History of India - The Islamic Sultanates

The Islamic Sultanates

Main articles: Muslim conquest of India, Islamic Empires in India, Bahmani Sultanate, and Deccan Sultanates See also: Rajput resistance to Muslim invasions and Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India

After conquering Persia, Arab Islamic Caliphate incorporated parts of what is now Pakistan around 720 CE. The Muslim rulers were keen to invade India, which was a rich region, with a flourishing international trade and the only known diamond mines in the world. In 712 CE an Arab Muslim general called Muhammad bin Qasim conquered most of the Indus region in modern day Pakistan, for the Umayyad empire, to be made the "As-Sindh" province with its capital at Al-Mansurah, 72 km (45 mi) north of modern Hyderabad in Sindh, Pakistan. After several wars including the Battle of Rajasthan, where the Hindu Rajput clans defeated the Umayyad Arabs, their expansion was checked and contained to Sindh in Pakistan, many short-lived Islamic kingdoms (sultanates) under foreign rulers were established across the north western subcontinent over a period of a few centuries. Additionally, Muslim trading communities had flourished throughout coastal south India, particularly on the western coast, where Muslim traders arrived in small numbers, mainly from the Arabian peninsula. This had marked the introduction of a third Abrahamic Middle Eastern religion, following Judaism and Christianity, often in puritanical form. Later, the Bahmani Sultanate and Deccan sultanates founded by Turkic rulers, flourished in the south.

The Vijayanagara Empire rose to prominence as a culmination of attempts by the southern powers to ward off Islamic invasions by the end of the 13th century. The empire dominated all of Southern India and fought off invasions from the five established Deccan Sultanates. The empire reached its peak during the rule of Krishnadevaraya when Vijayanagara armies were consistently victorious. The empire annexed areas formerly under the Sultanates in the northern Deccan and the territories in the eastern Deccan, including Kalinga, while simultaneously maintaining control over all its subordinates in the south. It lasted until 1646 although its power declined after a major military defeat in 1565 by the Deccan sultanates. As a result, much territories of former Vijaynagar Empire were captured by Deccan Sultanates and the remaining got divided into many states ruled by Hindu rulers.