The Sultanate of Delhi, 711–1526 A.D. c10.6

c10.6

In the second place, if seen in the context of the contemporary world history, it would be realised that no people in any part of the world offered such a prolonged and tough and successful resistance to the aggression of the Arabs and the Turks as did the Hindus of the medieval age. Whereas many countries of Asia, Africa and Europe succumbed to the Arab onslaught, each after a few years’ resistance, Sindh yielded only after nearly seventy-five years’ struggle, Hindu Afghanistan fought for two hundred and twenty years and the Panjab for one hundred and fifty-six years. For example, Syria, which was the first country to face the Arab aggression, fell within a year (635-636 A.D.) and after the surrender of Damascus, its capital, “other towns fell like ninepins before the conquerors.” Iraq fell without fighting⁴ in 637 A.D. The whole of the mighty Persian Empire was annexed within five years of the famous battle of Cadesia fought in 1637 A.D., that is, it was conquered in “about a decade,”⁵ in all. The year 643 A.D. brought the Arabs to the borders of India.⁶ A whirl-wind campaign led to the conquest of the entire Central Asia, inhabited by the ferocious Turks, Turkomans, Uzbeks and Mongols, in eight years (642-650 A.D.). All the countries of North Africa were conquered and occupied between 639 and 709 A.D. In the ancient land of Egypt the story was the same as elsewhere—a rout, a siege and the cry of victory. Babylon was taken in this manner, and Alexandria was captured within a year.⁷ In 711 A.D. Tariq, the Berber general of Musa, landed at Gibralter and on July 19 of the same year defeated Roderick, king of Spain, who disappeared altogether. “After this decisive victory the march of the Moslems through Spain almost amounted to a promenadet.” Within the short space of seven years the conquest of the (Iberian) peninsula, one of the fairest and largest provinces of medieval Europe, was effected. “The conquerors were there to stay—for centuries at least.” In about a dozen years’ spasmodic operations the southern half of France was subdued. The Arab expansion in Europe received its first check at the battle of Tours and Poiters where the Muslim leader Abdar Rahman was defeated by Charles the Martel in October 732 A.D.¹⁰