|
Important Events in the History of Muslim India
Compiled by: Syed Ali Shahbaz
Muhammad bin Qasim Thaqafi, the young Arab governor of Iran and conqueror of Sindh
On July 18,715 AD, Mohammad bin Qasim Thaqafi, the young Arab governor of Iran on behalf of his tyrannical uncle and father-in-law, Hajjaj bin Yousuf Thaqafi, and conqueror of Sindh (present day Pakistan), was killed at the age of 20, as a result of imprisonment and torture ordered by the new Omayyad caliph, Sulaiman bin Abdul-Malik, who was a bitter enemy of the bloodthirsty Hajjaj. Among the reasons for Mohammad bin Qasim's ruthless campaign to seize Sindh and try to push into India, was because of the refuge offered by the local rulers to Iranians and Arab Muslims fleeing the reign of terror of Hajjaj, on whose death, 50,000 men and women -- mostly followers of the Prophet's Household were found in the prisons.
Emperor Jehangir, the Fourth Great Moghul Emperor of the Subcontinent
On 8th of the Islamic month of Jamadi as-Sani in 1014 AH, Prince Saleem succeeded his father, Akbar the Great, as the Fourth Grand Mughal Emperor of India with the title, Noor od-Din Jahangir. He ruled for 23 years, mostly with the assistance of his Iranian wife, Noor Jahan, and maintained excellent relations with Shah Abbas the Great of Iran.
Jahangir was also a poet and writer in both Persian and his native Chaghtai Turkic. The bleak record of his rule, however, was the execution of the famous Iranian Islamic scholar in Agra, Qazi Seyyed Noorollah Shoushtari, the author of such famous books as Majalis al-Momineen and Ahqaq al-Haq. He was under the influence of alcohol when he signed the decree drafted by jealous court mullahs. Later he rued his decision and with the help of his wife, he executed the plotters for the murder of Qazi Shoushtari, who is famous in India amongst the followers of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt as Shaheed-e-Thalith or the Third Martyr.
On August 31, 1569 AD, the 4th Great Moghul Emperor of the Subcontinent, Mohammad Salim Nour od-Din, who on ascension to the throne in 1605, styled himself as Jahangir (World Grasper) was born in Agra. His father was Emperor Akbar, while his mother was the Rajput Princess of Amber, Jodhabai. He was a patron of arts, paintings and literature, and was fluent in both Persian and Turkic languages. His wife Nour-Jahan was Iranian and the daughter of Mirza Ghiyas Beg Tehrani E'temad od-Dowla. He maintained a regular correspondence with Shah Abbas the Great, the Safavid Emperor of Iran. His capital was Lahore in today's Pakistan, where he is buried in a magnificent mausoleum along with his wife, after a reign that lasted 22 years. An opium addict and alcoholic, his most disgraceful act was signing of the death verdict, on false charges, of the great Iranian scholar, Qazi Seyyed Nourollah Shoushtari, the Chief Justice of the state and the author of several celebrated works including the voluminous "Ahqaq al-Haq" (Confirmation of Truth) on the merits of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS). Known as Shaheed Thalis (Third Martyr), this scholar attained martyrdom in 1610 in Agra, where his mausoleum is the site of pilgrimage.
Aurangzeb, the Moghul Emperor of India
On July 31, 1658 AD, Mohi ud-Din Mohammad Aurangzeb proclaimed himself the 6th Grand Moghul Emperor of the Subcontinent after defeating and executing his brothers and imprisoning his father, Shah Jahan – the builder of the famous monument Taj Mahal.
He took the title of Alamgir or Word-Grasper and during his 50-year reign the empire reached the zenith of expansion, stretching from Afghanistan in the north to the southernmost tip of India, and from the borders of Iran in the west to the borders of Burma-Bangladesh in the east.
Born of an Iranian mother, Arjomand Banu Begum Mumtaz Mahal, the granddaughter of E'temad od-Dowla Mirza Ghiyas Beg Tehrani, he was prolific both in Arabic and Persian, and carried on correspondence with the Safavid Shahs of the Persian Empire the Turkish Sultans of the Ottoman Empire.
His death brought about the rapid decline of Moghul power in India founded by the famous Central Asian adventurer Zahir od-Din Babur – a great grandson of the fearsome Turkic conqueror, Amir Timur and protégé of Shah Ismael I, the Founder of Iran's Safavid Dynasty.
Ferouz Shah, the 3rd Sultan of the Turkic Tughlaq Dynasty of North India
On September 20, 1309 AD, Ferouz Shah, the 3rd Sultan of the Turkic Tughlaq Dynasty of North India, died in Delhi at the age of 79, after a peaceful reign of 37 years. The son of Rajab and a Hindu princess, he succeeded his eccentric cousin, Sultan Mohammad Tughlaq, but ruled a much shrunken empire, as Bengal, Gujarat and the Deccan had already seceded as independent Muslim dynasties.
Ferouz Shah did not pursue any expansionist policy and worked to improve the infrastructure of the parts of the realm under his control, building canals, hospitals, and caravanserais, and creating and refurbishing reservoirs. He founded several cities, including Jaunpur, Ferouzpur and Hissar-Ferouza. In the mid 1350s he built a new city near Delhi, calling it Ferouzabad. Most of that city was destroyed as subsequent rulers dismantled its buildings and reused the materials, while the rest was subsumed as New Delhi was built in the time of the British.
Ferouz Shah Tughlaq kept both the Amirs and Ulema happy so that he could rule the kingdom peacefully. He was ably assisted by his loyal vizier, Malik Maqboul Khan-e Jahan Telangani, who born as Yugandhar in a noble Hindu family of the Kakatiya Kingdom of Warangal, embraced the truth of Islam, and was often referred by the king as 'brother'.
Ferouz Shah was fond of learning and had a large personal library of books in Persian, Arabic and other languages. During his reign Sanskrit books, including Hindu religious works, were translated into Persian. The famous Persian history of his reign is "Tárikh-e Ferouz Shahi" of Shams-e Siraj Afíf. He was followed by a series of weak and indolent rulers, and ten years after his death Hindustan (North India) fell to the fearsome Turkic conqueror, Amir Timur.
Mahmoud Shah I (Begara), the most prominent Sultan of Gujarat
On 5th of the Islamic month of Zil-Qa’dah in 889 AH, Mahmoud Shah I (Begara), the most prominent Sultan of Gujarat, captured the Rajput stronghold of Champaner, completely rebuilt it, and renamed it Mohammadabad. He transferred his capital to this city from Ahmadabad – built by his great-grandfather and founder of the Muzaffarid Dynasty, Ahmad Shah I.
Mahmoud Shah built a magnificent Jama Masjid in Champaner, which ranks amongst the finest architectural edifices of the Indo-Persian style in Gujarat. It is an imposing structure on a high plinth with two tall minarets 30 m tall, 172 pillars and seven mihrabs, in addition to carved entrance gates with fine latticed windows, topped by domes.
He also captured Bombay and ruled for 43 years, styling himself "Sultan al-Barr wa'l-Bahr" (King of the Land and the Sea). He laid the foundation of the city of Mahmoudabad (now called Junagadh), adorning it with a palace, beautiful buildings and extensive gardens. In order to thwart the designs of the Portuguese, he entered into an alliance with the Mamluk Sultans of Egypt and the Turkish Ottoman Empire.
It was during his time that the famous naval Battle of Diu was fought off the coast of India, resulting in a shattering defeat for the European invaders by the joint fleets of Gujarat, Egypt and the Ottomans. Persian literature flourished at his court.
Sultan Nasser Khan Farooqi of the Khandesh Muslim kingdom of Central India
On September 21, 1437 AD, Sultan Nasser Khan Farooqi of the Khandesh Muslim kingdom of Central India, died heartbroken three days after his humiliating defeat at the Battle of Lalling and the sack of his capital, Burhanpur, by the forces of Sultan Ala od-Din Ahmad Shah Bahmani of the Deccan.
During his 38-year rule, Nasser Khan had built a strong realm which he had succeeded from his father, but made the fatal error of encroaching upon the territories of the powerful Bahmani kingdom. After him, under his weak successors, the kingdom deteriorated and over a century later was absorbed by the expanding Mughal Empire.
Bahmani Kingdom in Deccan
On 14th of the Islamic month of Zil-Qa'dah in 767 AH, Mohammad Shah I Bahmani defeated Krishna Raja of Vijaynagar, following the latter’s invasion of the Muslim kingdom of the Deccan in south-central India, and chased him right till his capital, agreeing to lift the siege when the Raja pleaded for peace with promises not to attack again.
Better known as organizer of Bahmani Kingdom and founder of its institutions, he was the second king of the dynasty founded by his father, Ala od-Din Hassan Gangu Bahman Shah, who revolted against the excesses of Sultan Mohammad bin Tughlaq of Delhi. The Bahmani Sultanate, which lasted for 180 years developed a distinct Muslim culture and style of architecture evolved out of direct contact with Iran and the migration in large numbers of Iranian scholars, poets, architects, traders, statesmen, and soldiers of fortune.
Bahadur Shah, the Sultan of Gujarat
On 14th of the Islamic month of Zil-Qa'dah in 932 AH, Bahadur Shah ascended the throne of Gujarat in western India, succeeding his brother Mahmoud Shah II. During his 11-year reign he had to face the menace of the Portuguese who raided the seaports of his realm and seized several islands including what would later be known as Bombay (renamed Mumbai today).
He made the fatal mistake of seeking assistance from the Portuguese against the expansion of the Mughals of north India. While on board a Portuguese ship to sign a treaty, he was treacherously killed by the Portuguese admiral and his body dumped into the sea.
Lahore seized by the Sikh warrior Ranjit Singh
On July 12, 1799 AD, the Sikh warrior Ranjit Singh, seized Lahore from the Afghans and declared himself the Maharaja of the Punjab. He began as a young soldier, who was chosen by Zaman Shah Durrani to serve as the governor of Punjab. He then assembled a Sikh army and began war with his benefactors the Afghans, to end their rule in Punjab. His kingdom was in due course occupied by the British.
The Indian sepoys rose against the British East India Company in Vellore
On July 10, 1806 AD, the Indian sepoys (English corruption of the Persian word 'sepahi' for soldier), rose against the British East India Company in Vellore, south India, in the first instance of large scale resentment against European colonial rule in the Subcontinent, predating by half-a-century the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The crafty British, who entered as traders, had spread their political and military tentacles in different parts of India, including the Deccan or the South, after treacherously attacking Fath Ali Khan Tipu Sultan of Mysore and seizing his dominions.
The Vellore uprising, although brief and brutally crushed by the British, was due to imposing of dress code on the sepoys that offended both the Muslims and Hindus, since it required Muslims to shave their beards, and the Hindus to wear European hats instead of the traditional turban. This fueled the already simmering nationalist sentiments and the sepoys stormed Vellore Fort, killed or wounded 200 British troops, raised the flag of Mysore Sultanate, and declared Fath Hyder the imprisoned son of Tipu Sultan as king. The uprising was poorly-organised and this enabled the British to rush reinforcements from nearby Madras and brutally crush it, resulting in the death of over 800 Indians in a few hours.
The Battle of Assaye
On September 23, 1803 AD, the Battle of Assaye was fought in western India during the Second Anglo-Maratha War and resulted in a decisive defeat for the Maratha Confederacy by Major General Arthur Wellesley, who later became the Duke of Wellington, and went on to defeat French Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, at the famous Battle of Waterloo in 1814. Decades later in his memoirs, Wellington would recall the Battle of Assaye as more crucial, strategic and deadly than Waterloo.
The battle was the result of the scheming of the Maratha Confederacy led by Daulat Scindia and the Raja of Berar for supremacy in central India. But the Marathas made the fatal mistake of stirring up hostilities with India's most powerful Muslim monarch, Nizam ol-Molk Asef Jah of Haiderabad-Deccan by raiding and pillaging his border territories. When due warnings failed to chasten the Marathas, the Nizam, years earlier had sacked the Maratha capital, Poona, in order to teach them a lesson, prepared for war.
The British also joined the fight in order to crush any bid by the Marathas to become a major power after the shattering defeat they had suffered in 1761 in the 3rd Battle of Panipat at the hands of the Afghan king, Ahmad Shah Abdali – a former general of the late Iranian emperor Nader Shah Afshar. Thus, the British contingent, assisted by 10,000 troops from Haiderabad, and the Mysore horse regiment supplied by the Hindu Raja, confronted the 50,000 strong Maratha army, and after forcing it into pitched open battle, which it was trying to avoid, decisively won the encounter.
British troops of the East India Company captured Delhi to crush the Indian Uprising of 1857
On September 20, 1857 AD, British troops of the East India Company captured Delhi to crush the Indian Uprising of 1857, and cold-bloodedly massacred the people. They dethroned the last Mughal monarch, the aged Bahadur Shah Zafar, and before exiling him to Rangoon in Burma (Myanmar), mercilessly shot his sons and grandsons. They then sadistically send their heads to the king as gifts on the day of Nowrouz, or the Spring Equinox, when traditional celebrations were in progress for the new solar hijri year.
The Treaty of Rawalpindi
On August 19, 1919 AD, the British occupation of Afghanistan ended as per the Treaty of Rawalpindi, following the end of the 3rd Anglo-Afghan war. The term Afghanistan was used for the first time in 1857 as official name of a country, although the local tribes were known as 'Afghans' from pre-Islamic times and the independent Afghan state was established in 1747 for the first time by Ahmad Khan Durrani – an ethnic Pashtun general of Nader Shah Afshar of Iran – who on the latter's death seized control of the eastern parts of Iranian Khorasan and the Pashto-speaking regions of the former Moghul Empire of India as well as the Punjab to declare himself King Ahmad Shah Abdali. British attempts to meddle in Afghanistan led to the First Anglo-Afghan War of 1839-to-1842. Thereafter, a seesaw struggle ensued between the two sides with the British aggressively pushing their colonial policies in Kabul through threats, diplomacy, and wars, until formal independence in 1919. Afghanistan, which is under US occupation for the past 11 years, was throughout history part of the Persian Empire with its eastern parts occasionally under Indian rule. Today it shares borders with Iran, Pakistan, China, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, and covers an area of 647,000 sq km.
Indian indentured labourers in the Caribbean Basin, Fiji, South Africa, and other places
On May 14 in 1879 AD, the first group of 463 Indian indentured labourers arrived in Fiji. Today Indians comprise around 38 percent of this Pacific Archipelago's population of around 900,000, of whom some 10 percent are Muslims. The indentured labour system started in 1826 and continued till 1920, with tens of thousands of Indians transported to various colonies of European powers to provide cheap labour for the plantations in diverse places such as the French Indian Ocean islands of Reunion and Mauritius, the British colonies of West Indies in the Caribbean Sea, South Africa, and Dutch-controlled Surinam.
The contract was for five years, renewable for further five year terms, with pay of eight rupees per month and rations provided. This was actually bonded labour and the Indians were seldom repatriated as per the contracts, whose terms were rarely met by the greedy colonialists. They settled in the lands where they went for work, and this explains the millions of people of ethnic Indian origin living in the countries of the Caribbean Basin, Fiji, South Africa, and other places.
Fall of the last Muslim kingdom of India
On September 17, 1948 AD, the last Muslim kingdom of India came to its end with the surrender of Haiderabad-Deccan to the Indian invasion forces after some six days of resistance by its ruler, Osman Ali Khan Nizam ol-Molk Asef Jah VII that ended 224 glorious years of the rule of his house.
On September 13, 1948, India’s hardline Deputy Premier, Vallabhbhai Patel, ordered the invasion of the Muslim kingdom of Haiderabad-Deccan to forcibly annex it to India, despite the fact that following the British withdrawal from the subcontinent in August 1947 and the birth of independent India and Pakistan, the landlocked kingdom, which was the size of France, had chosen to remain independent, and had even sent a representative to the UN for membership.
Britain also betrayed the ruler, Osman Ali Khan Nizam ol-Mulk Asef Jah VII, conveniently forgetting the tens of millions of pound-sterling given by him as aid during the First and Second World Wars, as well as the pacts and treaties with his ancestors at the start of colonial rule.
The Indian army invaded from four points and after five days of resistance, Asif Jah, sensing the situation hopeless, negotiated surrender to avoid any further bloodshed of Muslims, thereby ending 224 glorious years of the rule of his dynasty. The military invasion was codenamed "Operation Polo" since Haiderabad-Deccan had the most number of polo grounds in India – 17 in all.
This Muslim state in south India was still the size of France, despite decades of occupation of its territories by British colonialists, and had decided to remain independent following the partition of the Subcontinent into India and Pakistan, a year earlier in August 1947.
The Islamic culture of the Deccan in contrast to Hindustan (Northern India), evolved independently through direct contacts with Iran via the sea route, and the Persian language was once widespread in Haiderabad and other cities. It is worth noting that the Deccan, which throughout pre-Islamic history, had remained independent except for very brief periods of domination by the North, had declared its independence from the Turkic Muslim Tughlaq Dynasty of Hindustan in 1347 under the leadership of the general of Iranian origin, Ala od-Din Hassan Bahman Shah, who founded the Bahmani Kingdom.
This dynasty split up into five independent sultanates in the early 16th century, of which the three major powers were the Nizam Shahis of Ahmadnagar, the Adel Shahis of Bijapur, and the Qotb Shahis of Haiderabad-Golconda – all of whom were Shi'ite Muslims, who considered the Safavid Shahs of Iran as their emperors, rather than the Mughals of Hindustan.
The Adel Shahis and the Qotb Shahis were in fact of Turkic Iranian origin, and their realms were annexed in 1686 and 1687 respectively by the Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb.
In 1724 the Deccan again become independent under the astute general, Qamar od-Din Khan Nizam ol-Molk Asaf Jah I (an accomplished Persian poet) who was present in Delhi during the invasion of Nader Shah, and had been offered by the Iranian conqueror the rule of all India, which he politely declined out of respect for the defeated Mughal Emperor, Mohammad Shah, whose salt he said he had eaten.
Qamar od-Din Nizam ol-Mulk Asef Jah I, the founder of the kingdom of Hyderabad-Deccan (South India)
Qamar od-Din Nizam ol-Mulk Asef Jah I, the founder of the kingdom of Hyderabad-Deccan (South India), passed away at the age of 77 years, and was buried in the city of Aurangabad. He was a descendent of the Iranian Sufi scholar Suhrawardi and his grandfather had migrated to Hindustan from Bukhara in Central Asia. He was one of the ablest generals and statesmen of the late Mughal period. Disillusioned with the sorry state of affairs in Delhi he decided to concentrate on his viceroyalty of the Deccan where in 1924, he declared his independence.
During the invasion of North India by Nader Shah, he was recalled to Delhi by the inefficient Mughal Emperor, Mohammad Shah. He so impressed the Iranian king in the negotiations that he was offered the rule of all India, but politely refused. He was an accomplished poet in Persian and used the pennames “Asef” and “Shaker” in his two Divans. The dynasty which he founded ruled for 224 years until its forced merger through military action in the Indian Union in 1948, a year after end of British rule.
The 6th ruler of the Asaf-Jahi dynasty of Deccan, south India, Mir Mahboob Ali Khan Nizam ol-Mulk
On August 17, 1866 AD, the 6th ruler of the Asaf-Jahi dynasty of Deccan, south India, Mir Mahboob Ali Khan Nizam ol-Mulk, was born in Hyderabad. In 1889, at the age of three years, on the death of father, Afzal od-Dowla, he was crowned as the ruler by the able Prime Minister, Turab Ali Khan Salaar Jung. Besides his native Urdu, he was well versed in Persian, Arabic and English. He founded schools and libraries, even though he led a lavish life, with his extensive wardrobe being the largest in the world along with his collection of Jewels.
The Indian city of Calcutta was almost totally destroyed by a cyclone
On October 5, 1864, the Indian city of Calcutta was almost totally destroyed by a cyclone originating in the Bay of Bengal and resulting in the death of at least 60,000 people.
|
