The Establishment of the Muslim Rule

The First Phase (711-1186)

The year 711 marks the initial contact of Muslims with India under the leadership of seventeen year old
commander Muhammad bin Qasim who arrived in Sindh. After that, Muslim rule persisted in India for three
hundred years. Three hundred years later, Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna invaded India seventeen times. He did not
establish a strong foundation of his empire in India and died in 1030.

Muslim Dynasties of India. [iii] Since the twelfth century AD, several muslim dynasties ruled India. Of these
perhaps the Mughals were the most significant. The dynasties are listed below:-

1. Slave dynasty (1199-1290).

2. Khilji dynasty (1290-1320).
3. Tughlaq dynasty (1320-1414).
4. Saiyyid dynasty (1414-1450).
5. Lodhi dynasty (1450-1526).
6. Mughal dynasty (1526-1857).

The Sultanate Period (1192-1525)

In 1192, Muizuddin Ghori, a governor of Turkish Muslim origin from Ghazni, invaded on India and extended
his empire towards Delhi and Ajmer. His lieutenant established Muslim rule in Bengal in 1204. The period from
Ghori’s successors, known as the Slave sultans, until the advent of the Mughals in 1526 is known as the
Sultanate period. During this time a total of seventeen sultans ruled over various parts of India. One of the
sultans, Ala al-Din Khalji (1296-1316), extended Muslim control to central and parts of southern India.

Muhammad ibn Taghluq (1325-1351) conquered territory in the deep south of India and moved his capital to
Devagiri. By1500 Islamic culture and faith had become integrated into Indian society. The Muslims of South
Asia built on a legacy of Iran-Turkish culture and spread this culture in their dominion. Though they were of
Turkish origin, the language of high culture and administration was Persian. Although Turkish hegemony was
weakened by later dynasties such as the Khaljis (1290-1320) and the Tughluqs (1320-1413) when indigenous
Muslims and no-Muslims were incorporated into the ruling polity.

The year 711 marks the initial contact of Muslims with India under the leadership of seventeen year old
commander Muhammad bin Qasim who arrived in Sindh. After that, Muslim rule persisted in India for three
hundred years.

The Mughals (1526-1748)

The Mughals were heirs to the Sultanate period’s Indo-Islamic tradition and built a magnificent empire. The
founder of the Mughal rule, Muhammad Zahir al –Din Babur (reigned 1526-1530) encountered the two
concentrations of power in India: the Muslim Afghan ruler, Ibrahim Lodi and the Rajput Hindu leader, Rana
Sanga in 1526 and 1527 respectively. Having defeated both of them, he laid the strong foundation of his empire
which inaugurated the most glorious period in the history of South Asian Islam.

Babur and his descendants were the born leaders of men. Babur’s son, Humayun, could not consolidate the
areas he inherited from his father. In 1539, he was ousted and replaced by a capable Afghan leader, Sher Khan
Sur. Sher Khan left a brilliant record of his administrative reforms in a very short period of his leadership
(1539-1545). Humayun, after spending fifteen years in Iran as a fugitive, recovered his throne in India in 1555
only to die in 1556.

Humayun’s son, Jalal al-Din Muhammad Akbar (1556-1605), is remembered in Indo-Islamic history as the
builder of the Mughal empire. He initiated territorial expansion, centralized administration, effective fiscal
policy and united the heterogeneous ruling- the Persians, Turks, Uzbeks, Afghans, Indian Muslims and the

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Rajputs by imbuing a common identity of their spiritual and political bond to the person of the emperor. His
successors, Jahangir (1605-1627), Shahjahan (1628-1658) and Aurangzeb (1658-1707), successfully
implemented his policies with some changes. The frontiers of the empire expanded and the architectural, artistic
and literary activities thrived.

The Mughals were able to unify India. However, wars of succession, an inefficient administrative structure and
weakened leadership caused the decline and collapse of the centralized imperial system. The East India
Company’s representative, Lord Clive, defeated the Muslim forces in the battle of Plassey in 1757 and Lord
Lake took over the administration of Delhi in 1803. However, the successor states carried their cultural
traditions until1857 when the colonization of India by the British was completed and an English colonial
political, social and economic order came to be enforced over India.

The Coming of British Rule

The British East India Company had, in fact, been engaged in trade with India since the year 1600. In 1772,
Warren Hastings was appointed as British Governor of Bengal and consolidated existing British commercial
interests. British power came to be extended over various regions formerly under Muslim control.

The Eighteen Century: A “Dark” Century

In1707, the death of Aurangzeb signaled the collapse of the centralized Mughal government. The former
provinces of the Mughal Empire became successors states, notably Awadh, Bengal, Haiderabad and Sind. In
1739, Delhi was sacked by the Iranian ruler, Nadir Shah Afshar. The Hindu Maratha attempt to gain power
received a setback when they were defeated in 1761 by the Afghan leader, Ahmad Shah Abdali. British and
French trading companies had appeared by this time in Bengal and Deccan.

However, it was not until 1748 when the ruler of Haiderabad, Nizam al-Mulk, died that Muslims began to
become aware of the new threats to their authority. In 1757, in the skirmish of Plassey, the East India
Company’s force, with the help of their local allies, defeated the governor of Bengal and installed a puppet
governor. The Company was entrenched in the region when they defeated the local allied forces, including the
Mughals in 1764. They then forced the Mughal ruler, Shah Alam ll (died 1806), to hand over the civil
governments of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa to the company.

Through their strategy of playing one group against the other, the company gradually gained control over other
regions of India, including Delhi in 1803, Punjab in 1842 and Sind and Awadh by 1856.

The Mughals were able to unify India. However, wars of succession, an inefficient administrative structure and
weakened leadership caused the decline and collapse of the centralized imperial system.

Muslims and the British Raj (1757-1857)

There were different religious movements aimed at reforming the Muslim society. Whereas the Wali-Allah
generation tried to revive dynamism in the community through religio-moral reconstruction, subsequent
generations showed sensitivity to political, economic and social development. This change is reflected in the
activities of the Faraidis in Bengal and the Mujahidins in the Northwestern part of India.

The founder of the Faraidis movement, Haji Shariat-Allah (1781-1831), focused on the proper practice of the
obligatory duties of Islam. The movement maintained its puritanical stance but became more political and
aggressive under the leadership of Shariat-Allah’s son, Muhsin al-Din Ahmed, known as Dudu Miyan. The
Faraidis clashed with the landlord, indigo planters and the police and refused to pay the taxes.

The other religio-political movement in Uttar Pardesh, Bihar, and the northwestern part of India is known as
the Mujahidin Movement. The leaders of this movement, Sayyid Ahmed Shaheed (1786-1831) and Shah
Muhammad Ismail (1781-1840), were greatly influenced by the Wali-Allah tradition. They successfully tried to
rejuvenate the Muslim community in India by fusing Tariqa-i-Muhammadiyya with Wahhabism.

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