The conquest of Muḥammad b. Qāsim and its cultural and religious impact on early Islamic Sindh, 711-760

Abstract

The paper is the analysis of the conquest of Sindh by Muḥammad b. Qāsim in 711 and its cultural and religious influences between 711 and 760. The Umayyad campaign was the first official introduction of Islam to the Indian subcontinent and it was the start of an era of social and religious change as well as military expansion. Based on primary documents like the Chachnama and Futūḥ al-Buldān as well as classical and modern literature, the paper evaluates the connection of early Arab administration policies like religious accommodation, inclusion of local elites and modification of extant bureau­cratic frameworks. It emphasizes how non-Muslim communities were treated and how Indo-Islamic identity was formed at an early stage. Even though the recall of Qāsim ter­minated his immediate power, the institutions that were formed during his reign pro­vided the basis of long term Islamization and cultural synthesis in South Asia.