The Sultanate of Delhi, 711–1526 A.D. c8.s2.1

c8.s2.1

Since time immemorial there had been commercial intercourse between India and Arabia. Long before the Arabs embraced Islam in the seventh century A.D., they used to visit our western coastal regions for trade and commerce and received a cordial welcome here. Our rulers and peoples, anxious to foster material prosperity, accorded generous treatment to these foreigners. There was hardly any change in our attitude towards them even after the Arabs had become Muslims. But certainly the Arab attitude towards our people and country underwent a great change owing to their religious and political cohesion and to the enthusiasm brought about in their native land by the teachings of Muhammad. Though commercial profit continued to be the avocation of a section of them, as before, the Arabian people, as a whole, had now begun cherishing the ambition of conquest and propagation of Islam. Their first expedition which aimed at the conquest of Thana near Bombay was undertaken as early as 636 A.D. (15 A.H.) during the Caliphate of Umar, but it was repulsed.² This was followed by successive expeditions to Broach,³ to the Gulf of Debal in Sindh and to Baluchistan (Makran), then a part of the Kingdom of Sindh.⁴ In spite of difficulties and defeats the Arabs continued raiding the frontier of Sindh both by land and sea. They concentrated their attacks on Kikan (Kikanan), a hilly region round the Bolan pass which was peopled by hardy Jats who led pastoral lives and who bravely defended their country from the Arab invaders. In 659 A.D. (39 A.H.) al-Haris gained some initial success, but was defeated and killed in 662 A.D.⁵ Another fruitless expedition was that of al-Muhallab in 664 A.D.⁶ He was followed by Abdullah who was defeated and slain. Sinan bin Salamah seems to have been fortunate in gaining a short-lived triumph in Makran, but Rashid bin Amir lost his life in an expedition in that very region.⁷ The same fate overtook another Arab adventurer named al-Mudhir. Notwithstanding these successive failures the Arabs persevered on and captured Makran, that is, modern Baluchistan, most of which then formed a part of Sindh “after a fierce and successful campaign” under Ibn al-Harri al-Bahitti in the first decade of the eighth century A.D. The way to the conquest of Sindh proper now lay open and the ambitious al-Hajjaj, the Arab governor of Iraq, secured the Caliph’s support to his forward policy. He despatched one after another two well-planned expeditions against Dahir; but both these expeditions were beaten and their commanders Ubaidullah and Budail were slain on the fields of battle.⁸ Stung by these successive reverses and humiliation, Hajjaj selected his own cousin and son-in-law Imad-ud-din Muhammad bin Qasim, an ambitious and daring youth of seventeen, and despatched him to Sindh at the head of a powerful force. Starting from Shiraz, he reached Makran which now belonged to the Arabs, and passing *via* Panj-gur, Armbil and Qaubati, he arrived at Debal near Karachi. This attempt proved a success, and Sindh and Multan were conquered in 712-13 A.D. Sindh thus lost its independence after more then seventy-five years’ brave resistance against the mightiest empire of the medieval age.