The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c11.39

Language: English

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With the conquest of Multan in 713 A.D. the whole of Sind was brought under Arab military control, that is to say, the big cities like Multan, Alor, Bahmanābād, Daibul,⁴ and other strategic centres were held by Arab garrisons, while the country remained under the rule of Hindu rulers.

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One such chief was Ḥullīshāh, a son of Dāhir.⁵ It appears from the account of Balādhuri that this prince continued to hold considerable power round about Bahmanābād.¹ It seems likely that soon after Muḥammad ibn Qāsim was removed from the governorship of Sind and fell a prey to the vengeful Ṣāliḥ in about 715 A.D.² there was a revival of Hindu power in Sind, for we are told by Balādhuri that about this time, when Ḥabīb ibn al-Muhallab was ‘appointed to wage the *as-Sind* campaign, the kings of al-Hind came back to their kingdoms and Ḥullishāh came back to Bahmanābād and took up a position on the Mihrān.’ We are further told that ‘the people of ar-Rūr (Alor) submitted to him.’³ Mīr Ma‘ṣūm goes so far as to say that two years after the death of Muḥammad ibn Qāsim “the people of India rebelled, and threw off their yoke, and the country from Debalpur to the Salt Sea only remained under the dominions of the Khalifa.”⁴ According to Balādhuri, Ḥullishāh and all the rulers of Sind accepted Islam and Arabic names, in the reign of Caliph ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Azīz who succeeded Sulaymān in 717 A.D.⁵ But the Caliphs continued to send governors over Sind,⁶ and the degree of authority which they exercised must have varied according to the personality and ability of these officers. There is evidence to show that some of these governors tried to extend their power from their posts in Sind.

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Ḥajjāj had ordered Muḥammad ibn Qāsim not to rest satisfied with Sind but to penetrate to China, thus emulating the victories of Qutayba in Transoxania, and he is generally credited by al-Bīrūnī, the *Chach-nāma*, and the Persian authorities with having penetrated to Kanauj.¹ It is difficult to ascertain how far this is historical, but there are reasons to believe that Junayd, who was Governor of Sind under Caliph Hishām (724-43) not only undertook a vigorous policy for the consolidation of Arab power in Sind but actually made raids on many parts of India. Balādhurī tells us that he defeated and killed Dāhir's son Ḥallīshāh who had apostatized and opposed his advance after a naval battle. He is also reported to have raided Uzain, Bahrī-mad, al-Mālibah, al-Kīraj, Mirmad, al-Mandal, Dahnāj, and Barwaṣ, and conquered al-Bailamān and al-Jurz.² It is probably one of these raids which is recorded in the Nausari grant (A.D. 738-39) of the Lāṭa Cālukya prince Pulakeśin Avani Janāśraya.

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It is recorded in this inscription that Pulakeśin defeated a *Tājika* (Arab) army which had afflicted the kingdoms of Sindhu, Cutch, Saurāṣṭra, Cāvoṭaka, Maurya, and Gurjara, and had apparently advanced on Navasāri, where this prince was ruling at this time.³ The route of advance of this Arab invasion was through the Baroda Gap, which easily communicates with Sind, through the low-lying plain near the Runn of Cutch.⁴ Another such raid appears to be noticed in the Gwalior inscription of the Gurjara-Pratīhāra king Bhoja I, which tells us that Nāgabhaṭa, the founder of the family, who probably ruled in Avanti in about *c.* 725 A.D., defeated the army of a powerful *Mleccha* ruler which had apparently invaded his dominions.¹ According to al-Bīrūnī and a number of Jain writers the famous capital city and port of Valabhī was destroyed as a result of a series of Arab raids.² Balādhurī mentions the temporary occupation of Sindān (in Cutch) by the Arabs from Sind.³ But the success of the Arabs appears to have been very limited.

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Among other reasons which prevented the Arab armies from meeting with the same degree of success, which they met with elsewhere, was probably the steady opposition of the Gurjara-Pratīhāras of Western Hindusthān, who in the 9th century came to hold the whole of Northern India from the Karnal District in the Punjab to the Vindhyas and from North Bengal to the Kathiawar peninsula.⁴ As the dominions of these kings of "Jurz" (Gurjara) touched upon the Arab sphere of influence in Sind and as they had to bear the brunt of the Arab attacks they soon came to be regarded as "unfriendly to the Arabs," while their enemies the Balharās (Rāṣṭrakūṭa king of Mānyakheṭa), soon developed a partiality for the Arabs.⁵ The roots of this policy of forming alliances with infidels for the purpose of political conquests, as opposed to holy war, must be traced to the first conqueror of Sind, who ceased to interfere with the temples and religious life of the friendly Indians and placed the *budd* of the Hindus in the same status as the "churches of the Christians, the synagogues of the Jews and the fire temples of the Magians."¹