Invaders and Infidels : From Sindh to Delhi: The 500-Year Journey of Islamic Invasions by Sandeep BalakrishnaMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
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Prophet Mohamed started preaching islam in 610 CE and his first wife Khadija was the first Muslim convert of Islam. Before 610 CE, People in Arab followed polytheism and led a life of nomad.
After Prophet Mohamed died in year 632, Muslims selected their new leaders and called them caliph. Abu Bakr, Umar, Usman and Ali these are the first four caliphs in Islam after that the post of Caliphs became dynasty based. During this time India was ruled by Harsh Vardhan and Pulkeshin.
Between 610 CE and 650 , Islam had concurred a big chunk of land in middle east. Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Persia, Byukhara , Samarkand both are in current Uzbekistan and a part of Inner Mangolia which currently in china. it was strange that these all areas were concurred by Islam in merely 40-50 years. the more stragge thing was that they were rapidly islamised and their culture and language was Arabicised. In one brutal attack all these ancient regions lost their pre-islamic culture and civilization.
Now, The Arab Armies were looking towards capturing India. Arab geographers were sent to map Sindh. in year 637 onwards, second Caliph Umar sent islamic navy army to Thane (Maharastra), Bharuch ( Gujrat ) and Debal ( a port near Karachi ) where they were brutally defeated. The Arab forces also tried to attack Sindh through land rout but many of their expeditions failed and the Jasts of Kikaan, in Bluchistan, Didn't let them enter in the sindh for alomost 200 years. Arabs sent 6 such land expeditions and the last one in 680 CE succeeded in wining Makran, a small state which was part of Sindh and which was ruled by Raja Dahir. Even after this win the Islamic forces didn't dare to enter in the Sindh for next 30 years because of the heavy damages that these expeditions were causing to Islamic army.
Next attack on sindh was in 712. During the same time Islamic Armies had captured spain and Portugal in Europe and were wating for to concur France. This time Mohamed bin quasim was being sent to attack Sindh. The planning was meticulous this time. Quasim first reached Makran which they had captured in 680 CE and from there he started through sea route and wanted to attack Debal.its the same Debal where the Islami Army was brutally defeated once in the past. but this time Quasim was prepared and had five big catapults and these catapults were so big that each one was operated by 500 trained soldiers.
Quasim first concurred Debal , Kiiled the priests of the temple and built a moaque and moved on to his next tatget Nerun and won it without much resistance. Nerun is Today's Pakistani Hyderabad.
After this Qasim moved deep into Sindh and challenged Dahir at the fort of Raor. Raja Dahir Was at the brink of victory but he got killed and his troops brokeup and dispersed. and, his sone JayaSimha retreated to Brahamanabad and it was left for the queen Ranibai of to defend the fort of Raor. The Queen did Jauhar to save her owner . Qasim slaved 30 thousand people after this win.
Now, He pursued Jaysimha who was defending Brahamanbad and capital city of Alor. He fought for six months but he had to further retreat and fleed. due to this Qasim was enaraged and killed 26000 common people in brahmanabad. He also won capital city Alor soon. At both the places he built mosques and moved forward.
Finally Qasim Killed Jayasimha and captured Mulastana. Mulastana was pilgrimage center like Kashi , Mathura, Prayagraj, Kachipuram. Qasim plundered the famous Aditya temple. He was further planning to attack Kannouj but was killed by the new Caliph of that time.
In all these operations Qasim killed almost 50,000 people.
The book talks about the Delhi sultenat at lenght. overall this is a good book and I liked it.
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