Write a note on the social condition of india on the eve of arab invasion
Answers
Muhammad Bin Qasim’s incursion into a sparcely populated area of Sind with a small expidetionary force of just 3000 soldiers cannot be called an invasion. Despite a virtual collapse of Indian empires after the Gupta period it had hardly any impact on India’s history. Read an excerpt from my book `80 Questions to Understand India…
Muhammad Bin Qasim‘s brief incursion into Sind in 712 CE left very little mark on Indian history but it created a new awareness in the West about the wealth and wonders of India that invited many other invaders. His expedition was not the first Arab attempt to enter India. In 636 a sea-borne attack under Mughaira was repulsed. The Jat Kaikanis again repulsed an attack in 667. Rashid Bin Amru was routed a few years later as were two further attacks in the reign of Khalif Walid I
Answer:
What are the social and economic conditions of India on the eve of the Arab invasion?
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Muhammad Bin Qasim’s incursion into a sparcely populated area of Sind with a small expidetionary force of just 3000 soldiers cannot be called an invasion. Despite a virtual collapse of Indian empires after the Gupta period it had hardly any impact on India’s history. Read an excerpt from my book `80 Questions to Understand India…
Muhammad Bin Qasim‘s brief incursion into Sind in 712 CE left very little mark on Indian history but it created a new awareness in the West about the wealth and wonders of India that invited many other invaders. His expedition was not the first Arab attempt to enter India. In 636 a sea-borne attack under Mughaira was repulsed. The Jat Kaikanis again repulsed an attack in 667. Rashid Bin Amru was routed a few years later as were two further attacks in the reign of Khalif Walid I.
The Jat kingdom of Brahminabad (near the present-day Mohenjodaro) had been usurped by a Brahmin named Chhach who had earlier been a minister. He seduced the queen and his intrigues successfully divided and weakened his neighbouring Jat rulers. He was succeeded by his younger brother, known to history as Raja Dahir. Several Jat rulers troubled by his intrigues then invited Arab intervention and Qasim with a small army of 3,000 soldiers led an expedition to Sind.
Qasim’s expedition was not purely military and, like Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt eleven centuries later, it contained many scholars, intellectuals and observers. His chronicles not only praise the military and scientific prowess of his Indian adversaries but also of their life and culture. Qasim found that though the locals were ‘not people of the book’ they were religiously and culturally advanced and even suggested the possibility that the locally worshipped Brahma, that phonetically sounded similar to Abraham, might have significance. In these early days Islam was much less rigid and priest-ridden than it was to become during its centuries of decline.
A reply to his letters from his superior, the Governor of Kuwait is most revealing:
“ It appears that the chief inhabitants of Brahminabad had petitioned to be allowed to repair the temple of Budh and to pursue their religion. As they have made their submission and agreed to pay taxes to the Khalif, nothing more can be required of them. They have been taken under our protection and we cannot in any way stretch
out our hands on their lives and property. Permission is given to them to worship their gods.”
Sadly, the courageous and enlightened Qasim was falsely implicated for the molestation of two girls captured from pirates while on their way to the Governor’s harem at Kuwait and he was slowly and painfully executed.