Hindu Temples: What Happened to Them v2.c19.s3.33

v2.c19.s3.33

The story, of course, seeks psychological compensation for an unprovoked aggression against a king and a people who had been kind to the Muslims settled in Gujarat. We hear similar stories about many other places which were invaded by the armies of Islam and which had provided protection to Muslim settlements, particularly the Sufis. But at the same time, it betrays the secret that the Muslim community in Gujarat had invited Mahmud to invade the kingdom and destroy the temple of Somnath. Professor Mohammad Habib was telling this truth when he wrote that the far-flung campaigns of Sultan Mahmud would have been impossible without an accurate knowledge of trade routes and local resources, which was probably obtained from Muslim merchants.¹⁷