Islam is the second-largest religion inSouth Asia, with more than 650 millionMuslims living there, forming about one-third of the region's population. Islam first spread along the coastal regions of theIndian subcontinent andSri Lanka, almost as soon as it started in theArabian Peninsula, as the Arab traders brought it to South Asia. South Asia has thelargest population of Muslims in the world, with about one-third of all Muslims living here.[17][18] Islam is the dominant religion in half of the South Asian countries (Pakistan, Maldives, Bangladesh and Afghanistan). It is thesecond largest religion in India andthird largest in Sri Lanka andNepal.
The first incursion occurred through sea by CaliphUmar's governor ofBahrain, Usman ibn Abu al-Aas, who sent his brother Hakam ibn Abu al-Aas to raid andreconnoitre theMakran region[29] around 636 CE or 643 AD long before anyArab army reached the frontier of India by land. Al-Hakim ibn Jabalah al-Abdi, who attacked Makran in the year 649 AD, was an early partisan ofAli ibn Abu Talib.[30] During the caliphate of Ali, manyHinduJats of Sindh had come under the influence ofShi'ism[31] and some even participated in theBattle of Camel and died fighting for Ali.[30] According to popular tradition, Islam was brought toLakshadweep islands, situated just to the west of Malabar Coast, byUbaidullah in 661 CE. After theRashidun Caliphate,Muslim dynasties came to power.[32][33] and later non-Muslimmonarchies.[34][35] Since the 1947partition of India, South Asia has been largely governed bymodern states.[36][37]
Islamic influence first came to be felt in the Indian subcontinent during the early 7th century with the advent ofArab traders. Arab traders used to visit theMalabar region to trade even before Islam had been established in Arabia. Unlike the coasts of Malabar, the northwestern coasts were not as receptive to the Middle Eastern arrivals. Hindu merchants inSindh andGujarat perceived the Arab merchants to be competitors.
Trade relations have existed between Arabia and theIndian subcontinent since ancient times. Even in thepre-Islamic era, Arab traders used to visit theKonkan-Gujarat coast andMalabar Coast, which linked them with the ports ofSoutheast Asia. Newly Islamised Arabs were Islam's first contact with India. Historians Elliot and Dowson say in their bookThe History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians, that the first ship bearing Muslim travellers was seen on the Indian coast as early as 630 CE. H. G. Rawlinson in his bookAncient and Medieval History of India[38] claims that the firstArab Muslims settled on the Indian coast in the last part of the 7th century CE. This fact is corroborated by J. Sturrock in hisMadras District Manuals[39] and by Haridas Bhattacharya inCultural Heritage of India Vol. IV.[40] With the rise of Islam, Arabs emerged as a significant cultural force on the global stage. Through their extensive trade and commerce networks, Arab merchants and traders became key ambassadors of the faith, shared its teachings wherever they traveled.[41]
Historical evidence shows that Arabs and Muslims interacted with Indians from the early days of Islam and possibly before the arrival of Islam in Arab regions. Arab traders transmitted thenumeral system developed by Indians to the Middle East and Europe.[52]
Commercial intercourse between Arabia and India had gone on from time immemorial, with for example the sale of dates and aromatic herbs by Arabs traders who came to Indian shores every spring with the advent of themonsoon breeze. People living on the western coast of India were as familiar with the annual coming of Arab traders as they were with the flocks of monsoon birds; they were as ancient a phenomenon as the monsoon itself. However, whereas monsoon birds flew back to Africa after a sojourn of few months, not all traders returned to their homes in the desert; many married Indian women and settled in India.[53]
The advent ofMuhammad (569–632 CE) transformed the previouslyidolatrous and fragmented Arabs into a nation unified by faith and driven by a shared commitment to spreading the message of Islam. Arab merchant seamen, who had long brought goods like dates to South India, now introduced the new religion, which found a warm reception in the region.South Indian communities welcomed the construction of mosques and facilitated cultural integration, including intermarriage between Arabs and local women. This led to the formation of a distinct Indian-Arabian Muslim community. By the early 9th century, Muslim missionaries in Malabar achieved a significant milestone when they inspired the conversion of the local king to Islam.[53]
According to historian Derryl N. Maclean, early connections between Sindh (in present-day Pakistan) and theShia supporters of Ali can be traced to Hakim ibn Jabalah al-Abdi. Acompanion of Muhammad, Hakim traveled through Sind toMakran in 649 CE, reporting on the region to the Caliph. A devoted supporter of Ali, Hakim died in theBattle of the Camel alongside SindhiJats.[54] He was also a poet and few couplets of his poem in praise ofAli ibn Abu Talib have survived, as reported in Chachnama.[55][a]
During Ali's leadership, numerous Jats in Sind embraced Islam,[58] influenced by the efforts of figures like Harith ibn Murrah al-Abdi and Sayfi ibn Fil' al-Shaybani, officers in Ali’s army. In 658 CE, they led campaigns against Sindhibandits, pursuing them as far as Al-Qiqan (modern-dayQuetta).[59]
The Islamic ambitions of thesultans andMughals had concentrated in expanding Muslim power and looting, not in seeking converts. Evidence of the absence of systematic programs for conversion is the reason for the concentration of South Asia's Muslim populations outside the main core of the Muslim polities[60] in thenortheast andnorthwest regions of the subcontinent, which were on the peripheries of Muslim states.[61]
The Sufis did not preach egalitarianism, but played an important role in integrating agricultural settlements with the larger contemporary cultures. In areas where Sufis received grants and supervised clearing of forestry, they had the role of mediating with worldly and divine authority.Richard M. Eaton has described the significance of this in the context ofWest Punjab andEast Bengal, the two main areas to develop Muslim majorities.[62] The 1947partition was eventually made possible because of the concentration of Muslim majorities in northwest and northeast India.[63] The overwhelming majority of the subcontinent's Muslims live in regions which became Pakistan in 1947.[64]
These nominal conversions to Islam, brought about by regional Muslim polities, were followed byreforms, especially after the 17th century, in which Muslims integrated with the larger Muslim world. Improved transport services in the nineteenth century brought Muslim masses into contact with Mecca, which facilitated reformist movements stressingQuranic literalism and making people aware of the differences between Islamic commands and their actual practices.[65]
Islamic reformist movements, such as theFaraizi movement, in the nineteenth century rural Bengal aimed to remove indigenous folk practices from Bengali Islam and commit the population exclusively to Allah and Muhammad.[66] Politically the reform aspect of conversion, emphasizing exclusiveness, continued with thePakistan movement for a separate Muslim state[65] and a cultural aspect was the assumption ofArab culture.[67]
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and the Maldives are Muslim-majority countries. Pakistan, which later split into Pakistan and Bangladesh in1971, emerging as the primaryMuslim-majority countries in the region.[citation needed] Muslim population in India is 14.12%, which still makes it the largest Muslim population outside the Muslim-majority countries.[76]
"Oh Ali, owing to your alliance (with the prophet) you are truly of high birth, and your example is great, and you are wise and excellent, and your advent has made your age an age of generosity and kindness and brotherly love".[57]
^Prof.Mehboob Desai,Masjit during the time of Prophet Nabi Muhammed Sale Allahu Alayhi Wasalam,Divy Bhasakar,Gujarati News Paper, Thursday, column 'Rahe Roshan',24 May,page 4
^Jo Van Steenbergen (2020). "2.1".A History of the Islamic World, 600–1800: Empire, Dynastic Formations, and Heterogeneities in Pre-Modern Islamic West-Asia. Routledge.ISBN978-1000093070.
^Mirza Kalichbeg Fredunbeg, "The Chachnama", p. 43, The Commissioner's Press, Karachi (1900).
^Ibn Athir, Vol. 3, pp. 45–46, 381, as cited in: S. A. N. Rezavi, "The Shia Muslims", in History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization, Vol. 2, Part. 2: "Religious Movements and Institutions in Medieval India", Chapter 13, Oxford University Press (2006).
^Ibn Sa'd, 8:346. The raid is noted by Baâdhurî, "fatooh al-Baldan" p. 432, and Ibn Khayyât, Ta'rîkh, 1:173, 183–84, as cited in: Derryl N. Maclean, "Religion and Society in Arab Sind", p. 126, BRILL, (1989)ISBN90-04-08551-3.
Eaton, Richard (1985), "Approaches to the Study of Conversion to Islam in India", in Richard C. Martin (ed.),Approaches to Islam in Religious Studies (1st ed.), Tucson: University of Arizona Press, pp. 107–123
Muzaffar Alam; Phillip B. Calkins. "North India under Muslim hegemony, c. 1200–1526".India.Encyclopædia Britannica.Archived from the original on 14 August 2019. Retrieved17 January 2019.
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