all were ruled by it.⁶⁴ Such is the reverence paid to these religio-legal treatises that they have remained the model of prose in literary works. The rhymed prose of the Quran has set the standard which almost every conservative Arabic writer consciously strives to imitate. The diction, the idiom, the very phrases of these religio-legal works were adopted by Muslim chroniclers in writing the history of Islamic achievements in India.⁶⁵ There are two sorts of Muslim historians, the dry annalist, and the pompous and flowery orator. But both use the language of their scriptures - a style more natural to their ideas and sentiments. It is necessary therefore to read these scriptures. It is necessary to know Islam in order to understand the ethos and legacy of Muslim rule in India.