Motijheel Mosque, the oldest mosque of West Bengal, located inMurshidabad district
According to the 2011 census,West Bengal has over 24.6 millionMuslims, making up 27% of the state's population. The vast majority of Muslims in West Bengal are ethnicBengali Muslims, numbering around over 22 million and comprising 24.1% of the state population (mostly they reside in Rural areas). There also exists anUrdu-speaking Muslim community numbering 2.6 million, constituting 2.9% of the state population and mostly resides in Urban areas of the state.[1]
Muslims form the majority of the population in three districts:Murshidabad,Malda andUttar Dinajpur.[4] Among these, Uttar Dinajpur is notable as ethnic Bengali Muslims comprise 28% of the district's population, with the remaining 22% being Urdu andSurjapuri speakers.[5]
The Gazi Dargah (গাজী দরগা) of Tribeni (ত্রিবেনী) in West Bengal. This is one of the oldest Islamic heritage structures of BengalTheBengal Sultanate, 16th century covering whole Western part of Bengal
Islam first arrived in Bengal in the year 1204.[6] The establishment of the first Muslim state in Bengal, theBengal Sultanate, in 1352 byShamsuddin Ilyas Shah is credited to giving rise to a Bengali socio-linguistic identity.[7] The Sultanate's influence was expansive, with the Hindu-born sultanJalaluddin Muhammad Shah funding the construction of Islamic institutions as far asMakkah Al Mukarramah andMadinah Al Munawwarah, which came to be known asal-Madaris al-Banjaliyyah (Bengali madrasas).Sufis also became prominent in this period, such asUsman Serajuddin, also known asAkhi Siraj Bengali, who was a native ofGaur in western Bengal and became the Sultanate's court scholar duringIlyas Shah's reign.[8][9][10] Alongside Persian and Arabic, the Sultanate also used theBengali language to gain patronage and support, contrary to previous states which exclusively favoredliturgical languages such asSanskrit andPali.[11][12]Islam became especially widespread when the region was underMughal rule from 1576 to 1765 and was commonly known asBengal Subah.[citation needed] TheMughal Emperors considered Bengal their most prized province. TheMughal emperorAkbar is credited with developing the modernBengali calendar.[13]
The Muslim population in West Bengal before 1947 partition was around 33%.[16] Afterpartition of Bengal in 1947, some Muslims fromWest Bengal left forEast Pakistan, (Present-Day-Bangladesh). Estimates show that 1,634,718 Muslim refugees from West Bengal settling permanently in East Pakistan during 1947–1951.[17]
According to the census , there were around 24.6 millionMuslims living inWest Bengal, comprising 27% of the state's population. Nearly most of them , about 22 million are nativeBengali Muslims, constituting around 90% of the total Muslim population in the state, and are mostly concentrated in rural and Semi Urban areas. TheUrdu-speakingMuslims fromBihar andUttar Pradesh constitute rest , numbering around 2.6 million and are mainly concentrated inKolkata,Asansol,Islampur subdivision of West Bengal.[2]
Muhammad Mohsin, Bengali social reformer, Islamic scholar, philanthropist
Syed Rahim Nabi, retired professional Indian international footballer who primarily played as a midfielder though he could play as a striker and defender.
^Hanif, N (2000).Biographical Encyclopaedia of Sufis: South Asia. Prabhat Kumar Sharma, for Sarup & Sons. p. 35.
^"What is more significant, a contemporary Chinese traveler reported that although Persian was understood by some in the court, the language in universal use there was Bengali. This points to the waning, although certainly not yet the disappearance, of the sort ofcosmopolitan mentality that the Muslim ruling class in Bengal had exhibited since its arrival over two centuries earlier. It also points to the survival and eventual dominance ofparochial Bengali culture at the highest level of official society." (Eaton 1993:60)
[1][2][3]
Sunni Islam
