The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c11.110

Language: English

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The above is a bare outline of the political condition of Sind from the time when it became virtually free from effective control by the Caliphs to the advance of the conquering Turks from the North. I have already noticed how the Arabs in Sind, by placing the Hindu temples in the same category as the places of worship of the Jews, Christians and the Persians, helped to establish new lines of Islamic policy.⁵ I have also tried to indicate the tendency of the Arabs to adopt gradually Indian dress and customs, which, in course of time led to the formation of an Indian Moslem community as distinct from the early Arab conquerors. This tendency was no doubt hastened by the fact that the early Arab settlers in Sind brought no women with them. The result was, as Elliot has already observed that there was ‘ among the descendants of the Scindian colonists, less infusion of the real blood of Arabs than in any other province subjected to their dominion.’¹ Mas‘ūdī noticed that the language of Sind was ‘ different from the rest of India ;’ but it was not Arabic, for Iṣṭakhrī tells us that the speech of the people of Multan and Manṣūrah was Persian and Sindi. As to the administration of the country, the rule of the Arabs appears to have been throughout more or less of a military character. The land was held by Arab garrisons supported by grants of land.

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They were probably mainly concentrated in the important cities and were possibly assisted by levies of Sindian troops, but details about this organisation are wanting.² The internal administration of the country was necessarily left largely in the hands of the Hindu landlords paying the land tax (*Kharāj*) and the capitation tax (*Jizya*).³ It is difficult to estimate the annual revenue of the whole of Sind during this period, but in the days of the Caliphs Sind paid to the Imperial exchequer a sum of 11,500,000 dirhams and 150 pounds of aloe wood.⁴ There is evidence that commerce flourished. ‘ Caravans were often passing and repassing between that country (Sind) and Khurāsān, most commonly by the route of Kabul and Bāmiān.’⁵ I have already referred to the statement of Muqaddasī about the city of al-Lahūm, in Bāmiān, ‘as the trade port of Khurāsān and the treasure-house of Sind.’ Mas‘ūdī tells us that the caravans of Khurāsān used to assemble at Multan.⁶ ‘ The Arab merchants at this period formed the commercial communication between Sind and the neighbouring countries of India. They brought the produce of China and Ceylon to the seaports of Sind and from there conveyed them by way of Multan to Turkistan and Khurasan.'¹ As to religion, it appears that the tenets of Islam continued to spread.

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From the very beginning the conquerors adopted a policy of toleration, dictated by political wisdom, and not only did they allow the existing temples to stand, but sometimes, as at Bahmanābād, Brahmans were permitted to rebuild demolished temples. Harsh measures against priests and temples of the Hindus were only taken, as in Daibul, in case of violent resistance to the armies of Islam. Towards the end of our period, we find the Arabs so far removed from their original iconoclastic outlook that they did not hesitate to thrive on the income of idols and utilise them for gaining political ends. The success of Islam in Sind was probably largely due to their policy of moderation.² But towards the middle of the 10th century Islam in Sind appears to have been influenced by a wave of Qarmaṭian heresy from Egypt and ‘Irāq. It was probably after the period A. H. 326 to A. H. 375 (A. D. 938 to 985), during which they met with ignominious defeats in Egypt and ‘Irāq, that they sought new settlements in the East, and taking advantage of the petty local governments, soon spread over the whole of Sind.³ In the beginning of the 11th century, Maḥmūd of Ghazni found both Multan and Manṣūrah in the occupation of this Isma‘īlī sect.⁴ Al-Bīrūnī tells us that when the Qarmaṭians occupied Multan, Jalam ibn Shaibān, the usurper broke the idol of *Āditya* to pieces and killed its priests.

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The temple which was built of brick on an elevated place, was converted into a mosque and the old mosque was ordered to be shut "from hatred against anything that had been done under the dynasty of the Caliphs of the house of ‘Umayya. When afterwards the blessed prince Maḥmud swept away their rule from those countries, he made again the old mosque the place of the Friday worship.”¹