India

**The Coming of Islam to South Asia (India)** MI: Muslim invaders, traders, and migrants carried the Islamic faith and elements of Islamic civilization to India. Muslim conquests and conversions led Hindu responses and attempts to reconcile their differences. 
 * Foreigners had entered India in waves of nomadic invaders or as small bands of displaced people seeking refuge
 * Convert to Hindu or Buddhist religion, place in the caste hierarchy, adopted the dress, foods, and lifestyles of the farming and city-dwelling peoples
 * Hinduism pre-dominant Indian religion but Islam was used
 * Islam proclaimed all believer equal in the sight of God
 * Interactions between invaders and the indigenous people= Muslim warriors, traders, Sufi mystics, and ordinary farmers and herders entered India
 * With time there was peace between Muslim invaders and Indians
 * Mosques and temples dominated different quarters in Indian cities
 * Tensions remained = warfare Hindu and Muslim lords
 * Muhammed ib Qasim (17 years old) succeeded in spreading Islam and the Umayyad Empire
 * Islam was welcomed because they gave lighter taxes and religious tolerance -> treated them with respect(rulers)
 * In some areas, leaders were able to continue to rule after being conquered by Muslims -> regions continued to have same religion but did not spread Islam
 * Diffusion of Indian culture with Arab culture -> clothing and hairstyles as well as customs, ate Indian food + rode on elephants as the Hindu rajas (kings) did
 * Mahmud of Ghazni led raids to conquer territory north of India + defeated one confederation of Hindu princes after another
 * Islamic civilization was enriched by the skills and discoveries of India (scientific learning)
 * Hindu mathematicians + astronomers traveled to Baghdad after Abbasids took over (worked translated into Arabic)
 * Instruments for celestial observation were improved by Arab astronomers
 * System of numerical notation has proved central to two scientific revolutions
 * Medicine and music were translated and studied by Arab scholars
 * Indian doctors were able to cure Indian works on statecraft, alchemy, and palmistry were translated too
 * Arab rules/officials that Greek physicians had pronounced beyond help
 * Indian game of chess became a favorite of both royalty/townspeople
 * Commander of Persian, Muhammad of Ghur, put a strong military together to control north central India + later into west India
 * After Muhammad was assassinated = Qutb-ud-din Aibak (one of his slave) seized power
 * Capital of Muslim empire was Delhi near the Jumna River on the Gangetic plain (center of northern India)
 * For 300 years dynasties ruled north + central India (Persian, Afghan, Turkic, mixed descent, + Mongols) while that was happening Muslim communities developed in dif areas (Bengal largest)
 * Main carries of the new faith were merchants
 * Latter shard with Indian gurus and wandering ascetics
 * Mosques and schools became centers of regional political power
 * Indian -> Islam were from Buddhist or low-caste groups
 * Indian Buddhism was no match for Muslim invaders specially with the skills of the Sufi mystics
 * High caste Hindus saw the invaders as the bearers of an upstart religion and as polluting outcastes
 * Muslim absorbed the superior religions and more sophisticated cultures of India = Hindus made up a good portion of the armies of Muslim rules and staffed the bureaucracies
 * Muslim princes adopted regal styles and practice that were contrary to the Qur’an
 * Muslim were divided depending on whether they were Arab, Turk or Persians (hierarchy style)
 * Invaders adopted the practice of marrying young women = favored by the Hindus and the prohibitions w/ get remarriage of widows (more likely in high classes)
 * Songs and poems (by Mira Bai and Kabir) were composed in regional languages (Bengali, Marathi and Tamil) they were more accessible to people
 * Chants dances + drugs(ecstasy) = state of spiritual intoxication = key of salvation
 * One played down the teachings of the Qur’an, prayer, and the pilgrimage = no longer a true Muslim
 * Non-Muslims (Hindus) remained the over whelming population in the diverse lands south of the Himalayas
 * South Asia remained one for the least converted and integrated of all the areas Muhammad’s message had reached