Tradition,
Reform and Modernism in the Emergence of Pakistan
- Part 2 of 6
By Professor Nazeer
Ahmed
CA
For
military triumph and political consolidation,
the offensive weapons must be stronger than the
defensive weapons. The Arabs had acquired the
technology for siege engines from China and had
improved upon them, mounting them on wheels, and
stabilizing the launch platform. One such assault
engine, the minjanique, could hurl a
two-hundred pound stone over a distance of three
hundred yards.
In addition, the rapid enveloping movements of
the Arab cavalry was more than a match for the
more static Indian defenses which relied heavily
on elephant mounted armor and infantry. The combination
of technology and tactics provided the Arabs a
decisive military advantage over their adversaries.
At age of 17, Mohammed bin Qasim was one of the
ablest generals in the Umayyad armies. Paying
attention to details, he ordered the cavalry to
move by land and shipped heavy assault engines
by sea. Starting his campaigns near the modern
city of Karachi, he moved rapidly to capture Panjore
and Armabel and advanced towards Debal. The Raja
of Debal closed the gates of the city and locked
himself inside his fortress. A long siege ensued.
The assault engines hammered the city walls day
in and day out taking them down brick by brick.
Finally, the mighty fortress walls collapsed,
the city fell, the Raja fled and the Arab prisoners
were released.
From Debal, Mohammed bin Qasim advanced north,
and in a series of campaigns captured Sistan,
Bahraj, Cutch, Arore, Karej and Jiore. The Raja
of Sindh fell at the battle of Jiore. Baluchistan
and Sindh were added to the Umayyad Empire. The
Arab armies moved up the Indus River. In 713,
Multan fell, opening up the vast Punjab plains
to the invading armies. Mohammed bin Qasim added
portions of southern Punjab to his conquests and
crossed the Indus to its eastern banks. But just
as he was preparing for a decisive showdown with
the rajas of eastern Punjab, the political situation
in Iraq changed and Mohammed bin Qasim was called
back to Basra. Following a pattern they had established
in Iran and Egypt, the conquering Arabs set up
military cantonments in Debal and Multan but made
no attempts to convert the local population as
long as they paid the taxes and accepted the protection
of the Umayyad governor.
In the year 717, Omar bin Abdel Azeez became the
Caliph in Baghdad. Unlike his predecessors, he
was a pious man with a noble vision. He gave up
the lavish, profligate ways of the Umayyads, adopted
an ascetic lifestyle, abolished unfair taxation
on Iran, Egypt and Sindh, engaged the dissidents
in dialogue, and treated the population of his
vast realm with equity and justice. Attracted
by his piety and fairness, many of the Zoroastrians
in Persia, Coptic Christians in Egypt, Buddhists
in Central Asia and Hindus in Sindh accepted Islam.
Historically, this was the first wave of conversion
in the Islamic world after the death of the Prophet.
However, court intrigue in the palaces of Baghdad
intervened once again. Omar bin Abdel Azeez was
poisoned in 719 and the far-reaching reforms initiated
by him came to a halt. So did the process of conversion.
The Abbasids took over from the Umayyads in 751
CE, founded the city of Baghdad, encouraged learning
and shifted their focus from conquest to trade.
Arab and Persian merchants established colonies
all along the rim of the Indian Ocean including
Hermuz in Persia, Aden in Yemen, Dar es Salam
in Tanzania, Cochin in India, Debal in Sindh,
Multan in Punjab, Malacca in Malaysia and Canton
in China. Arabic became the lingua franca of the
littoral states of the Indian Ocean. The traders
mingled and intermarried with the local populations.
Impressed by their piety, integrity, fairness
and egalitarian discipline, many entered the fold
of Islam. Conversion was especially brisk along
the Malabar Coast of India.
It was with the advent of Fatimid rule in Egypt
in the tenth century that conversion picked up
in what is today Pakistan. I have in my books
on Islam in Global History explained
in some detail the religious, political and military
events in North Africa and the Middle East surrounding
the emergence of the Fatimids. The Fatimids are
also called Ismailis. They follow six Imams as
opposed to the Ithna Asharis who follow twelve
Imams. Today, they constitute a small but influential
section of the Islamic community based primarily
in Bombay, Karachi, East Africa and Southern Egypt.
The Agha Khan is the titular head of the Ismaili
community.
In the year 969, the Fatimid Sultan Muiz captured
Egypt. This event was a turning point in Islamic
history. Using Egypt as their base, the Fatimids
branched out, capturing Mecca, Madina and Jerusalem.
For a hundred years thereafter the khutba in Mecca
and Madina was read in the name of Fatimid princes
whose sway extended from the Atlantic coast in
Morocco to the Euphrates River in Iraq. The Sunni
Abbasids were cornered into a small area around
Baghdad.
Muiz (d 975) was a visionary monarch and an able
administrator. He established schools, built canals,
encouraged agriculture, fostered trade, reduced
taxes on the peasants and supported the ulema.
It was he who founded the city of Cairo and established
the university at Al Azhar (969 CE). His empire
sat astride the trade routes between Asia and
Europe and benefited from the east-west trade.
Egypt prospered and the people loved him.
With the strategic province of Egypt under their
control, the Fatimids attempted to establish a
universal Islamic Empire directed by the Fatimid
Imams. For over a hundred years, from the conquest
of Egypt in 969 to the year 1057 when the Buyids
were driven out of Baghdad by the Seljuk Turks,
the Fatimid writ reigned supreme over much of
the Islamic world. The vast majority of their
subjects were orthodox Sunni Muslims. To realize
their vision of a global empire, the Fatimids
embarked on a conversion program directed at the
Sunnis as well as the Ithna Ashari (twelver) Shias.
The university at Al Azhar was turned into a vast
propaganda center wherein daees were trained and
sent to the far-flung corners of the Muslim world.
In addition, in the year 1002, a formal dawa center,
the Darul Hikmah, was established in Cairo.
Some of the Fatimid daees arrived in Multan and
Sindh where they met with a degree of success.
By the time Mahmud Ghaznavi appeared in the Punjab
(1001CE), the Fatimids had converted the Emir
of Multan and the Fatimid presence was well established
there. Mahmud fought and defeated Dawud and brought
his emirate back into the fold of Sunni Islam
(1004 CE). The population which had opted for
Fatimid Shi’ism reverted to Sunni schools
of fiqh.
The influx of Fatimid daees marked the first organized
attempt at mass conversion in Sindh and Multan.
A large number of the early Sufi Shaikhs were
among these daees. The names of Pir Sadruddin,
Pir Kabiruddin and Pir Yusufuddin are well known
in Pakistan. The influx of Sufi Shaikhs continued
during the Ghaznavid period. Among the most successful
of these Sufis were Shaikh Ismail and Data Ganj
Baksh (d 1079). These stalwarts were the earliest
missionaries in Western Punjab and their spirituality
convinced multitudes of Hindus to accept Islam.
(To be continued)
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