India is Great

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652 - Battle of Rajasthan

By the time the Arabs reached India in the 600s*, they had forged an empire stretching a third of the way around the world, from the North African Maghreb to Persia. The first Caliphate had been founded in 554, less than a century after the death of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam. His followers sought to bring the entire Muslim world under one government, ruled by the successors of their Prophet. Of course, much of their conquests weren't Muslim when the Caliphate arrived, but they became so before too long, often through forced conversion. Much of North Africa, West Asia and southern Europe remain Muslim to this day as a result.

In the early 7th Century, the Caliphate's armies had subjugated the Kingdom of Sindh, under the leadership of Muhammad ibn Qasim, aided by the nation's internal strife. They were already working to convert its people to Islam, a process which would continue for many years, until the Caliphate was finally forced out almost a century later.

This conquest brought them to the banks of the Indus River, which was in many ways the boundary between Greater Iran and the Indian continent, although Sindh and other groups on the west bank were also very much Indian peoples. At this point, the Arabs' armies and supplies were stretched thin, and keeping the armies organised and in shape was a logistical nightmare for the bureacracy of the Caliphate.

Nevertheless, the generals, viziers and bureacrats of the Caliphate could not hold their ambitions in check, and after a few years spent in Sindh, to consolidate their new possessions in India, they pressed on into the Punjab, aiming for the arguable centre of Indian civilisation: the Ganges River.

The ruler of Gurjara Pratihara attempted to form an alliance with the governor of Gujarat, to repulse the invaders and keep the continent Hindu, but the two failed to come to an agreement, and were thus unable to join forces. Jayasimha Varman, the governor of Gujarat, has been widely condemned by historians for this action in recent years. In the Battle of Rajasthan, the forces of the Chalukya Dynasty were defeated by the Caliphate's armies, although they fought bitterly. This has been seen by many as the turning point of the Muslim invasion of North India, which would result in its occupation for many decades, although others argue that the conquest was inevitable.

Under the direction of military leaders, the Arab forces set up a base on the eastern side of the Indus River. For the next few years, sporadic forays into the Hindu-held lands surrounding this base of operations kept the natives at bay, and in the late 650s the Caliphate renewed its efforts to subjugate the Indian continent, having brought in reinforcements from across their empire. Iberians, Moors, Berbers, Arabs, Turks, Persians, Pashtuns: all were among the armies which marched on the Hindu kingdoms of the Punjab and Gujarat.


* Note: all dates are in the Shalivahana Era. Add 78 for a rough CE equivalent.
 
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660-720 - Muslim Conquest of the Ganges

After the Islamic conquest of Gujarat and the Punjab, the Caliphate's forces stopped to consolidate for a few years again, before beginning to conquer their way east again. Able strategists on the Arab side achieve victory after victory, with the Muslim armies pushing ever further into the crowded heart of India, all in the name of their Prophet. After having broken Gujarat and the Punjab, there were few major kingdoms or tribes to stand in the way of the conquest. At the time, most of the upper course of the Ganges was unconsolidated, although the lower sections were governed by the Pala Empire, a powerful nation lead by a Buddhist dynasty from Bengal.

All of this was of great benefit to the Islamic Caliphs and their followers. Tribe by tribe, kingdom by kingdom, the Arab armies brought ever-more of India under their dominion, spreading down the Ganges until it had entirely absorbed these small kingdoms which made up much of the region's population at the time. However, the great Pala Empire was able to put a halt to their expansion downriver, and the Chalukya kingdoms to the south also stopped their expansion. Hemmed in by these powers, and the Hima-alayas to the north, Caliphate expansion finally halted.

During this period, there was an attempted overthrow of the Umayyad Dynasty by the rival Abbasid Dynasty. This rival dynasty's base of operations was in Khorasan, and so while the uprising took place Umayyad-loyal forces from India, under the leadership of the Arab governors of these far eastern provinces. These Umayyad armies, primarily composed of Indian troops, were instrumental in the eradication of the Abbasid would-be Caliphs. Nevertheless, this uprising led to a level of instability throughout the Caliphate, especially in the Arab-majority heartland of the Empire. However, by this point, the Indian conquest had reached such an advanced stage that the tension only slowed it slightly.

Due to the great distance between North India and the Caliphate's capital, in Kufa, and later Baghdad, a great level of power was delegated to the governors of the provinces. Muslims from across the Caliphate were encouraged to migrate to North India, in an atttempt to make the populace more integrated with the general Muslim populace of the Caliphate. Although many did convert during the period of Arab rule, the vast majority remained Hindu or Buddhist.

During the opening years of the 8th Century, the Caliphate's stability declined again. The ruling Arab class, as well as many other older groups within the Caliphate, grew ever-more restless at the multicultural policies of the Umayyad Caliphs. This resulted in a second rebellion against the ruling dynasty, this time by the Hashimite Dynasty, members of the same clan as the Prophet Mohammad. This rebellion was centred in North Africa at first, quickly spreading into Jordan and Palestine. This meant that Indian troops could not come to the support of the Caliphs, especially as nomadic Turkic clans of Central Asia were making transportation and travel through Persia dangerous. As the new dynasty succesfully overthrew their predecessors, they spent many years consolidating their rule over Southwest Asia and North Africa, as well as Iberia. However, the North Indian regions declared independence as assorted emirates and sultanates, beginning with the secession of the Emirate of Gorakhpur in the easternmost region. All of these new Muslim kingdoms were under the rulership of members of royal houses, most of them Arab, or partially Arab. This fragmentation spread as far west as Gujarat and Sindh, as well as encompassing the upper Ganges. By 734, the entire region was under the control of a collection of Islamic states.


Interesting, please go on..;)
So this be the Ummayaids doing the conquering?

Yes. But please use the discussion threads for comments, thanks :)
 
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