Muhammad ibn al-Qasim

Information about Muhammad ibn al-Qasim and the Arab conquest of Sind in the medieval Arabic sources is limited, compared to the contemporary Muslim conquest of Transoxiana.[1] The Futuh al-Buldan ('Conquests of the Lands') by al-Baladhuri (d. 892) contains a few pages on the conquest of Sind and Muhammad's person, while biographical information is limited to a passage in a work by al-Ya'qubi (d. 898), a few lines in the history of al-Tabari (d. 839) and scant mention in the Kitab al-Aghani (Book of songs) of Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani.[1] A detailed account of Muhammad's conquest of Sind and his death is found in the Chach Nama, a 13th-century Persian text.[1] The information in the Chach Nama purportedly derives from accounts by the descendants of the Arab soldiers of the 8th-century conquest, namely qadis (judges) and imams from the Sindi cities of Alor and Bhakar who claimed descent from Muhammad's tribe, the Banu Thaqif.[1] The orientalist Francesco Gabrieli holds the accounts likely emerged after c. 1000 and considers the Chach Nama to be a "historical romance" and "a late and doubtful source" for information about Muhammad.[2]

Muhammad was born in c. 694.[3] His birthplace was almost certainly in the Hejaz (western Arabia), either in Ta'if, the traditional home of his Thaqif tribe, or in Mecca or Medina.[4] Following their general embrace of Islam in c. 630, members of the Thaqif gradually attained high military and administrative ranks in the nascent Caliphate and played important command and economic roles during and after the early Muslim conquests, particularly in Iraq.[5] The tribe produced effective commanders associated with early Arab military operations against the Indian subcontinent: in c. 636 the Thaqafite governor of Bahrayn (eastern Arabia), Uthman ibn Abi al-As, dispatched naval expeditions against the Indian ports of Debal, Thane and Bharuch.[6] The tribe's power continued to increase with the advent of the Umayyad Caliphate in 661.[6]

Muhammad belonged to the Abu Aqil family of the Banu Awf, one of the two principal branches of the Thaqif.[6] The Abu Aqil family gained prestige with the rise of al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, the paternal first cousin of Muhammad's father al-Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hakam.[6] Al-Hajjaj was made a commander by the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705) during the Second Muslim Civil War and killed the Umayyads' chief rival for the caliphate, Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, in 692, and two years later was appointed the viceroy of Iraq and the eastern Caliphate.[7][4] Following his promotion, al-Hajjaj became a patron of the Thaqif and appointed several members to important posts in Iraq and its dependencies.[8] Muhammad's father was appointed the deputy governor of Basra, though his career was otherwise undistinguished.[9] According to a letter between Muhammad and al-Hajjaj cited by the Chach Nama, Muhammad's mother was a certain Habibat al-Uzma (Habiba the Great).[9] The Chach Nama also indicates Muhammad had a similar-aged brother named Sulb and Arabic sources indicate he had a much younger brother named al-Hajjaj, who served as an Umayyad commander during the Alid revolt of 740.[9]

No information is provided by the Arabic sources about Muhammad's childhood and adolescence.[4] The modern historian Nabi Bakhsh Baloch holds that Muhammad most likely grew up partly in Ta'if and then Basra and Wasit, the provincial capital of Iraq founded by al-Hajjaj in 702.[9] Muhammad's time in Basra, a military and intellectual center of the Islamic world at the time, may have widened Muhammad's career horizons, while at Wasit he was likely educated and trained under al-Hajjaj's patronage.[10] Al-Hajjaj was highly fond of Muhammad,[10] and considered him prestigious enough to marry his sister Zaynab,[11] though she preferred the older Thaqafite al-Hakam ibn Ayyub ibn al-Hakam, to whom she was ultimately wed.[12][13] The Kitab al-aghani refers to Muhammad at the age of 17 as "the noblest Thaqafite of his time".[14] In the summation of Baloch, "Muhammad grew up under favorable conditions into an able, energetic and cultured lad of fine tastes".[15]

Muhammad ibn al-Qasim's first assignment was in the province Fars in modern Iran, where he was asked to subjugate a group of Kurds. After the successful completion of the mission, he was appointed as the governor of Fars.[16] He likely succeeded his uncle Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Thaqafi, a brother of al-Hajjaj, who was previously a governor. The city of Shiraz is said to have been revived by Muhammad ibn al-Qasim. He built a royal villa in the city and a military camp at a short distance from it.[17][18][19] He was also given the task of subjugating the area to the south of Shiraz, and the distant area of Jurjan near the Caspian Sea.[16]

Fars might have also had at this time some of the rebels leftover from the revolt of Ibn al-Ash'ath, which almost brought down the rule of al-Hajjaj. An aged supporter of rebels and a Shia notable of the time, a disciple of the companion of Prophet Jabir ibn Abd Allah al-Ansari and a famous narrator of Hadith,[20] Atiyya ibn Sa'd Awfi was arrested by Muhammad ibn al-Qasim on the orders of Al-Hajjaj and demanded that he curse Ali on the threat of punishment. Atiyya refused to curse Ali and was punished. While Maclean doesn't give the details of the punishment, early historians like Ibn Hajar Al-asqalani and Tabari record that he was flogged by 400 lashes and his head and beard shaved for humiliation and that he fled to Khurasan and returned to Iraq after the ruler had been changed.[21][22]

Muhammad ibn al-Qasim's conquest of Sindh (711-715 CE).

  Desert areas (Registan Desert and Thar Desert)

  Zunbils

  Kingdom of Sindh (c. 632– 712 CE)

  Maitraka Kingdom (c.475–c.776 CE)

Hajjaj had put more care and planning into this campaign than the second campaign.[30] Al-Hajjaj gave Muhammad ibn al-Qasim command of the expedition between 708 and 711, when he was only 15–17 years old, apparently because two previous Umayyad commanders had not been successful in punishing Sindh's ruler Raja Dahir for his failure to prevent pirates from disrupting Muslim shipping off the coast of Sindh.[11] Al-Hajjaj superintended this campaign from Kufa by maintaining close contact with Muhammad ibn al-Qasim in the form of regular reports for which purpose special messengers were deputed between Basra and Sindh.[30] The army which departed from Shiraz under Muhammad ibn al-Qasim consisted of 6,000 Syrian cavalry and detachments of mawali (sing. mawla; non-Arab, Muslim freedmen) from Iraq.[30] At the borders of Sindh he was joined by an advance guard and six thousand camel cavalry and later, reinforcements from the governor of Makran were transferred directly to Debal (Daybul), at the mouth of the Indus, by sea along with five manjaniks (catapults).[30] The army that eventually captured Sindh would later be swelled by the Jats and Meds as well as other irregulars who heard of the Arab successes in Sindh.[30] When Muhammad ibn al-Qasim passed through the Makran desert while raising his forces, he had to subdue the restive towns of Fannazbur and Arman Belah (Lasbela), both of which had previously been conquered by the Arabs.[31]

The first town assaulted in Muhammad ibn al-Qasim's Sindh campaign was Debal and upon the orders of al-Hajjaj, he exacted retribution on Debal by giving no quarter to its residents or priests and destroying its great temple.[30][11] From Debal, the Arab army then marched northeast taking towns such as Nerun and Sadusan (Sehwan) without fighting.[30] One-fifth of the war booty including slaves were remitted to al-Hajjaj and the Caliph.[30] The conquest of these towns was accomplished with relative ease; however, Dahir's armies being prepared on the other side of the Indus[lower-alpha 1] had not yet been confronted.[30] In preparation to meet them, Muhammad returned to Nerun to resupply and receive reinforcements sent by al-Hajjaj.[30] Camped on the east bank of the Indus, Muhammad ibn al-Qasim sent emissaries and bargained with the river Jats and boatmen.[30] Upon securing the aid of Mokah Basayah, "the King of the island of Bet", Muhammad crossed over the river where he was joined by the forces of the Thakore of Bhatta and the western Jats.[30]

At Ar-rur (Rohri) Muhammad ibn al-Qasim was met by Dahir's forces and the eastern Jats in battle.[30] Dahir died in the battle, his forces were defeated and Muhammad ibn al-Qasim took control of Sindh.[30] In the wake of the battle enemy soldiers were executed —though artisans, merchants, and farmers were spared —and Dahir and his chiefs, the "daughters of princes" and the usual fifth of the booty and slaves were sent to al-Hajjaj.[30] Soon the capitals of the other provinces, Brahmanabad, Alor (Battle of Aror) and Multan, were captured alongside other in-between towns with only light Muslim casualties.[30] Multan was a key site in the Hindu religion.[11] Usually after a siege of a few weeks or months the Arabs gained a city through the intervention of heads of mercantile houses with whom subsequent treaties and agreements would be settled.[30] After battles all fighting men were executed and their wives and children enslaved in considerable numbers and the usual fifth of the booty and slaves were sent to al-Hajjaj.[30] The general populace was encouraged to carry on with their trades and taxes and tributes settled.[30]

The conquest of Sindh, in modern-day Pakistan, although costly, And was a major gain for the Umayyad Caliphate. However, further gains were halted by Hindu kingdoms during Arab campaigns. The Arabs attempted to invade India but they were defeated by North Indian kings Bappa Rawal of Guhila dynasty, Nagabhata, of the Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty and by the South Indian emperor Vikramaditya II of the Chalukya dynasty in the early 8th century. After the failure of further expeditions on Kathiawar, the Arab chroniclers conceded that the Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi (r. 775–785) "gave up the project of conquering any part of India."[32]

PANDYAS

CHOLAS

TURK
SHAHIS

Maitrakas

GURJARA
PRATIHARAS

PALA
EMPIRE

ZUNBILS

CHALUKYAS

ABBASID
CALIPHATE

TANG DYNASTY

Map of the Caliphal province of Sind, a province of the Abbasid Caliphate, circa 750 CE.[40]

After the conquest, Muhammad ibn al-Qasim's task was to set up an administrative structure for a stable Muslim state that incorporated a newly conquered alien land, inhabited by non-Muslims.[41] He adopted a conciliatory policy, asking for acceptance of Muslim rule by the natives in return for non-interference in their religious practice,[41] so long as the natives paid their taxes and tribute.[28] In return, the state provided protection to non-Muslim from any foreign attacks and enemies. He established Islamic Sharia law over the people of the region; however, Hindus were allowed to rule their villages and settle their disputes according to their own laws,[28] and traditional hierarchical institutions, including the village headmen (rais) and chieftains (dihqans) were maintained.[41] A Muslim officer called an amil was stationed with a troop of cavalry to manage each town on a hereditary basis[41]

Everywhere taxes (mal) and tribute (kharaj) were settled and hostages taken — occasionally this also meant the custodians of temples.[35] Non-Muslim natives were excused from military service and from payment of the religiously mandated tax system levied upon Muslims called Zakat,[41] the tax system levied upon them instead was the jizya - a progressive tax, being heavier on the upper classes and light for the poor.[41] In addition, three percent of government revenue was allocated to the Brahmins.[28]

Al-Hajjaj died in 696, followed a year later by Caliph al-Walid I, who was succeeded by his brother Sulayman. The latter took revenge against the generals and officials who had been close to al-Hajjaj. Sulayman owed political support to al-Hajjaj's opponents and so recalled both of al-Hajjaj's successful generals Qutayba ibn Muslim, the conqueror of Transoxiana (Central Asia) and Muhammad. He also appointed the son of the distinguished general al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra, Yazid, who was once imprisoned and tortured by al-Hajjaj, as the governor of Fars, Kirman, Makran, and Sind; he immediately placed Muhammad in chains.[58]

Muhammad ibn al-Qasim died on 18 July 715 in Mosul which is a part of the modern-day Iraq. Some sources say that his body was transferred to Makran in Balochistan at the Hingol National Park which is part of modern-day Pakistan.

There are two different accounts regarding the details of Muhammad ibn al-Qasim's fate:

• According to al-Baladhuri Muhammad was killed due to a family feud with the governor of Iraq. Sulayman was hostile toward Muhammad because apparently, he had followed the order of Hajjaj to declare Sulayman's right of succession void in all territories conquered by him. When Muhammad received the news of the death of al-Hajjaj he returned to Aror. Muhammad was later arrested under the orders of the Caliph by the replacement governor of Sindh, Yazid ibn Abi Kabsha al-Saksaki, who worked under the new military governor of Iraq, Yazid ibn al-Muhallab, and the new fiscal governor, the mawla Salih ibn Abd al-Rahman. Salih, whose brother was executed by al-Hajjaj, tortured Muhammad and his relatives to death. The account of his death by al-Baladhuri is brief compared to the one in the Chach Nama.[28][59][60]
• The Chach Nama narrates a tale in which Muhammad's demise is attributed to the daughters of Dahir, Surya Devi and Parimal Devi, who had been taken captive during the campaign. Upon capture their mother had been made a slave of Muhammad himself,[61] while the two sisters had been sent on as presents to the Caliph for his harem in the capital Baghdad (however Baghdad had not yet been built and the actual capital was Damascus). The account relates that they then tricked the Caliph into believing that Muhammad had violated them before sending them on and as a result of this subterfuge, Muhammad was wrapped and stitched in oxen hides,[62] and sent to Syria, which resulted in his death en route from suffocation.[63] This narrative attributes their motive for this subterfuge to securing vengeance for their father's death. Upon discovering this subterfuge, the Caliph is recorded to have been filled with remorse and ordered the sisters buried alive in a wall.[38][59][64]

After Muhammad ibn al-Qasim's departure, the next appointed Arab governor died on arrival. Dahir's son recaptured Brahmanabad and c. 720, he was granted pardon and included in the administration in return for converting to Islam. Soon, however, he recanted and split off when the Umayyads were embroiled in a succession crisis. Later, Junayd ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Murri killed Jaisiah and recaptured the territory before his successors once again struggled to hold and keep it. During the Abbasid period, c. 870, the local emirs shook off all allegiance to the caliphs and by the 10th century the region was split into two weak states, Mansurah on the lower Indus and Multan on the upper Indus, which were soon captured by Ismailis who set up an independent Fatimid state.[28][65] These successor states did not achieve much and shrank in size. The Arab conquest remained checked in what is now the south of Pakistan for three centuries by powerful Hindu monarchs to the north and east until the arrival of Mahmud of Ghazni.[66]

There is controversy regarding the conquest and subsequent conversion of Sindh. This is usually voiced in two antagonistic perspectives viewing Muhammad ibn al-Qasim's actions:[67]

His conquest, as described by Stanley Lane-Poole, in Medieval India (Published in 1970 by Haskell House Publishers Ltd), was "liberal". He imposed the customary poll tax, took hostages for good conduct and spared peoples' lives and lands. He even left their shrines undesecrated: 'The temples;' he proclaimed, 'shall be inviolate, like the churches of the Christians, the synagogues of the Jews and altars of the Magians'.[68] In the same text, however, it is mentioned that "Occasional desecration of Hindu fanes took place... but such demonstrations were probably rare sops to the official conscience...", as destruction of temples and civilian massacres still took place.[69]

1. Coercive conversion has been attributed to early historians such as Elliot, Cousens, Majumdar and Vaidya.[36] They hold the view that the conversion of Sindh was necessitated. Muhammad ibn al-Qasim's numerical inferiority is said to explain any instances of apparent religious toleration, with the destruction of temples seen as a reflection of the more basic, religiously motivated intolerance.[36]
2. Voluntary conversion has been attributed to Thomas W. Arnold and modern Muslim historians such as Habib and Qureishi. They believe that the conquest was largely peaceful, and the conversion entirely so, and that the Arab forces enacted liberal, generous and tolerant policies.[36] These historians mention the "praiseworthy conduct of Arab Muslims" and attribute their actions to a "superior civilizational complex".[70]

Various polemical perceptions of Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism are also reflected in this debate.[71] The period of Muhammad ibn al-Qasim's rule has been called by U.T. Thakkur "the darkest period in Sindh history", with the records speaking of massive forced conversions, temple destruction, slaughters and genocides; the people of Sindh, described as inherently pacifist due to their Hindu/Buddhist religious inclinations, had to adjust to the conditions of "barbarian inroad".[72] On one extreme, the Arab Muslims are seen as being compelled by religious stricture to conquer and forcibly convert Sindh, but on the other hand, they can be seen as being respectful and tolerant of non-Muslims as part of their religious duty, with conversion being facilitated by the vitality, equality and morals of the Islamic religion.[71] Citations of towns taken either violently or bloodlessly, reading back into Arab Sindh information belonging to a later date and dubious accounts such as those of the forcible circumcision of Brahmins at Debal or Muhammad ibn al-Qasim's consideration of Hindu sentiment in forbidding the slaughter of cows are used as examples for one particular view or the other.[71]

Some historians strike a middle ground, saying that Muhammad ibn al-Qasim was torn between the political expediency of making peace with the Hindus and Buddhists; having to call upon non-Muslims to serve under him as part of his mandate to administer newly conquered land; and orthodoxy by refraining from seeking the co-operation of "infidels". It is contended that he may have struck a middle ground, conferring the status of Dhimmi upon the native Sindhis and permitting them to participate in his administration, but treating them as "noncitizens" (i.e. in the Caliphate, but not of it).[41]

While Muhammad ibn al-Qasim's warring was clearly at times brutal, he is supposed to have said of Hinduism that 'the idol temple is similar to the churches of the Christians, (to the synagogues) of the Jews and to the fire temples of the Zoroastrians' (mā al-budd illā ka-kanāʾis al-naṣārā wa ’l-yahūd wa-buyūt nīrān al-madjūs).[73] This 'seems to be the earliest statement justifying the inclusion of the Hindus in the category of ahl al-dhimma, leading Muhammad to be viewed by many modern Muslims as a paragon of religious tolerance.[74]

Muhammad ibn al-Qasim Mosque in Sukkur, Pakistan, dedicated to the leader.

Muhammad ibn al-Qasim's presence and rule was very brief. His conquest for the Umayyads brought Sindh into the orbit of the Muslim world.[75] After the conquest of Sindh, he adopted the Hanafi school of Sharia law which regarded Hindus, Buddhists and Jains as "dhimmis" and "People of the Book", allowing them religious freedom as long as they continued to pay the tax known as "jizya". This approach would prove critical to the way Muslim rulers ruled in India over the next centuries.[28] Coastal trade and a Muslim colony in Sindh allowed for cultural exchanges and the arrival of Sufi missionaries to expand Muslim influence.[76] From Debal, which remained an important port until the 12th century, commercial links with the Persian Gulf and the Middle East intensified as Sindh became the "hinge of the Indian Ocean Trade and overland passway."[75] Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, claimed that the Pakistan movement started when the first Muslim put his foot on the soil of Sindh, the Gateway of Islam in India.[77] He is often referred to as the first Pakistani according to Pakistan Studies curriculum.[78] Yom-e Bab ul-Islam is observed in Pakistan, in honor of Muhammad ibn al-Qasim.[79][78] Port Qasim, Pakistan's second major port, is named in honor of Muhammad ibn al-Qasim.[80] Bagh Ibn Qasim is the largest park in Karachi (Sindh, Pakistan), named in honor of Muhammad ibn al-Qasim. Ibn-e-Qasim Bagh Stadium, Multan is a multi-use stadium named after Muhammad ibn al-Qasim. The Pakistan Naval Station Qasim, or PNS Qasim, is the major naval special operations base for the Amphibious Special Operations Forces in the Pakistan Navy named after Muhammad ibn al-Qasim. Bin Qasim Town in Karachi is named after Muhammad ibn al-Qasim.

• Jat people in Islamic history
• Muslim conquests on the Indian subcontinent
• Caliphate campaigns in India
• Abdullah Shah Ghazi
• Shaikh Habib Al-Raee

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• Media related to Muhammad bin Qasim at Wikimedia Commons